raid vs sata

Correction first raid comment above it should read "RAID 1 is when you take 2 "

well first of all I am not into gaming that much, I just want to increase the boot time of the CPU, get a better overall performance of the system...

and garycase, you just summarized exactly what I need... i just want the time from pressing the power button the CPU till the time I can use the computer to be fast enough.. that's all. from your comment I think the velocirapotor will do the job

oh and my current hard disk is a seagate baracudda 1TB @7200 rpm

A Velociraptor will definitely improve your boot times and give your system a nicer "feel" for program loads, etc.   If you want even better performance, build a RAID-0 array with two Velociraptors :-)

lol... that would be nice if the money was there, I am even still saving up for 1 velociraptor.. by the way say I have two velociraptor, then how would I build a RAID-0 array with two of them? I mean how do you set this up? In the bios? Just for a note my system is an XPS 420, which has been overclocked.

Also is there a way to install SSD into my system..lol, I know it's available in notebooks not sure for desktops, what would I need.. sorry if this gets a bit off topic

oh and instead of a velociraptor.. do you think I should get the ssd? lol

Your XPS 420 has RAID support, so it's easy to set up a RAID-0 ... and the process is the same no matter what kind of drives you're using (7200rpm, 10000rpm, SSDs, etc.).

I would not get an SSD => while they're VERY fast when they work well; there are still issues that cause major slowdowns with certain types of accesses [there's a MAJOR issue with Outlook 2008 and SSDs, for example].   A Velociraptor will actually outperform an SSD in many applications :-)

But if you DO want to try an SSD, it's just a drive ==> you simply buy one and install it just like any other disk drive.  Here are a few examples:  http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2013240636+1421430849&Configurator=&Subcategory=636&description=&Ntk=&SpeTabStoreType=&srchInDesc=

can you show me some statistics/results that showed that ssd are better than velociraptor? As far as my research goes, all I can see is SSD's are better than velociraptor

Just Google "Outlook and SSDs" and you can read a lot about issues with SSDs -- not just with Outlook, but with any OS that tries to optimize hard drive access using techniques that simply don't work well with the solid state devices.

In addition, SSDs -- unless you buy very expensive single-cell models -- have sustained write rates MUCH slower than a hard drive ... especially a Raptor.

An SSD will easily outperform a Velociraptor for booting the OS, but can bog down with certain applications to the point that it's very frustrating.   A common question is "how can I replace my SSD with a real hard drive" --> these are almost always from folks who have encountered one of the troublesome applications [Office 2007 ... especially Outlook ... is a common example].

ok.. I'll go with the raptors then.. I don't want more trouble in my life..