Hi AllI carried out a new build late last year and got as far as the first boot ok.Then basically the pc has been sitting there waiting for me to spend some time installing O/S etc.I have 3 HD fitted:1.600GB Velociraptor Sata 32.300GB Velociraptor Sata 2 (from my old FS pc)3.1TB W/D Caviar Black Sata 3What do you think would be the best utilisation of these drives including Win 7 x64 and that this is a FS only pc.'As a side note i noticed that the Sata 3 drives did'nt appear in the Bios.I am new to these SATA3 drives as i now read I need to install the Marvel Drivers first.Is that correct?(i've been looking at a recent thread regards someone have problems with their drives).Any thoughts would be warmly received.WhiskeyBravo

Hi WhiskeyBravo,The 600GB Raptor is the fastest so I would put FS on this. The 300GB raptor is fine for Windows. The WD Caviar is probably not needed for Flightsim unless you're using lots of photographic scenery.My 2 cents.Allard.

Whether or not you need to install the Marvell drivers depends on your motherboard, does it have a Marvell Sata controller?+1 for FSX on the 600GB Vrap, OS on one of the 300GB Vrap's. You can use the other 300GB Vrap for photo scenery if you fill up your 600GB Vrap.

Thanks for the reply guys.What you've said is what I was kinda thinking.Any addons that don't need to sit with FSX would go onto the Caviar.Idahosurge. Sorry I forgot to mention my MB.It's an Asus P6X58D-E.Yes as I'm sure your aware, it uses a Marvell Controller for the sata 3. WhiskeyBravo

I have another question regards using mechanical drives.My MB is Asus P6X58D-EI planned to have the 300Gb sata 2 V/rap (with win7 X64 and supporting programs) on a sata 2 controller which i believe is the Intel controller.Then put the 600Gb V/rap sata 3 (FSX) and 1Tb Caviar sata 3 on the sata 3 controller.Does this have to be the Marvell controller?If I refer to NickN and his post on setting up FSX etc,he says to set the Bios to IDE mode for running fsx (as opposed to AHCI) when using mechanical drives.Do you thimk this is still the case?What effect would there be trying to run in IDE mode on a sata3 controller?Also can the intel drivers be used to run sata3? Sorry for a lot of questions.I,ve trawled through the net but seem to be finding more questions than answers.CheersWhiskeyBravo

You only need Marvell drivers if it is a marvell controller, otherwise use the Intel drivers.

Alex Thanks for the reply.WhiskeyBravo

Then put the 600Gb V/rap sata 3 (FSX) and 1Tb Caviar sata 3 on the sata 3 controller.Does this have to be the Marvell controller?If I refer to NickN and his post on setting up FSX etc,he says to set the Bios to IDE mode for running fsx (as opposed to AHCI) when using mechanical drives.Do you thimk this is still the case?WhiskeyBravo

The only Sata3 controller on that board is the Marvell controller. Make sure that you download and install the latest Marvell driver (1.0.0.1036) off the Asus website. The original drivers had problems.http://support.asus.com/download/Download.aspx?SLanguage=en-usAs long as you only have mechanical HD's and are not going to RAID anything then set everything to IDE.

Idahosurge.Yes I'd read about the problems with earlier Marvell drivers,and I'd downloaded the latest ones from Asus but hadn't taken the plunge to install them yet.I'll not be using RAID and have IDE mode set in the bios. So I think I'm good to go.Case closed.Cheers for your help Chaps.WhiskeyBravo

Hi,Here is my setup, I have 5 drivesC Drive Winodws and programs (WD Black 500GB)D Backup ONLY (WD 1TB)E FSX (SSD Kingston 64)F FSX2 (SSD Intel 40GB)G FSX3 Photoscenery and Windows Virtual Memory (VeloRaptor 150GB)My system runs great and ultimately, I will put SSD as my C drive in near future.For FSX, runs amazing with very very little blurry issue...Tom

I have the ASUS P6X58D Premium, and I just got my new Raptor 600gb installed on the SATA 3 controller. I attempted to put it on the SATA 6 controller with the latest Marvell driver, but it would not work, no matter how much I tried. It's not the drive, it's the SATA 6 controller that's the issue. When on that controller, Windows, would not install. Also, on my main windows install drive, the Raptor would appear then disappear! Try it, but you might be better off with it on the SATA 3 plug.

Hi folks, I'm in the (slow) process of building an X58 system. My question relates to what mageej said: How do I put my add-on scenery on a different drive? Can I just drag the folder over to the new drive? Oh it's on Win 7 Pro 64-bit, with a SATA 6.0Gb adapter, EVGA Classified 4-way SLI board, if that helps any. I have one WD 1TB SATA 6.0 at the moment, but drives aren't too much of an issue for procurement.

At the FSX start-up screen, go to configuration and then scenery lbrary.Cheers,- jahman.

Hi folks, I'm in the (slow) process of building an X58 system. My question relates to what mageej said: How do I put my add-on scenery on a different drive? Can I just drag the folder over to the new drive? Oh it's on Win 7 Pro 64-bit, with a SATA 6.0Gb adapter, EVGA Classified 4-way SLI board, if that helps any. I have one WD 1TB SATA 6.0 at the moment, but drives aren't too much of an issue for procurement.

When you install your addons choose a different drive to install them on.Some addons like GEX and FEX that are only data bases can go on different drive. Most photo scenery can go on a different drive. Some addons like UTX and FSG have to go on the FSX drive. You will need to research your addons to see if they can go on a separate drive or need to go on the FSX drive.GEX and FEX can go on a storage drive, but if you put photo scenery on a separate drive it needs to go on a drive that is just as fast as your FSX drive.