A couple hard drive questions

[Hofflerand]

I know I need two hard drives for Fraps. On my current computer I use a crummy external HD for this purpose, but it's my brother's and he needs it back. I was told dual hard drives in raid 0 is helpful, but I don't understand how to take advantage of raid 0. Which of the following am I supposed to do?

1.) Dual hard drives in raid 0 for everything
2.) Dual hard drives in raid 0 for everything except Fraps, and then a third hard drive Fraps
3.) Dual hard drives in raid 0 for Fraps, and then a third hard drive for everything else

My next question is should I ditch the whole raid 0 idea? I could get a SSD for Windows 7/WoW and a storage HDD for Fraps, but I'm not sure I could afford anything bigger than a 60 GB. Would 60 GB (it's really only 50-55 GB) fit both Windows 7 and WoW?

Thanks in advance for the help!

[vesseblah]

RAID0 is needed only if you need to capture much faster than 30fps at 1920x1080 speed. I can do around 40-50fps capture with the computer linked in signature with regular 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3 disc. It's split into two parts, first half for fraps, second half for random shit, and Windows+WoW are on 60GB SSD. RAID0 is generally bad idea unless you're 100% sure you need it.

[Hofflerand]

I heard it's bad if a hard drive has almost no empty space. If Windows 7 and WoW fit comfortably on a 60 GB SSD, then isn't my best option to get an SSD and use a HDD purely for Fraps? Should I forget about all this raid 0 nonsense?

[vesseblah]

Cheap solution:

2x normal fast HDD like Samsung Spinpoint F3, one disc for windows, wow and all other programs, other disc you split in two and reserve the first half only for video capture. This will allow FullHD 1920x1080 capture at 30fps speed just fine.

Bit more expensive:

If you can afford SSD, you can replace the first HDD with SSD and put win+wow on it and leave other disc for fraps/junk split

Pro:

SSD for Win+WoW+stuff, and 2x fast HDD in RAID0 for 60fps and faster capture. More discs for porn collection and other stuff, RAID0 reserved for video work only.


So yeah, short answer is: forget raid0 nonsense unless you need better than 1920x1080 at 30 fps capture.

[Hofflerand]

That's exactly what I was looking for vesseblah, thank you. A follow up question: if I went with the pro method, could I use the two fast HDD's in raid 0 for Fraps and storing all my other junk?

Or, could I ditch the SSD, get a normal HDD for everything except Fraps, and dedicate the raid 0 HDD's to Fraps? I realize I'd be losing faster load times, but as far as I know these don't matter for recording at high FPS.

[vesseblah]

A follow up question: if I went with the pro method, could I use the two fast HDD's in raid 0 for Fraps and storing all my other junk?

Yes, you can still split RAID0 disc into two parts, and use one part for video capture and one part for other assorted junk. I just wouldn't use RAID0 for junk storage since if one disc breaks, you lose everything that's on either of the discs. It's fine for video capture since there's rarely anything irreplaceable or priceless (especially if many people in the guild are frapsing) but the assorted junk from years ago might have something you dont want to lose.

Or, could I ditch the SSD, get a normal HDD for everything except Fraps, and dedicate the raid 0 HDD's to Fraps? I realize I'd be losing faster load times, but as far as I know these don't matter for recording at high FPS.

Yep, it's possible to use one HDD for booting and then have 2 HDDs for RAID0 on top of it, doing basically the 'pro' solution without SSD. It's cheaper for sure, but more expensive than the first option.

You don't really need to have RAID0'd discs for video capture unless that 1920x1080 at 30fps is not enough. 30fps might not sound like much, but it's actually maximum you can upload to youtube, and commercially released BluRay and DVD movies run at 24, 25 or 30fps anyway, not faster. Faster capture makes difference mainly for editing, when you can do tricks like slow motion without losing any quality.

[patrock]

personally,

-buy 2x samsung hybrid drives and run them in Raid 0
-check your mobo manual to see if any of the raid controllers have different speeds (eg mine has 2x 3gbs, 2x standard and 2x 6gbs).
-place R0 drives on fastest controller
-have 1 other drive on sep controller for data storage.
-install all your apps on the Raid 0 and leave the 2nd single drive on the other controller purely for data storage.

It's what i did and everything flies!

[Hofflerand]

I don't think I can afford two SSD's, patrock. =P Even if the Samsung ones were cheap, they don't offer those at the site I'm buying from and I am not going to build my own computer this time.

I know 30 FPS records fine, vesse, but I enjoy playing at much higher FPS while recording. I think I'll skip the SSD, at least until they come down in price. I'll use one HDD for everything except Fraps, and then two HDD's set in raid 0 purely for Fraps. Will this achieve my goal? As far as I'm aware, all I'm losing by having Windows/WoW/etc on a normal HDD is faster load times (such as when I hearth).

Thanks once again for all of this.