>>> My desktop currently runs one of these: >>> >>> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148140 >>> >>> I'm pretty much out of space and I'm trying figure out the best way to >>> expand. The factors to consider are cost, capacity, speed, noise, and >>> heat. >> RAID 0 will be twice as fast as any single drive > > I didn't realize that. Maybe I should just buy another drive > identical to mine and run RAID0. That would be cheap, twice as fast, > twice the capacity, and with some amount more heat and noise. I have > a separate backup system so I'm not worried about data loss.
Thanks a lot everyone. I think I'm going to get a second identical 320GB drive and run RAID0 for speed and capacity. If noise becomes a problem I'll insulate as some have suggested. My MSI motherboard supposedly has hardware RAID, but after Alan's scathing evaluation of built-in hardware RAID offerings, I'm thinking it might be crap. It's just a $75 consumer motherboard. Should I set up software RAID0? Am I getting into a(nother) big project? On another system which must be about 10 years old, I'd like to replace the IDE hard drive with a high capacity drive. High-capacity IDE drives are pretty much non-existent on newegg.com, but I'd like to find one around 500GB. Is moving that system over to the new drive as simple as plugging it in, partitioning, formatting, copying, and rebooting? - Grant
