Ready to RAID - but what partitions?

[ftgpmb]

I've got two Maxtor ATA 133 80GB HDDs at the moment. c: for Windows XP, applications and data, d: for windows page file, backup images and video downloads from camcorder. They are master and slave on the same IDE interface.

Both drives are getting a bit full with digital pics and video on drive d: so I thought I'd buy a couple of new drives (perhaps some Seagate 320GB SATA 16MB drives). I see that my ECS NFORCE3-A motherboard is capable of RAID support, so I'm thinking great, RAID 1 and no more tiresome backups (which to be honest I'm not that disiplined about doing anyway).

So here's what I'm thinking.

2x80GB IDE drives in RAID 1 array on same IDE bus (motherboard only has 2 IDE connectors and I need the other one for the DVD burner)
Partition 1: Windows XP
Partition 2: Applications

2x320GB SATA drives in RAID 1 array
Partition 1: small windows page file drive
Partition 2: user data and video files.

What do you guys think? Any thing I am missing?

[RyderOCZ]

I have never played with different Partitions to be honest, I just format the whole thing and install Windows (I have started to make a separate partition for the swap file).
From what I have read about recommendations...you seem to have a very good looking solution there.
I give it thumbs up :)

[ftgpmb]

Thanks RyderOCZ.

So now I've read that the OS should probably be on the faster drive - so perhaps I should put it on the new SATA 320GB drives. which got me to thinking ... would the pair of 80GB IDE drives in a RAID 0 array be faster than the SATA drives in RAID 1?

[RyderOCZ]

Raid 0 on the IDE should be about 15 - 30% faster than non raid on the same interface. Whether it will be faster than the SATA..you would have to run HDtach or something similar to be 100% sure.

Raid 0 of course means there is no redundancy so if 1 drive failed...there goes your OS and apps, but those just need reinstalling as long as all the data (created files, etc) are on the 320's. It becomes not much of a worry...just a setback due to time, etc.

IMO, I would raid0 the IDE but still go with the 2 partitions you mentioned...OS and Apps, then run the swap, etc on the 320's like you intended also.