Hi folks, just looking for some opinions here on hard drive options. So far I have purchased the following:Intel E8400Asus Maximus Formula MoBoEVGA 8800 GTS 512 2GB Corsair Dominator 1066MHz RamAntec Nine Hundred CaseWin XPAll I need now is the hard drives and DVD/CD Drive. The DVD drive is the easy part, what I need opinions on is the hard drives. I am thinking about running two seperate WD Raptors. One for FS9 and one for FSX. Then using either another Raptor for the boot drive and other misc applications, or a WD 7200 rpm. I have never used a Raptor so I am not sure about their reliability. Thats why I was considering using a regular 7200 rpm drive for windows and such. It's not that important for me that Windows loads in 10 seconds when using a Raptor. I look forward to anyones opinions.Thanks,Sean

Hi Sean,I wouldn't bother with the Raptors. They're grossly overpriced and not that much faster than quality 7200 drives.I've just built a new system comprising 2 500Gb Samsung Spinpoint drives which were highly commended in PC Pro - a UK PC magazine. They're quick, quiet and cheap.I would have one drive for XP and another partitioned for FS9 and FSX. You aren't going to run both simultaneously so they don't need separate drives but separating them does make sense.You could partition the XP drive and use the other partition for backups of FS9/FSX.Hope that helps.

Thanks for the input Ray. I have been at a stand still for a while trying to decide. I have had all the parts for about two weeks now, and really want to get this thing built. How do you like your E8400 so far with the 1066 MHz ram? Hows your FSX experience so far? I have been running a P4 2.53 with a Radion 9700 127 Mb video card for 4 years. I have FS9 running pretty well on that setup, but I tried the FSX demo last year and it was aweful on my setup. I am really anxious to see how FS9 will run on the new system and very interested to get started with FSX. Thanks for the input.Sean

I agree with what Ray said about having the OS on 1 hard drive, and FSX on another hard drive. This setup has worked well for me.Regarding the choice of hard drive, there is reportedly a Seagate drive that is faster than the Raptor, even for small-file operations like FS uses. However, I cannot comment on the Seagate drive as I have not built with nor tested one of those.I can report though, that my 10,000 rpm drive loads my test FSX flight in 53 seconds. And the 7,200 rpm drive loads my test FSX flight in 64 seconds. I try to do my testing very well and accurately--Identical conditions, etc. and the load time difference seems to square with the rpm percentage difference between 7200 and 10000.I am not recommending you go one way or the other, because the cost vs. performance may not be to your liking. Also, you should research the new Seagate drive (I believe it is a 10,000 rpm offering).Reliability--this was a concern of mine also, so I back up regularly. However, I have run my Raptor for 8 months with no trouble. That is not long enough for me to make any judgment about its reliability.EDIT: I might add that there are server drives that run at 15,000 rpm so that made me less scared of 10,000 rpm. Irregardless, I feel it is wise to back up regularly--as you can see in my sig I have an external hard drive, and I bought it along with the Raptor--so that I could do regular backups and Acronis Images of my hard drives.If I lose the Raptor, it will only kill FSX + scenery, as that is the only thing on that hard drive.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2585 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2gb Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8 (1T), WD 150 gig 10000rpm Raptor, WD 250gig 7200rpm SATA2, Seagate 120gb 5400 rpm external HD, CoolerMaster Praetorian

Hi Sean,FS benefits more from fast FSB speed than it does multiple cores. This seems borne out by my latest system. System 1 in my sig is my current setup - System 2 was my previous one. In both cases you can see the processor was a 3GHz but that's where the similarity ends.My new rig is giving me three times the frame rates of the old system. Yes, the twin GPUs are helping too but the biggest contributors are the Core2 Duo and the FSB of 1333MHz. Core2 Duo processors such as the new Penryn E8000 series are the latest and greatest and they are reasonably priced. The quad-core run at a slower FSB unless you buy the unclocked Extreme series but they cost four times what a E8400 does.What is FSX performance like? In a word... marvellous. I tried with all sliders to max except for boats etc. Traffic was 100% and I even maxxed AutoGen expecting FSX to be crippled. Well, frame rates stayed in the teens flying around San Diego which I consider excellent. The view was just breathaking. I lowered Traffic and Water settings back to medium and the frame rates shot up to the 30s. I think the 3870 X2 is a great help here. I should also say I got these frame rates with no 2D panel showing. Because I have Project Magenta on a separate PC I don't need FS panels and just having a full forward view helps frame rates a lot.FS9 will be brilliant with an E8400. As for graphics if you run at 1280*1024 then a 8800GT or maybe the new 9600 GT will be great. Where the 3870 X2 comes into its own is when you run at extremely high res like 1920*1200. This is where a high powered card can run FS with virtually no loss of frame rates.You've had your system about the same time I did. Modern CPUs and graphics cards can handle FS9 with total ease. With FSX frame rates will obviously be lower but with the right kit the results can be stunning. I never thought I would say that! :-beerchug Hope that helps.

Thanks guys. Well for only an 11 second difference in loading your FXS test flight, perhaps I should save the money and just go with a 7200 RPM 250gb HD for Windows and perhaps another 7200 RPM 500gb HD for FSX and FS9. I don't have any experience partitioning a hard drive. So I am a little unsure about that. That is why I was thinking of putting both sims on seperate HD's. When you partition a hard drive how does it appear in wondows? For example, if I have a 500 gb hard drive as a D: drive, and I click on "my computer" then click on "d:" drive, what partition will I see? How is it set up? Once I get my HD's and take all the equipment to the shop to have it built, do I need to tell them to set up a partition on the other drive, or can I do it when I get it home? Sorry for all the questions, but I want to make sure to do it right the first time.Or, I could do the opposite and just get a 500gb non partitioned for Windows and fs9 and put FSX by itself on a 250gb HD. I am thinking that once I get FSX set up and running well I probably wont be spending much time on FS9, except for a few sceneries that FSX doesn't have and maybe to fly my PMDG 737. Not only that but putting FS9 on the non partitioned 500gb HD, with the new equipment it will probably run so much better than it do now that it won't even matter.On a seperate note, I got my E8400 for $199 dollars at a Microcenter in Dallas. Seems like a steal for such new equipment with lots of potential.SeanEdit:I forgot one other thing. If I partition a drive for FS9/FSX, how do you run a defrag on it using for example O&O? Does the defrag automatically do both sides? This partitioning stuff really confuse me for some reason. Guess since I have never dealt with it.

Hi Sean,When a drive is partitioned each partition appears in Windows with a separate drive letter. As far as Windows is concerned they're treated the same as physically separate drives so you need have no concerns about FS9 and FSX both being on the same physical hard drive but in their own partitions.How to partition a drive? When you run the XP install you're presented with the option to either use all the available space or to use just some of it for the C drive. If you choose to use half of it the remaining space will be invisible to windows until you create a new partition.The easiest way to do this is via 3rd party utility programs of which Partition Magic is one of the more popular ones. This displays the contents of a hard drive and by using sliders you can adjust the space for each partition. It's easy to use and completely reliable. Defrag software sees each partitioned drive the same as physically separate drives. Google partitioning hard drives if you want more info on how the process works.You can ask the people building it for you to partition the drives but I'd still recommend PM because you may want to adjust space in the future especially if you won't be keeping FS9 that long.I wouldn't recommend mixing XP and FS9 on the same drive, even a large 500Gb one.The E8400 is an excellent processor - you chose wisely. I paid rather more for mine but then again we pay more for everything here in England.:-eek

RayI am way behind you guys here. I wanted to understand your Processer IE.. qcore or duo core? Coiuld you list out you components in sysyem one (I hate to ask ) as I plan to take your specs and go to the Dell site and use the "build your sysytem menu to help me see how and what is compatible and not. I understand the Mboard you have would come from Tiger Dir or the like. My reason for mentioning dell was the "build your system" feature to help me out as I can see pics and the like.I hope you do not mind. I appreciate your time. Thank you.Mark.OS:MS Windows XP Professional, Ver 2002 Service Pack 2 Hardware:Intel Pentium® 4 CPU 2.802.84 GHz, 2.00 GB of RAM GeForce 7800GS 256 MB w/ DDR3 running a 21/19.6 Sony Flat Screen Tubed Monitorand a,GeForce FX 5200 128MB 17/16 NEC/Mitsubishi Tubed MonitorGeForce FX 5200 128MB NEC/Mitsubishi 18 Flat Panel.

Hi Mark,The processor is a Intel E8400 Core2 Duo 3GHz, 1333MHz FSB codename Penryn. This is the latest range that run cooler and cope better with overclocking although I haven't dipped my toe there yet.The rest is pretty much as described and although I bought from UK sources the same kit will be available from most decent suppliers.Depending on your budget you might want to consider AlienWare - Dell's high-power gamer's PCs. There should be a link on the Dell website.There are two schools of thought on 2 or 4 core processors. More cores allows for faster scenery loading and other programs running alongside FS. But the FSB speed is more important than the number of cores and you will pay a lot for quad core processors with a FSB of 1333MHz. And because I run all my FS-related software on two other PCs I won't benefit that much from quad-core.The Radeon HD3870 X2 may not be available as an option as it's such a new card. However, it's worthwhile seeking one out especially if you're going to run at very high resolutions - 1600*1200 or higher - as there is virtually no loss of performance compared to 1280*1024 or lower. Whilst the 8800 nVidia cards are excellent at 1280*1024 performance does drop off as resolution increases. The 1Gb of memory on the HD3870 X2 (effectively 2 3870 cards strapped together) makes a big impact in FSX especially. In FS9 it just devours everything thrown at it and still returns 40fps+ even at KLAX with 100% Ultimate Traffic.Come back if you need any more help. I'm flattered you've used my system as guidance. :-)

Thanks for clearing that up Ray. I think you really helped me make up my mind. I think I will go for the 320gb hd for my boot/XP/everthing else drive, and the 500gb drive (partitioned) for FS9/FSX. Thats going to be real easy to use since, like you said, windows will recognize the 500gb drive as two drives, like a d: and e: drive. Then I can just defrag which ever side I need at the monent. On a side note, I can imagine how much you paid in England. I have a friend that just visited London a few months ago, and he said the gas prices were throught the roof, along with the prices for the hotel and other things.Thanks for the help Ray.Regards,Sean Campbell

You're welcome Sean. Hope you enjoy your new system.Energy costs over here are horrendous and petrol (gas) is going to hit 10USD a gallon. You're better off in Texas!

Well, I maybe better of here as far as gas prices go ($3.09/gal), but Texas, for me anyway isn't that nice of a place to be. It's not very scenic. Plus, I wouldn't mind meeting one of those pretty English girls with the accent. I think the English accents are very attractive on women, plus they sound very proper and educated, to me anyway.Thanks again for the help, I will let you know how I get on with my new system.Sean

Hi Sean,Funny how we're perceived by others. We English like the accent of French girls!Yes the scenery over here is wonderful. Mainly because of all the rain!! :-lol Wouldn't mind some of your sunshine! The other man's grass eh? ;-)

Thats so true. Well, after your suggestion, I went and bought by two new HD's tonight. I got a Western Digital Carviar SE16 320MB and a Western Digital Carviar SE16 500MB. Got both for $200 w/tax. I am just about ready to build, but I had forgotten all about the power supply and a new copy of Windows XP. Don't know if I should by the XP w/SP2-OEM or XP/SP2-Retail. The OEM is $99.00 and the retail version is $199.00. But aside from those two things I am ready to go. Hopefully I can get it built next weekend. As they say were you are - cheers.Sean

Hi Sean,Go for the OEM version. Who needs a fancy box anyway? ;-)Don't know Texan for 'cheers' so I'll just say ....Cheers :-)