Need more space....

Ever since iTunes came out, my music collection has gone up about 1-12GB a day...and I'm running out of space (it doesnt look like the additions will slow down anytime soon either). Here is my current HDD config:

80GB Maxtor 7200RPM 2MB (boot drive, two partitions, one daily use, one gaming) on which I have no intention of putting any data.
120GB Western Digital 7200RPM 8MB (data drive 1)
80GB Western Digital Firewire 7200RPM 2MB external (data drive 2)

My external 80 is completely full and my 120 (really 111) only has 5GB free left. On my school system I have about 44GB of music, about 40GB of which is not duplicate. Firstly, does anyone know of a free program (not one that isnt free and i can get on kazaa or edonkey for free [those are blocked on teh school's network]) that can eliminate duplicate music songs automatically (like Helium 2, just free)?

Now here is the real question, what would be the best way to add space? I want another 250GB, decently fast of course (i.e., no Maxtor 300GB 5400RPM BS). I don't have any free IDE ports unfortunately and my PSU is sh!tty, and could give way to any added power requirement. I don't want external because of the whole concern of theft (my 80 has been repeatedly 'borrowed' by my dormmates--and i'm getting sick of it).
So i ask you(pl) this:

(option 1) should I chuck the maxtor (on my fourth one because three died), make the 80 in my external my boot drive, put my 120 in my external case, and put a new 250 on the inside?? Problem is that i only get about 160 extra, and this upgrade will probably have to last me 1.5+ years.

(option 2 - favorite) Get the Promise PCI card with 2 SATA ports and 1 IDE port. Get a 73GB raptor when it comes out and get a WD or Hitachi SATA 250GB. Make the raptor my boot drive, put the Maxtor 80 on the PCI IDE channel, make the 120 the master on the MB IDE channel and make the slave my ZIP drive that i've been dying to add in. I'd also get a Fortron 460W PSU. I know that is pretty expensive: is that upgrade worth the money??? With 4 HDDs internally, would heat become an issue??? (BTW, i'd get about 320 out of that and extra performance, which i really like)

(option 3--least favorite) Get a WD 250GB Exeternal and try to hide it somewhere.

Sorry if that was confusing...typed and didnt think a whole lot, have to get to english class...

RDRAM = ENEMY

1: I don't see the advantage of exchanging the 80G/7200/2M maxtor with 80G/7200/2M WD.

2: the raptor is fast. But also quite hot. And expensive. And not available yet. Well, depends all on how much your money is worth to you...

The cheapest way to get 250GB extra hd space is simply by buying 2x 120GB (for example WD1200JB, 120G/7200/8M), PCI IDE (not RAID) controller and a decent PSU. Imho this drive is perfctly capable of storing&playing mp3s

BTW If I understand correctly you have 80+115GB of MP3s? That's nearly 4000 hrs music; if you spend 10 hrs/day listening to this music you'd hear everything once a year. not to mention that your adding 19-228 hrs of real-time-music per day.
*SCRATCHES HEAD* amazing, where do you find the time to listen to it? *SHRUG*
Anyway, do you really need to keep this all on-line? Wouldn't it be better to archive it on DVD?

Alright, thanks...i'll talk to my parents and see what $$$$ i can finagle out of them.

I wouldn't mind the 300GB drive, I really could do without superfluous speed on one of my storage drives, just i hate maxtor and no other company makes a moster.

RDRAM = ENEMY

Yeah, sorry to get on your case too...I just get a lot of sh!t at school too about the space, until they find my massive shared folder and can play/take music off of it as they please.

I've had this maxtor for about 4 months now and it hasnt started to make noise yet (maybe the company got smart and sent me a working drive to save future replacement costs). Anyway, i've had great success with IBM/Hitachi, WD, and fujitsu and havent really had a chance to sample seagate enough to make judgements.

As for the CDs, i guess I should have found a different target medium for my NRA party...(actually, my memorex discs did stop working after about 15 months of being completely ignored...i do have a few cds that if i read every once and a while they seem to last [memorex's black cds last very well in my experience with them just they are expensive and easy to lose--and not on-line, but rather in a drawer])

RDRAM = ENEMY

Here is a second vote for the 5400 drive. No need for speed when its duty will be storing mostly mp3 files. Probably best to keep it external as well, just in case the RIAA comes knocking

It's not what they tell you, its what they don't tell you!

Captain Obvious says take a look at <A HREF="http://www.storagereview.com" target="_new">http://www.storagereview.com</A> for more details on the 72Gb Raptor! (Which has not been released yet)

<b><font color=red>Captain Obvious To The Rescue!!!</font color=red></b>

been trying to go to that link (instead i went to the WD press release--which was good enough to convince my parents), but the link doesnt work and neither does typing in http://www.storagereview.com. Is there another place where I can get a real review (doesn't even have to show good performance gains, my parents agreed to option 2).



RDRAM = ENEMY

BUMP/QUESTION:

With the release of the price of the WD740 Raptor (293 at some place, OEM), would it be more worth the money to get dual WD370 Raptors and putting them in a RAID0 config (undoubtedly faster). I was originally planning on getting the Promise PCI card that has 2 SATA and 1 PATA, and no RAID. If you look above, I was originally planning to have 1 74GB Raptor on a SATA, 1 250GB on the other SATA and redistribute my current drives so that no more than 1 would be on an IDE channel at once (DVD-ROM, CD-RW, and ZIP drives not withstanding). However, if I get dual 37GB Raptors and put them in a RAID0 config, I will need a RAID version of the card...which Promise does make. However, can it run a RAID0 config as well as JBOD for the ZIP and another PATA HDD (i doubt it--some one PLEASE tell me I'm wrong and mean it)? If it cannot run a RAID0 config with a JBOD arrangement simultaneously, would I be at all justified (performance-wise) getting a 2 PCI cards that could run the Raptors in a RAID config and getting my originally planned Promise card in order to run the 250, one of my current drives as a data drive and my ZIP drive?

RDRAM = ENEMY

Thanks for the info. I'm starting to think that going w/ the non-RAID card and getting the 74GB might be better once the price goes down.

I was talking of the floppy-disk-like device wiht disks of 100 or 250MB (well, mine only supports 100s, but that's all my school uses anyway), but I could swap that with a HDD from my motherboard PATA channel, so I would JBOD array two HDDs and RAID0 array 2 Raptors. But as I said before, it seems more and more like just getting 1 74GB is the way to go in my case. Thanks for clearing a lot of things up.

RDRAM = ENEMY