I was at the Dell site this morning looking at 8300 configurations. I see there's something called a RAID HD configuration. What is this? Does it affect performance of fs9 in any way vs a standard 2 HD setup?Thanks,Mark

Depends on what RAID level...different RAID levels offer different performance for read and/or write requests.

In quick terms, if you have more than one physical harddrive, RAID enables you to either share the load between them, increasing performance or echo the contents of one drive on the other, improving security of data storage.In the first case, say you have ten `thingies` of information (it doesnt matter what the thingies are) then RAID enables Thingy 1,3,5,7 and 9 to be written to Drive A:, while Thingy 2,4,6,8 gets written to Drive B. Since you have two read/write heads in use at the same time, access time is faster (perhaps 40% quicker). You don't notice this going on In the second, when you write those ten Thingies conventionally to just a single Drive A:, like normal, RAID also (Sssh, don't tell anybody) also writes a mirror image of those ten Thingies to Drive B:. If Drive A: gets onion gravy on it, or suffers from spontaneous combustion, then you still have the data backed up on Drive B: Again, you don't notice this in everyday use.These days, with CD and DVD writers commonplace, and people more careful with their onion gravy, really only the first option is used - RAID 0 rather than the second - RAID 2With a modern fast harddrive, FS really doesn't go any faster. It's not really a performance booster within applications. It also needs to be specified when you install Windows or format the hard drives, so the work entailed actually may end up taking longer than any microsecond gains in app launching you might see. A colleague at work re-formatted, RAIDed, and reinstalled during a quiet working day. Took him five and a half hours (an AWFUL lot of microseconds) and at the end of it his boot times and launch times were not noticeably faster. Good way to waste a day though! Hope this helpsAllcott

Great explanation, Alcott. You should write for MAD TV! I'm perfectly clear on the subject now and I think I'll pass on the RAID thingy for now.Mark

Another option that you should ask Dell about is a fast SATA drive. Western digital makes two version of the Raptor, 36 and 74 Gig. I have a 36, and application load times are about 25-30% faster. But that's all! No gain in gaming performance.SATA drives are usually less expensive than RAID configurations. And the fast SATA drives (10,000 RPM w/ fast read/write speeds... the Raptors) are finding great favor with many folks nowadays. A bit more expensive than standard IDE drives, but for me worth the expense. Another thing I like about the Raptors is that they have a 5 yr. manufacturer's warranty.Keep in mind that most HD manufacturers offer SATA drives... they've become very popular. But most of these drives are converted IDE designs and work only a tiny bit faster (if any) than the standard ATA133 IDE drive. The Raptors are in a class by themselves... firmly positioned on the performance ladder between the SCSI drives (expensive) and the IDE drive (generic). And the SATA drives are much easier to install than a RAID config.I would recommend against buying one of the "converted" SATA drives unless you wish to buy 2 and install them in RAID 0 (as allcot defined above). But they'll still be more expensive than the Raptors, and more difficult to install (you should inquire with Dell what their RAID set-up fees are).Hope this helps,Greg

As for raid please check up anandtechs RAID benchmarks? I can say for sure that after seeing that I am trying to sell my 2x36 Raptors and getting a higher performing 74 gig Raptor instead!The benefits of RAID really is quite synthetic I was pretty shocked seeing that the load times was not better in RAID and in many times worse than otherwise. I knew that the access times in RAID gets worse so I didn