Software rebuild on primary PC question
Hi everyone
I have just bought a new HDD for my primary (i.e FS external view) pc and am planning to create a custom os install and a separate dedicated drive for FS9.
I have the following:
2x80gig old 1st generation sata seagates (7200rpm) in a raid 0 config. Currently this is partitioned into a c: and an e: drive. C:is the OS, E: is FS plus any other apps (currently fsX and not a great deal else)
I have bought a single 500Gig WD5000AAKS drive, Sata 3 and 16meg cache. According to THG it is competitive with a Raptor on all but seek time, which is not far behind.
I am planning to have two primary partitions (one for the FS OS and one for the non-fs one) and a dedicated drive (Single partition) for the FS9 install and nothing else. This pc has to have a non-fs role as well as it is by far my most capable PC and (just occasionally!) I play other games and
I have two questions:
1) should I use the new 500 gig drive for FS or the older (but RAID 0 ) pair? On that note does anyone know a good benchmarking tool I could compare the two with - and what factors would I look for?
2) The recent MS SQL 2008 Launchwave event scored me a copy of Vista Ultimate w SP1. Should I use Vista or XP for FS9?
My other specs are:
Intel dp35dp mobo
E6600 C2D chip
2Gig of DDR2 667 ram
8800GTS 320 Gig video card
2 monitors, used as two separate views in FS9, 22" lcd for external view, 15" lcd for the instrument panel.
Controls as per my sig below but these are no factor in the decision I need to make..
Thanks in advance.
James