Question: What do fellow users feel about the strategy of having a dedicated OS hard drive for a PC? Basically all the Windows and Program Files are on one, high performance, disk whereas your data is stored on a another, larger, hard drive?
Does this see performance improvements? If so, What type of HD is best? I was thinking 1/1.5 TB HD for the content and a Raptor for the Windows Install?
Answer: It’s a very good strategy. Not only the system performance will improve, but backups will become much easier. You can reformat your system drive any time without losing your documents.
For a fast system drive you can’t find anything better than Intel’s or OCZ’s SSD, but they might be too expensive. Raptors’ got much better $/GB ratio.
Important thing to know that SSDs come in the same package as HDDs. Same size and shape! However, SSDs are usually 2.5″ form factor (like notebook HDDs), so they are smaller than a typical desktop HDD. Since most PC cases are designed for 3.5″ form factor (typical desktop HDD) you need a drive bay. (Thread about this.)
This is a better approach than creating separate partitions because you can buy a very fast, but small drive and you can store your movies, songs, etc. on a slower, but much cheaper and bigger drive. This way you save money and you get a very fast system.