Optimum Hard Drive setup?
 

Ok, on my system (2.4ghz celeron, 1gig DDR 266) I have just IDE (for now) I have several options in drives and configurations... I have a Plextor 712 dvd burner that I need in there... what would be the best way to handle HD's in this system... I have a 120 and a 60 gig in it right now but I have several 8 gig drives that I was thinking I would use for a swap file though I don't ever max out my ram I imagine I will as I start to do more complex editing and such. I have read on audio sites that say to not put a HD on the same channel as a cdrom so given I need to have my dvd the next best sollution is to have both the 120 and 60 on the same cable and the 8gig on the 2nd cable with the dvd? Is it worth worrying about using the 8gig? (they are useless for anything else hehe). Maybe I should get a firewire case for my Plextor then I would free up that channel... then what would be best Swap drive on same channel as system drive and the "project" drive all on its own?

Which is the best way to store files.... source files on system and render to project or source on project drive and render to system drive?

If you need secondary masters, then yes....get the CD off that channel, because the CD/DVD sets the speed for that channel no matter what. If you can afford a SATA controller, this issue goes away.
Store media on a drive separate from your OS, always.
Render to yet a third drive if you can, you'll see slightly faster renders, and avoid swap file issues.
I wouldn't worry alot about swap file issues unless you're working with big stills.

Yeah, that dvdr is killing the whole system I'm using dvd decrpter with the ISO on the same cable to make some duplicates of a project and the whole system becomes completely useless (not even the clock changes) while the burn is going on. I usually surf and do way more than I should risk while burning projects ;)

So should I leave the swap file on the system drive or move it to the projects drive? I know the latter is the prefered method for general system performance but I guess the projects drive is the one getting more of a thrashing than the system drive in A/V work.

SATA is the next step but that requires replacing the HD's too.... and isn't a PCI based SATA card really defeating the purpose because it hogs up the pci bus causing problems when capturing and such. VS. the built on chip that resides on it's own bus (I might be wrong on this but I know this is the case with pci IDE cards).

If I do go the three drive route I'm assuming I could put the swap on it and I would guess put that on the same cable as the system drive? Is it worth doing a 3rd drive for rendering if it's an older 5400rpm ATA66 drive?

IMO leave the virtual memory swap file on the C drive and don't worry about it .. infact i would set windows virtual memory at 1400 (do not let windows manage it ) ... forget the 8 gig drives = tape em together and use as book ends or door stopper ... for photoshop swap /cache file i would put it on a different drive ..

take out the DVDr and put into external case ... buy a ATA 133 or SATA PCI card .. now put all your drives as MASTERs on the ATA and use cable select for drives on motherboard IDE channels ... also note there are good deals out there on hard drives = 200gig $49 .. 320 gigs 139 ..250gig SATA with sata pci card 129 ... just look at ads in your sunday paper ..

i use 3 pci cards ..ATA 133 pci card with 2 400gig drives .. 1394 pci card .. 1394/usb2 pci card .. not having any problems capturing/rendering ...have a slide out hard drive tray on the MB 2ndary IDE channel - using 250-400gig drives .. have DVD burner in external 1394/usb2 case ...

What's considered a big still? 2 MB, 10 MB, 100MB?

Big stills is anything over 2000 x 2000 pixels.

Cool, I already set the swap to not be a "range" but a static value because I know it helps with fragmenting and such.

Why do you say set the mobo drives to cable select? Everything I have usually read is not to do that and in my experience that has been a cause of problems and I ALWAYS set my jumpers. Maybe you know something I don't and this is why I ask.

Yes, you are right drives are cheap, it's just money that me and my partner could be using on other things for the business right now (better tripod, mics, blah blah blah).

Thanks for the replies so far... I love realworld experience and knowledge! Keep it coming!

"Why do you say set the mobo drives to cable select?"

for past few years all computers come with the C drive & CD/DVD set to cable select. any added drive/device to the MB IDE channels then must be set to cable select .. if you add a device as a slave or master and the C drive is cable select you will have problems = ALL devices must be cable select or all devices must be master/slave when connected to mother board .. any drive you buy today is already pinned cable select ... some drives do not show you the pinn configurations on the drive anymore = just easier to use cable select ...
the only problems i've seen is when a persons adds a 2nd hard drive and sets the pinns as master/slave and the C drive is pinned cable select..

Ah, my main job is IT so setting jumpers before putting in a device is second nature for me.

But that's a good point you make about others not so aware making that mistake. I just say set jumpers and save the possible trouble.