OS Installation

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I currently have my OS installed on a single 160GB HDD, with non-critical apps, and user data stored on a 2TB Caviar Black (It's capable of 6Gb/s but the Mobo isnt, so it's irrelevant at the moment).

As I'm planning on replacing the Mobo with one that does support 6Gb/s, I was wondering if it is better to keep the same kind of setup as now, or to do away with the configuration, and just install the whole lot onto the Caviar Black?

I'll still be keeping the other drives around, so I can still load the Pagefile onto another drive to add a performance boost (although with the intended 8GB RAM I'm hoping this won't be an issue)

 

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How fast is the 2TB disk vs the 160GB disk? If it's clearly speedier, then it will help the OS a bit, but then the OS will share files with your apps/data which is stored on the same disk. This can result in slowdown if the data you're loading requires that Windows also loads driver files etc...

I personally like to keep data separate from the OS disk, and I've started going with SSDs for the OS disk. 80GB is enough to host a speedy Windows installation.

But back to your original question, if you scrap the smaller disk, you will free up some heat, electricity use and noise, all good things but rarely THAT important (and if you went with an SSD which admittedly is not cheap, no noise or heat will be generated and very little electricity used). You could also retain the smaller disk for backups of more important data if you don't already have some backup routine.

But will you really see a difference going to the new mobo? Don't mechanical disks have a read/write speed limit which still cannot even reach those of a 3Gb/s chipset?

 

My understanding was that the Caviar was able to transfer at 3Gb/s, but perhaps that is wrong.

This review covers the speeds

I would like to stick the OS onto an SSD at some point, but the price places it beyond my reach at present (it's on the list, just not at the top)

 

Yeah, the interface speed would be that, but actually being able to read continuous data off a disk fluctuates wildly and could be anywhere from 50 to 200megs a second. I.e. Maybe just 1.5Gb/s...

SSDs especially in RAID are more likely to saturate the bus if it's not capable of 6Gb/s.