2 HDD's vs. 1

[Shadowhunter]

I just ordered a new Seagate drive for my PC because my current setup is not cutting it. What I have now is a SATA 80GB for my OS and most of my programs, however my Source games would not fit on it so I had to resort to using my old 80GB IDE drive to put them on. Using this setup my load times are TERRIBLE. I assume that besides being a faster drive than the IDE, my load times will be reduced due to the fact that any game data won't need to be transferred to my OS's host drive. I'm wanting opinions on this, is keeping games on a separate drive screwing me or is it maybe because IDE and SATA don't mix well? Or something else....? My shiny new 7200.11 will be here soon anyway but I'm curious.

 

[ZeroWing]

I just ordered a new Seagate drive for my PC because my current setup is not cutting it. What I have now is a SATA 80GB for my OS and most of my programs, however my Source games would not fit on it so I had to resort to using my old 80GB IDE drive to put them on. Using this setup my load times are TERRIBLE. I assume that besides being a faster drive than the IDE, my load times will be reduced due to the fact that any game data won't need to be transferred to my OS's host drive. I'm wanting opinions on this, is keeping games on a separate drive screwing me or is it maybe because IDE and SATA don't mix well? Or something else....? My shiny new 7200.11 will be here soon anyway but I'm curious.

SOunds like that cud work, Ive heard that if u fraps to your secondary HD you will get better frames so thats somewhat the same principle as you are talknig about. Try it out and let me know, Im dieing to find new ways to make my PC faster .

 

[PC eye]

Whether ide or sata there will always be a delay when running a game on a second drive. With the prices coming down seeing a 500gb sata drive going for only $60 at newegg you might even want to consider replacing the present 80gb OS drive to see far more drive space for softwares and games. You can even split that up to see a second storage partition.

In fact two different WD models are seen for $60 while a third is priced at $64.99 when going to look at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...escription=&Ntk=&SpeTabStoreType=&srchInDesc=

 

[Shadowhunter]

PC Eye: I guess my post is a little confusing after a re-read but what I'm planning on doing is exactly what you said....I'm yanking both the old drives and using my new one to replace them. I was just trying to re-affirm my belief that using a separate drive for my games is what was causing my maaaaad crazy lag. Yo.

 

[PC eye]

It's a likely problem! Many think they will improve game performance by installing elsewhere and leaving the OS/boot drive just for the basics. Too often that can lead into too many problems.

Some elect to spend a little more on the WD Raptor models due to seeing 10,000rpm over the usual 7,200. The faster speed will help in some areas until you realize that a game runs by first loading a game map into memory. oops!

 

[Caminokid]

It will work. I have my OS on a 80 gb IDE drive. I have all my program/game files on a 320 SATA drive. These are internal drives. The craziness starts outside the computer with 5 external drives! LOL.

 

[PC eye]

Here I keep everything installed on one drive since the next drive in line will see a different OS on it entirely! The one external drive is used for storing files for not only XP and Vista but Linux and ? OpenSolaris maybe?

You must be working with video or something to be seeing a need for 5 external drives which I could guess are large capacity as well.