Solid State Drives, are they there yet?

New machines and Drive requirements

I have been looking for sometime to start building a new system. This system should perform well, it needs lots of disk space, it needs to be able to drive multiple monitors. Usual stuff. One of the areas that I have a lot of issues with is the hard drive space. As this will be a Microsoft Windows based desktop system, it will have the usual RAID related issues Microsoft seems to like encumbering all such systems with - they won't let the Desktops do RAID. Hardware RAID with special cards or motherboards is the only way out.

So if I am to build a system where the main partitions or drive areas are RAIDed, do I really want to RAID the OS part of things? After all, it's the bit the changes least (or should) yet gets read the most. This got me to thinking that I needed to set up a system with an OS drive separate from the RAIDed app and data drives.

We've been here before. In the old days I would have a physical drive per drive letter. I have had systems with 4 or more drives in for years. In recent years, the only way to RAID a drive was to have it all as one partition, but I am loath to put an entire terabyte out as a C: drive (mixing OS with apps and data) - it's not wise and it's a waste of space.

In setting up the disk space you have to think about repairing the system if a drive or two should fail. By splitting apps and data from one and other, you can make recovery a simpler affair. Also, separating the OS from the apps becomes possible, and more and more advised. This then opens the door to something new - a hybrid drive system. A mix of drive types.

The age of SSD's

SSD's or Solid State Drives, have been used on some small laptops as a means to extend battery life, and had back some performance. They contain CMOS memory technology that allows relatively large memory footprints to be placed in 2.5" drive cases. The drives use little power, often less than a single watt, and can trip into energy saving saving mode very quickly, and back out again, without the issue of having to spin down, and spin up the disk platters - an SSD just sort of switches off.

The latest versions of these drives are reaching 256GB. This is certainly large enough for a C: drive that only has to contain the OS. Switching between power saving mode and full speed data transfer is quick, and the read/write times, as well as the simple read times are becoming competitive with 15,000rpm drives. 15K rpm would make a fine C: drive... except they are horribly noisy in a desktop that sits inches from your body.

Where to now, Tonto?

My road map is shaping up to look like an Intel Core i7 system, on an ASUS or MSI X58 motherboard, with probably 8GB of RAM, onboard RAID 1 for the D: and E: drives (Terabyte or 1.5 TB drives) and an SSD for the C: drive. Let's see if I am onto a winner, or a have a 3 legged nag, here!