SSD or VelociRaptor

get the OCZ's for sure. 2 of those would rape 2 Veloci's in RAID0.

SSD's don't normally do well with a motherboard RAID controller. Get the VelociRaptors.

Get the velocity raptors, SSD's are faster and all by the performance gain isnt worth the extra money right now.

SSDs will be a hit in a couple months, when prices drops a bit with incoming technologies... Didn't read much on it, a nice array of SSDs will definitely be amazing for OS and games, but they're not very affordable at the moment... Velos are also very expensive... Though you can save and buy the 150GB models, option I didn't have back then. I can however say that onboard raid is crap. I just ordered myself a Perc 5/i for my future arrays. SSDs benefits more from hardware raid controllers, too.

Given your situation, get Velos... What board are you heading toward to?

Velociraptors are great, but I don't think it is time yet to move to SSDs.

With current controllers, you are better off with regular usage going with the HD, unless you are willing to run hybrid SSD/HD. There are curtain programs that dont get along well with SSDs and you will have stutters. I currently run a combo of SSD/HD. That way I get the best of both worlds. SSD for fast access, but items such as my outlook pst file, internet cache, and a few others run from the HD. If you get it set up right, you will love it. If not, and you are running just SSD, you may have issues and be sorry you made the move.

BTW, there is a great link to the OCZ site on how to optimize how the SSD works. If you follow its advice, and make the tweaks recomended, you will see a big difference.

Making Vista and XP SSD Friendly:
For Vista: http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/fo...ad.php?t=47212
For XP: http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/fo...ad.php?t=43460

I would go Single Velo instead. Unless you use a standalone RAID controller card.
I would never use a RAID OS from the onboard RAID controller.

non of the above. The SSDs are in their early stages, and a raptor isnt worth it. Get two samsung 750gb or 1 tb and raid them they are very fast for the money.

Im in the same pickle... Velociraptors are great, but SSDs have them beat in raw speed. However as soon as you start multitasking, the Velociraptors do a LOT better. SSDs tend to lag, stutter, and act very sluggishly. I believe SLC SSD technology fixes a lot of that, but the SLC drives are typically more expensive than normal MLC (I Think thats the abbreviation) technology SSDs which make up most of the current market.

Since I have a similar situation, Id recommend doing what Im doing.. Stick with what you have now and get some SSDs later when the technology is ready for it. Right now it's just too new, and too expensive. Give it a year or two. Until then, if you have to have something, Id recommend the Velociraptors.

IMO, i would think long term.. i love my little setup right now, and the raid card (majority of the cost) will work well with 8 SSD's down the road in a year or so..

what i did was ebay'd a perc 5/i and four SAS 36GB 15k's (granted the deal was a hell of a steal for under 55$ for the four drives.. but the cable was 35$..) if you have say 1-2 drives that match (well not match if its one, but decent speed) ebay a few more of them.. raid them on a perc 5/i and wait it out for SSD's to get better then buy 8 of them!

unless my perc fails, i can see myself using it in 2-3 years time.. it seems to be a great long term investment..

I planned to pick up a perc 5/i in the next month or so.

Also, the price is not the issue. I am wanting performance, I was simply asking if the SSDs would provide better performance and if there where any issues with them (i.e. Stuttering)

im running 2 velociraptor 300's in Raid 0 on an ICH10R i haven't had one issue very fast vista bar make 3 passes and loads. A huge improvement over my old 250 seagate

Raptors

If you have the money to get SSD get them. If you don't have the money to get them, don't. VelociRaptors aren't that amazing of a drive in my opinion, just get a 7200rpm drive of sorts.