I normally use 2x Sata Samsung 300Gb in Raid 0 and have planned to put in also a WD 2000 7200 IDE HD with 2 partitions.I want to give the WD dedicated to FSX with his own XP so I don't risk driver conflict/issues in my normal working system.Question:What is the best option, Install FSX on the second partition of the WD or install FSX on the SATA Raid 0 and driven by the WD IDE.I ask this because I have read some negative performance issues with Raid 0 because of the 128 Kb mode.Any advice will be welcome...Cheers

>> I ask this because I have read some negative performance issues with Raid 0 because of the 128 Kb mode. <

HD for simulationRaid 0 is normally designed for performance, but this is based onlarger file read/write. With FSX you have a larger number of small files which can in fact degrade performance of a RAID 0 system sincemultiple (2 ?) disks have to sync on the same file - but the time forthis sync effect seek time for many small files. best setup for disks is use 2 separate disks, put FS on one disk exclusively, and use the other disk for OS (and you childrens/parentsgames) + swap page. Also put FS on non-C disk too. You will findthe non-C disk containing FS will not fragment as FS is mostly readonly, and you don't get all the temp files put on the disk.Put FS on the faster disk (though this will slow everything else non-FS - but that is not your problem).You are also using IDE (PATA) where the transfer rates are slow comparedto SATA. use SATA disks and interfaces with burst cache. UTom

RAID 0 isn't going to get you much with the fast drives of today...and you risk loosing everything because if one disk in a RAID 0 array goes bad you loose all of your data. The only RAID similar to RAID 0 that would be worth while (but expensive) is RAID 10 which is two RAID 0 arrays mirroring each other. You would get a slight performance incrase for READs from the drive and also get some security in that one drive could fail and you would not loose any data.