Best Scratch Disk for PS?

[GSimian]

I am now using a partition on my startup drive (the second one, after a system partition) for my scratch disk. Some have counseled against this, pushing for a separate disk, or even two extra disks, in a RAID set-up.
Any ideas (hopefully backed by some technical knowledge/real-life tests)???

[sPECtre]

I do remember a lot of discussions in the PS user to user forum, one said he tested with an action and found no difference with the scratch on the same physical disc or on another one!

But in another one, somebody recommended 4 HD's :
one for Windows&apps,
one for photoshop scratch disc (at the start, as it is faster)
one for windows pagefile
and one for the data!
arguing that these are 4 concurrent accesses that are made while photoshopping.

The faster the better! get an X15! :) (seagate's high-end scsi disc, 15.000rpm!!!!

Of course, raid 0, striping is faster than a single drive, but you've got more chance to crash : it's speed vs security ( but it might be only PS scratch, not the data)

Speaking about hd's, Storage Review (http://www.storagereview.com) is said to close soon, I hope not, as it is by far the best reference site!

[Scott W.]

From what I've read....

The optimum set up would be several small, separate drives used as scratch volumes.

Second would be a single large, separate drive.

The last choice would be a partition of your startup drive.

[sPECtre]

Don't forget that IDE (ATA) controllers can only access one device per channel at a time!

If you go for several drives(and got some $ or Euros to spend), SCSI is the way to go (check out The PC GUIDE (http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/comp.htm) about the different interfaces )