SSD and HDD config Windows 7

[SyberWraith]

Hey, first time posting, been watching the youtube channel for a while now though.

I’ve read through a lot of the posts here and they make sense, and they also make me realize I’m probably not using my SSDs and HDDs to their best potential.

 

Current specs:

Asus ROG Crosshair IV Formula

AMD Phenom II 1100T Black

8G Crucial Ballistix @ 1600

2xCorsair Force Series GS CSSD-F128GBGS-BK 2.5" 128GB

2xSAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 ST1000DM005/HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM

OS: Currently Windows 8.1 Pro

 

My current config is I have my SSDs in a Software RAID 1 and my HDDs in a Software RAID 1(not the most efficient i know, i more or less just wanted to test 8.1 on this system).

My Plan is to go back to windows 7 since there are some things 8.1 does not like about my motherboard and I’ll go 8.1 when I can get new MB/CPU/RAM.  I also have my Users directory moved to the HDD RAID1 and my Temp directory.  I've had some thoughts on how to redo the drive configuration and I was thinking of using the on-board controller for the RAID config instead of windows.

 

Config 1: RAID0 the SSDs and leave users folder on there, RAID1 the HDDs (this is where I house my steam library, games, etc)

 

Config 2: Single Drive SSD windows, use the other SSD as my users/temp drive and install only a couple of games on either, RAID1 the HDDs

 

Config X: Any other thoughts or ideas from you guys here.

 

I’m not worried about documents or save games as such, I’ve been using OneDrive and Google Drive with Razor Cortex to save that stuff. And I have a scratch drive I plug in to install drivers and such.

I've had to re-install windows so many times since 2000 Pro, that most of that stuff is second nature now.

 

Thanks

[dadasmithywinkle]

-snip-

Welcome to the forums! I like Config one because of the speed.

[Altecice]

Use SSD's for windows (raid0) -- os/drivers/special programs or games.

Move your user folder onto the HDD. --programs/personal files.

 

I do this and it works well. Also moving your user folders is not hard its built into windows.

[failblox]

I like config 1, but only if you don't need more space to store your things. If you find you're running out of space, I'd just put the hard drives in RAID 0. I don't think the data you're storing on it is super important, like you said, it's just games, which you can always download from steam again. And with Steam's cloud save file syncing (whatever it's called) you don't have to worry about your save files either.

[SyberWraith]

Config 1 is the one i'm going to go with, I'll be doing my rebuild this weekend, i'm just backing up/copying my steam folder to my scratch drive  .

[SyberWraith]

Well, i tried going with config 1, but for some reason, windows 7 did not like the SSDs in a RAID array, so i ended up going with config 2.  It's working well though so no complaints.  I'm looking forward to getting my upgraded parts and moving this gaming rig to the living room as my media pc.  Thanks for the replies!