HD Performance Question

As to performance and reliability what would be the better (not in cost)

One - OCZ Vertex 2E 120GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive

Two - Western Digital VelociRaptors 150GB 16MB Cache Hard Disk Drive (in a RAID 0 configuration)

Any advice appreciated

For reliability and performance, I would have to side with the SSD. Reliability is certainly in the favor of the SSD as you're not relying on two mechanical devices to not fail since in a RAID 0 if one goes you're hosed. Performance may be a slightly closer race but overall I think the SSD is probably faster. I hope you have a spinning drive for your primary data swap drive as SSDs DO have a threshold for how many write ops can be performed on each cell. I would certainly only use it for my OS and main programs, files that are typically static.

Thank you for answering mlevy noted and appreciated

Ciara ... X

As for performance, the SSD is is head and shoulders above any spinning hard drive.

As for reliability, really, the jury is still out. SSDs have not been around long enough to know how long they will live in the real world (as opposed to the test bench), although there have been no indications that we can anticipate any issues. IMHO.

Vote: SSD

Thanks TVeblen, its also the cheaper option

Ciara ... X

The SSD provide random access times around the 0.1ms mark to any file anywhere on the drive. The raptors come in around the 7.0ms mark if I recall correctly. This is the biggest advantage that the SSD has, and no RAID array can bring access times down to this level. In addition, the SSD is smaller (takes less space in the case), consumes less power, creates less heat, and doesn't make any noise whatsoever. My vote is for the SSD. And like always, make backups of your data, because any hard drive "Can" fail.

Thanks pparks1, SSD it is then

As I noted in my first post. I'd certainly use it as my OS and programs drive. For data that changes frequently? I'd put that on a spinning drive as the cells in SSDs have a lower recommended number of max writes compared to the platters in a spinning drive.

I don;t know if you are aware of this, but OCZ went to a 25 nm process and their write performance decreased significantly and you don't get the full 120GB of space - and they didn't even change the packaging or anything, so it now doesn't live up to the good reviews it got. See here:

complaint about 25nm SSD drives

and

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/f...data-and-0-1-fill-partially-compressible-data

and

Guide New update on the 25nm OCZ SSD drives