RAID or not to RAID

Planning to reformat my PC due to some issues and install Win 7 64bit.

What would be best - RAID0 using 2 x SATAII HDD or one larger HDD. (price is not an issue as 250 - 500 GB HDD are not expensive. I am after performance but not at the expense of stability and reliability. Only game I have is Flight Sim X which has some fairly demanding add ons. My current system's "Windows Experience" index shows my HDD as the slowest part - a score of 5.8, while the rest of my system is up at 6.9 for memory and CPU and 7.2 for graphics.

Apart for the inherent issue of HDD failure increasing due to 2 units and not one, any other pitfalls? What setup do other use here?

RAID0 would obviously compromise resilience, but that's no different to having a single disk anyway. However if you want to compromise and should it be an option available to you then go for RAID5, although you will need 3 disks at a minimum for this.

I agree, nothing beats an SSD. No Raid0 (even with 4 Raptors) can even get close to it. And a small SSD (e.g. 30GB) is sufficient for the operating system. At Newegg, they sell the 30GB OCZ Vertex for $99 at times (like yesterday) But today it is back to $129 - just keep checking: Newegg.com - OCZ Vertex Series OCZSSD2-1VTX30GXXX 2.5" 30GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid state disk (SSD) - Solid State Disks

Thanks! I have decided to install to a single disk. Raid 5 is too complicated for me. SSD to me is an excellent technology but it is still in it;s infancy. I think we are going to see significant developments in SSD and prices will come tumbling down at the same time. Perhaps my next upgrade will make use of this.... but for now i am sticking to tried and tested....

RadioJoe said:

Yep - my dream too. My OS on an SSD drive! Woo Hoo!

How about an SSD Raid0 with 4 SSDs. One guy got over 600MBs/sec sequential read.

RADIOJOE, whatever article you read or what tried I dont know, But Raid Zero Works fine with Windows 7.

I use Win7 Ultimate 64Bit and I have used Raid0 with Twoo 300 GB VelociRaptors.

It worked great , then I found out it was not as fast as Two 64GB WD SiliconEdge SSD's in Raid0.

My O/S boots (the stupid splash screen slows it about 27 seconds) after the login prompt it instantaneously loads my desktop and like 15 things in the system tray.

Maybe you have a MoBo that does not have built in Raid ?
If not you can buy a cheap RAID card and plug into your MoBo.
If your Mobo is old enough that it doesnt have Raid Support Most new buget MoBo should support raid.