which is better - one 500GB HDD or 2x250GB

[Lycanthrope]

When finally I order that Mac Pro I'll want to add some disk. Obviously I'm going to do this myself not pay silly Apple prices as an order option.

So, the question is, as there are several free drive bays in the Pro, am I better to buy a single 500GB or two 250GB's?

 

[Schroedinger]

I'll take a shot at answering this, but it's a huge wide open question.

You have three possible setups here: Lone 500, two separate 250s, or a RAID 250 (set up for performance not redundancy.)

The advantage of the single 500 is all your stuff is in one happy place and you have all your bays open for expansion in the future.

If you take the two 250s, and put the OS on one drive and all your media on the second (all your music, photos, etc.) you'll find your system is a little snappier. Especially in machine like the Mac Pro, your bottleneck is going to be the hard drive. By allowing the machine to use both drives during normal operations, your speeding up those operations.

The other option is a RAID set up. If you don't know about RAID, your best bet is to go look it up. Depending on how you use your computer, that may get you the advantages of a single drive and reading/writing to two drives, although it does double your exposure to hard drive failure.

good luck.

 

[Father Jack]

Personally I would go for two smaller drives.
I have Three 250 Gb drives in my Mac Pro. The first drive obviously for programs. The second drive used as a scratch disk for Photoshop and Final Cut and the third drive for backing up data.

FJ

 

[Nuc]

If I were you I would get the 500 GB. Then find a good deal on another 500 GB HD. Then use the second HD to clone the first. You will be happy especially if you lose one HD... Plus it would be good for Time Machine once OS 10.5 comes out. Just my opinion.

Nuc

 

[Lycanthrope]

Well I already have an external 500GB for archive but indeed I could perhaps mount that internally to save desk space - it it's a SATA anyway...

With the expense of the Mac Pro I can't really justify 2 x 500GB and here in Europe you'll get three 250GB drives for the cost of one 500GB.

And to be clear, I was meaning drives on top of the pre-installed 250GB.

I'll take the advice and read-up on RAID though - I've been hearing about it now for 10 years and still don't exactly understand it

 

[SmurfBoxMasta]

3 cardinal rules of computing (especially with a brand new system):

1. Backup
2. Back up the back up
3. Have a plan to back up your back up plan

the towers can take 4 HDD's.....and you can always add more, or even go external if needed, so get the 2 now (size doesn't matter), and add more later when you need them

 

[Lycanthrope]

Personally I would go for two smaller drives.
I have Three 250 Gb drives in my Mac Pro. The first drive obviously for programs. The second drive used as a scratch disk for Photoshop and Final Cut and the third drive for backing up data.

FJ

BTW, how are those hairy hands these days?

 

[princealfie]

Why not a 750GB hard drive instead?

 

[Lycanthrope]

Why not a 750GB hard drive instead?

'Cos they're bloody expensive right now and I can live with 750GB total spanned over several disks...

 

[princealfie]

'Cos they're bloody expensive right now and I can live with 750GB total spanned over several disks...

I got my 750 GB hard drive for $330 at Best Buy, not too bad

 

[Lycanthrope]

I got my 750 GB hard drive for $330 at Best Buy, not too bad

That, dear boy, is 'cos you live in America where everything is half the price compared with Europe

 

[princealfie]

That, dear boy, is 'cos you live in America where everything is half the price compared with Europe

Sorry to hear that. Perhaps you could try ebay US then?

 

[Lycanthrope]

Sorry to hear that. Perhaps you could try ebay US then?

Well then there's the unfortunate matter of Belgian customs Otherwise I'd already have bought my Mac Pro...

On the other hand we have great beer and chocolates here so it's not all bad news

 

[SmurfBoxMasta]

On the other hand we have great beer and chocolates here so it's not all bad news

and dont forget about da babes, most of which are seriously HAWT, with an incredibly sexy accent too

uuummmmmm..........smooth beer, fine chocolates, and super sexy women.......as close to heaven as you will find anywhere on this planet !

 

[Samwise592]

I'd get two 250's. Put the OS on one, and apps on another. Use the drive that came with it as a scratch disc. Then use your external 500gb with time machine to backup your data.

 

[iW00t]

I'd go with 1 x 500gb.

But better get regular backups, keeping all eggs in one (basket) is scary.