I have a Dell Dimension 9100, bought about 4 years ago, which I want to upgrade to a more SL-friendly condition. Here are some more specs ...
BIOS: Dell A01 05/25/2005
OS: Windows XP Pro SP 3
Main circuit board: Dell 0X8582
Processor: 3.20 gigahertz Intel Pentium 4
Video card: ATI Radeon X600 256 Mb HyperMemory
Memory: 1 Gb (upgrading this week to 4 Gb)
This question is about whether you think I should restore RAID0 -- and if so, is there anyone here who recommend suitable drives.
One of the two drives failed a while ago, so I'm using only one.
In principle, RAID0 should significantly improve performance -- but I would have to acquire a pair of new drives to replace the original Maxtor 6L160M0 pair. The Maxtor 6L160M0 is no longer manufactured. No problem finding refurbished Maxtor 6L160M0, but would it be better to use more recent drives?
The main argument aganst RAID0 is something I have already experienced -- if one drive fails, you lose everything. But on this machine, there will be no important data, and anything that needs backup will get it daily. So I accept the principle of RAID0, but I have not convinced myself of its necessity. I suspect the main performance gain will result from the upgrade to 4 Gb RAM, even though XP won't use all of it. Has anyone else been through this? Will the improved performance of the RAID0 upgrade justify the expense of new drives?
Thanks for any help or comments
