To stripe two drives or not?

[tklaavo]

Hello

I'm designing (in my head) a system for myself, trying to get good performance for digital audio multitrack hobbies.

I think the CPU would be 1GHz Thunderbird, with 512MB RAM. The HD performance must also be good. So, what are the requirements to stripe two 30-40GB UDMA/ATA -drives? What kind of motherboard should I choose? Any software requirements? I'd like to use Windows ME as my OS.

I'm in haze with this subject at the moment. Thanks in advance.

T

[kid]

check this out
http://www.mrpcpro.com/reviews/ka266-introduction.htm

or
http://www.mrpcpro.com/reviews/epox8kta3-introduction.htm which comes in raid.

UATA 100 EVEN WITH A SINGLE DRIVE IS PRETTy AMAZING.

[kenja]

Until Storage Review (http://www.storagereview.com) upgrades their testbench to UltraDMA 100, I'm going to conclude it's 90% marketing hype. (I bought an Ultra 100 motherboard and hard drives before I found StorageReview.com http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/rolleyes.gif .)

IDE RAID: Other people in these forums aren't sold on the idea, but I like it. In fact, I just bought a second adapter (http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=SIDERAID66).

If I was buying the 1GHz Thunderbird, I'd be sure to get a motherboard with the KT133A (not KT133) chipset for the 266MHz FSB (Front Side Bus). I'd probably also get an onboard RAID model. DDR memory would be another path, and Crucial is selling PC1600 for the same price as PC100/133 (but PC2100 is going to cost ya).


[This message has been edited by kenja (edited 03-08-2001).]

[gbud]

Well DDR is what I am going for on my new board...but it may not of been the right time. If I were you I would get the latest Abit KT7A raid. People are getting stable FSB around 160. None of the current DDR boards can say that. ATA100 is kick ass, the raid is maybe a 30% improvement on the optimistic side. But it is worth doing, a couple nice striped drives would scream. Maybe some WD 7200 40gigers? they are priced well.
You can also find decent prices on 2100ddr I just bought 3 128 sticks for 300.... which is just under what you would pay retail for a 2100 256 chip.

[Disarray]

Is WinME a must? Win 2k has the ability to convert 2 drives into a stipped raid as well as other raid configurations. Not sure if it's as good as a hardware raid, but I use it with 2 ata30 drives and it's a hell of a lot faster. Just another rout to take if 2k is an option.