Dual Boot Vista/XP install question

[tohughes76 0]

I am about to go the route of dual booting both Vista and XP with the intent of running FSX on XP. I currently have Vista installed on my system which I intend to use for everything but FSX.I plan to put FSX on it's own Raptor HD. My question is this:Do I install XP on the same RAID 0 drive with Vista in it's own partition or on to the Raptor with FSX? I'm not sure if there would be a performance advantage having the OS on a different drive than the OS, or if the advantage would lie in having the OS on the Raptor. Of course the XP install will be free of anything that is not required for FSX.Any help is appreciated!

[sargeski 16]

First of all why RAID 0?Secondly, the preferred OS installation order when dual booting Vista and XP would be to install XP first then Vista. Since Vista is already installed there are some special procedures you will need to follow in order to get XP installed.How many harddrives are in your system at present? and what do you plan on using your system for other than FSX?

[tohughes76 0]

2x320 in RAID 0 is the original configuration of the computer as I originally purchased it.I have tried to do my research and feel pretty comfortable setting up the dual boot with Vista as the original OS using Easy BCD. Currently I have the two hard drives mentioned above. I have ordered a 300gb VelociRaptor that I will install as the FSX drive...I decided to do this after reading this and other forums in regards to the benefits of having FSX on its own exclusive drive. My decision to go with XP again for FSX is to reduce the overhead of the OS and so I can finally use the Dreamfleet Dakota which absolutely refuses to work in Vista. I also find that the DirectX 10 preview offers no performance benefit on my system, so that is no reason to stick with Vista. I do, however, like Vista for everything else (mostly Office apps and internet, so the Aero interface is very convenient).So I guess the only opinion that I couldn't find to by searching the forums is if XP should go on the FSX drive as long as it is used only for the sim...Thanks!System-Dell XPS 710 Core 2 Duo E6700 2.66, 8800GTX 768, 4gb RAMGEX, UTX, FEX, ASX, MyTraffic X

[sargeski 16]

>2x320 in RAID 0 is the original configuration of the computer>as I originally purchased it.The reason I ask is that unless your doing video editing or manipulating large files (4GB or larger) RAID 0 is gonna be of no benefit for gaming. I would recommend Vista on a drive, XP on another drive and FSX on its own drive. Let us know how that velociraptor performs!>I have tried to do my research and feel pretty comfortable>setting up the dual boot with Vista as the original OS using>Easy BCD. Glad to hear you've done your research and feel comfortable editing the BCD. Many people feel "uncomfortable" when they read the necessary steps to dual boot after Vista is already installed.>My decision to go with XP again for FSX is to reduce the>overhead of the OS and so I can finally use the Dreamfleet>Dakota which absolutely refuses to work in Vista. I also find>that the DirectX 10 preview offers no performance benefit on>my system, so that is no reason to stick with Vista. I do,>however, like Vista for everything else (mostly Office apps>and internet, so the Aero interface is very convenient).>Thanks!There's really not much overhead associated with FSX and Vista64. After going to Vista64 for FSX I will not revert back to XP. I also do not use DX10 preview. I run FSX in DX9 mode only.

[tohughes76 0]

>The reason I ask is that unless your doing video editing or>manipulating large files (4GB or larger) RAID 0 is gonna be of>no benefit for gaming. I would recommend Vista on a drive, XP>on another drive and FSX on its own drive. Let us know how>that velociraptor performs!I had not thought of breaking up the RAID configuration and using them as separate drives. I assume I can just go into the BIOS and disable the nForce RAID controller. Unfortunately with this Dell XPS, they use their own motherboard that comes with zero documentation for the end user.Thinking about my original question about placing XP and FSX on the same drive: How often does FSX access the page file? If it goes back there quite a bit, perhaps there would be some benefit to having both on the VelociRaptor. The way that Nick N lays out his defrag strategy and setup was probably what led me to this thinking originally.I see a long weekend of experimentation coming...