I think NickN's recommendation is based on optimum throughput from the HDD to FSX.
He likes to see the fast VelociRaptor there to pump out the game unhindered by other data clutter on that drive.
He implied (I think) that you would benefit from another VelociRaptor to pump out photo scenery on a dedicated scenery drive. However, if your photo scenery files are exceeding 300gb, (the VRaptors capacity), then it may be prudent - even necessary - to get a fast 1tb drive like a Samsung F3 (HD103SJ), instead of the Raptor.
There are likely faster options, but we hit a performance vs price ratio barrier if we get too excited
He also suggests a good OS drive. I guess the idea is that the OS drive is handling the pagefile, OS and driver functions etc, leaving the other two drives to get on with their own tasks.
Presumably this three hdd setup is to help stop stuttering by getting the data/textures/scenery etc all across to the Northbridge with as few bottlenecks as possible, the heads on all three drives shooting data across to the game more or less simutaneously, and in effect, making the SATA bus itself the bottleneck factor.
I'm finding a real problem with this myself in Arma 2, which seems to continuously stream scenery data from the HDD, and it's a killer on a one disk installation, I can assure you.
A few guys are reporting excellent results in Arma2 by linking scenery to a dedicated Ram Disk using symlinks.
I'm very interested in anything NickN has to say to on this subject. As, usual, I'm spending so much time propping up old hardware, I don't get to spend much time at the "cutting edge" lol! (how far off are 2tb SSD's? Nick?)
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