WOW! More space required than first imagined...The reason I started the thread was to determine if 2 60GB SSD in RAID 0 was "good enough". I'll also be installing Black Shark, Lockon, IL-2, and probably 1-2 more programs...Looking to squeeze out max performance. Can I put the "bulky" files on a large HDD and store fast program files on SSD combo in RAID 0? Will I still get the speed from the SSDs but use space of the large, 1TB HDD.

I fail miserably at that assumption. I have a WD 250GB, with only 35 GB free right now. It has Vista, and all my games, software, photos, music, plus my enormous FSX folders lolMy other HDD used to be external but now is internal, and has over 200GB free, but I mainly keep my photos on it (backup ones) and import files, from school, or payware FS titlesAlso I have a small 36GB WD Raptor in which I have the base FS9 and FSX install folders

Yeah you don't have a lot of space left. From everything I have read here and else where, the less you have on the HD the better and to try and not to exceed 1/2 capacity. Once you get to full it can degrade the performance of the HD.When I built my system I almost got a 250 GB HD, but decided on the 500 GB. Now I had wished that I had bought a 1 TB HD. If for some reason I wanted to install FS9 I wouldn't have enough space left without going past 1/2 capacity. Not that I would want FS9 again, but if for some strange reason I did I would have to put it on my backup drive which is 250 GB.Although then again it's easier for me to keep my FSX HD lean because that's all I use that computer for. But still it's amazing that even with the small amount of addons I have that I have consumed that much space and i still have a lot to buy, lol.

The reason I started the thread was to determine if 2 60GB SSD in RAID 0 was "good enough". I'll also be installing Black Shark, Lockon, IL-2, and probably 1-2 more programs...

Hmmmm....to me, that's still the problem with SSD drives. They aren't very large yet. With only 2 60GB drives in RAID 0, your total storage space is only going to be 120GB. A default FSX install takes around 60GB if I recall correctly, so you will have taken up 50% of that storage space with just FSX installed out of the box. Add some of those other programs you mentioned, and you are gonna be in trouble pretty quick.

Can I put the "bulky" files on a large HDD and store fast program files on SSD combo in RAID 0? Will I still get the speed from the SSDs but use space of the large, 1TB HDD.

Putting other FSX addons on a different drive won't affect the speed of your SSD's. What will happen though is whatever you have on the other drive that FSX needs to use will only be able to be used by your computer (and FSX) at the transfer speeds of the other drive. So it is a "Win\Lose" problem. You can have FSX trying to "run fast" from the SSD's, but as soon as FSX needs something from the "other" drive, your maximum FSX "speed" will be determined by how fast FSX can "get" the info from the other drive...which will be slower than from the SSD's.That's why I haven't gone to SSD drives yet. My FSX installation with all the addons for it is over 400GB already. There's no way to get it all on a single SSD drive configuration and still have enough free space to make it feasable.I think you seriously need larger hard drives. There are 250GB SSD's available, and you would be much better off getting ONE 250GB SSD and putting your FSX on it (with the addons for it), and forget about using Raid 0 at all. Raid 0 really doesn't help FSX all that much anyhow, and in some cases can actually be slower for FSX than having FSX on a single drive by itself. If you have the hard drive bays available, I'd do this if you already bought the 2 60GB SSD's:1. Use one of the 60GB SSD's for your Operating System install. This is also the drive where you would put programs to maintain your computer, like anti-virus programs, disk defrag programs, etc. Kepp in mind...this drive will keep using additional hard drive space over time depending on what "other" programs you use. Any program that saves "data files" will put them here in your "user" folders Windows uses...My Documents, etc.2. Get a 250GB SSD and put FSX and any addons that FSX NEEDS to have access to WHILE running FSX on the same drive. Note that it won't take many addons to start filling up this drive fast, depending on what they are. For instance, if you purchased something like MegaScenery Earth California (the entire state), it will take up over 80GB all by itself.3. Use the second 60GB SSD for "other" things...maybe your LockOn, IL-2, etc.4. Buy a "normal" SATA external USB hard drive (they are relatively inexpensive today for the size you can get...I just bought a 1.5TB one for under $200) and put other stuff on it. This would include "addon" programs for FSX that FSX does NOT need to "use" while running FSX. Any program that just installs TEXTURES for FSX is an example...GEX, FEX, etc. You can install these entire programs on the external drive and use them from there to get those textures INTO FSX, then forget about the GEX, FEX, etc program unless you need to use the "texture swapping" capabilities of it again later. FSX is gonna be around for a long time. Plan ahead NOW for your storage space requirements for it. It won't take long for you to start running out of storage space if you keep accumulating addons for it.EDIT: Additional note here. There is a controvesy right now about whether you need to defrag an SSD drive or not. There are many people on both sides of the issue who are adament that you should or should NOT, as SSD drives are limited to their longevity by WRITE use. Theoretically, you could "trash" an SSD drive by creating too many "writes" to it. Every defrag you do creates new "writes" to a drive. So...you may want to do some research on this to make your own decision. Rick

Building new rig and want to leave enough space for growth. How much does FSX + a fair amount of upgrades take in terms of HDD space? By upgrades I mean 5-7 planes, ground environment, Sky environment, and about 10 scenerys.Can anyone estimate?

Nothing less than a (dedicated to FSX only) 250 GB sata drive.I use five Seagate ST3250310NS type drives in one computer and two in another. Never had a failure so far with these drives.My formatted space on my FSX drive is 232 and I still have 178 left.I have FSX(sp2), UTX/USA-Canada and Europe, GEX USA and Europe, REX, FSGenesis mesh and landclass, FS Panel Studio, FSBuild, and currently about five add-on aircraft.

Too big :(

Here is mine on a dedicated 300GB drive.

Building new rig and want to leave enough space for growth. How much does FSX + a fair amount of upgrades take in terms of HDD space? By upgrades I mean 5-7 planes, ground environment, Sky environment, and about 10 scenerys.Can anyone estimate?

My FSX drive is 225GB, and I'm using 133GBStill got over 90GB left.

195gb - YIKES!!! :wink:

What takes up tons of space is global mesh (FSGlobal) and photoreal scenery. If you're gonna hit hard on those, you'll want a dedicated 500GB drive.

 

If you're mostly interested in planes, airports and scenery enhancenmentes, you should do just fine with a 120GB drive.

203 GB ^_^  on a secondary 1 TB hybrid hard drive