Need help setting up a new DAW, please!

[biggestmuff]

I'm currently in the planning stages of building a DAW. The heart of the system is as follows:

-Asus A7N8XE-Deluxe motherboard
-XP 2100+ CPU (OCed to a 2400)
-2 GB (1GB x 2) of Corsair ram running in DDR mode
-Two Seagate 120GB HDDs
-Pioneer DVR-109 drive

I will install Windows XP SP2 on it. My main host will be Sonar 4 PE and will have DFHS along with other samples.

I have a few concerns that I'm hoping you people can assist me with.

How should I go about installing the OS, host, and samples? Where should I store my audio data? Which harddrives? Should I partition? There are a few ways that this can happen.

I will have two 120GB HDDs on this system. What I was thinking is to do it like so:

Solution 1,

Disk 1/Partition 1 = OS and host
Disk 1/Partition 2 = All recorded audio data
Disk 2 = DFHS/Samples

or like this, skipping the partitioning:

Solution 2,

Disk 1 = OS, host and DFHS/Samples
Disk 2 = All recorded audio data

Solution 2 would seperate my audio data from an OS crash. DFHS runs primarily in RAM so it's not much of an issue as to where I store the samples, right?

Well, what do you guys think?

 

[Bulls Hit]

Why are you getting a XP2100+?

I'm surprised they still make those things

 

[biggestmuff]

I already have the MB, CPU, and RAM. They perform fine.

 

[biggestmuff]

I might go with OS/Host/samples on one and then just audio on the other.

This brings up another question; should these drive be on the same controller with the OS drive set to Master and the audio drive as a slave? Or would it work better with each drive on it's own controller? (One of the drives would then have to have my DVDR drive slaved off of it, not a problem, though.)

 

[Bulls Hit]

I'd suggest putting them on seperate controllers.

The dvd will only affect the HD sharing its controller while it's actually in use