tech question (about harddrives)

[Blisterz]

Ok, I need your input on somthing.
Pretend for a second you are putting a computer together for a friend.
Athlon 2400
Radeon 9200
512 megs DDR ram
Windows XP

Now as far as Harddrives all you have is a 30 gig 5400 speed. (10.5m real slow)
And the other is a 15 gig 7200.

I was thinking I should make the 15 gig the master and the 30 gig the slave. Put the OS and the games (There will never be more than 4 games installed on the system anyway) and everything else on the 30.

How would you guys do it?

[SlowwHand]

That sounds good to me, from what I've been able to ascertain.
Why games on the master though.
Wouldn't that kind of, in a way, defeat the purpose ?

[alva]

With a system like that it's a shame to use these drives, spend a few $$$ on a new, big, fast one.
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The primary master should be without a slave though IMO. So make them both masters and attach the CD when needed. That's what I do. (and check your cables too.)

[SlowwHand]

Nothing like creating a pain-in-the-ass.

[Fve Crathva]

Unless they've changed stuff over the years, two devices on one IDE cable will both transfer information at the speed of the slowest one.

SP

[MichaeltheGreat]

The bus speed is the same, but that's still much faster than the physical operation of the drives.

New large drives are cheap.

[SlowwHand]

Is the answer bigger hard-drive just part of the question asked?
Having the OS on a seperate smaller drive is not rare.

[Whaleboy]

Faster HDD as master, slower as slave, if possible, get new disks, but still, even 15 will suffice for like you said, 4 games, and presumably basic office work. If you want mp3s and movies, forget it unless you get a bigger (60+ gig) disk.

[mrmitchell]

With a system like that it's a shame to use these drives, spend a few $$$ on a new, big, fast one.

Agreed. I've got 220gbs on a computer with 800mhz, damnit.

Make the faster one the master, slower, slave. Just like everyone else in the thread said.

[Ned]

For you experts, is there a speed and difference between Fat32 and NTFS? Also can you expect better performance if you use a larger cluster size such as 32KB rather than the standard four kilobytes?

[Pekka]

Seems awfully small HDs? You need at least 120 gigs worth of space these days. So you can write many many documents.

[alva]

Ned, Smaller cluter usally is better, less waste.
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No 'real' notable speed difference between NTFS and fat 32
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Only one drive can communicate over a single cable at one time, therefore having two will slow your system down.. (sometimes alot if you're moving big files)

[Urban Ranger]

Hm, as I said before, a HDD that rotates faster doesn't automatically makes it a faster HDD. You need to look at the transfer rate (no, not 133 or 100 or whatever the speed your EIDE is at).

[alva]

True, but bigger drive => newer => (usually) faster.

[Odin]

120Gb!!! I have 30 and I still have plenty of space.

[Q Classic]

i'd partition like mad.

a three-four gig partition on the 7200 for the os; 1gb partition for virtual memory on the 7200; and then programs on the big 30gb 5400. games can go on the remaining space on the 15gig, if they're demanding, like ut.

if it's something like civ, then stick it on the 5400.

[Urban Ranger]

120GB is good to have if you are into video editing. Otherwise it's simply overkill.

[Q Classic]

eh... 200's better if you do video editing, especially with MiniDV.

[Grrr]

I have many HDDs, and those old drives are slower, it is a certainty, even though they all run at 7200RPM.

If he isn't going to be movie or music collecting get a cheap 40 or 60 GB drive, it's well worth it.

Or just a plain stack of 120's like me .