SATA 7200 or 10000 RPM??

[StickBoy]

I'm making a mock setup of my dream rig. which would be better. Two 250gig SATA 7200Rpm drives, one for the OS/APPS/Samples/Storage, and one for Audio. Or.... One 10,000RPM 36gig drive for the OS/APPS/Samples and one 74gig 10,000RPM drive for Audio. I figured i'd go with the 10k option because i don't need 250gig Os drive. The 250gig Audio drive would be nice but i think i can get away with a 74gig for now. The 7200RPM option would cost me $438.00. The 10K RPM option will cost me $375.00. Or for the final setup...bare with me here... One 250 gig 7200rpm for the OS/Apps/Samples/Storage audio files and a 36gig 10K drive for Current session audio files, cost $334? I know these are alot of ideas floating around and i'm sure there are more options but which is the best overall.

[wogg]

The 10k RPM raptors are considerably faster and more reliable (they're aimed at the server market afterall) than the 7200 RPM consumer drives.

[andrewsc]

Seagates are known to be reliable and quiet, slower rpm drives may last longer and or be more reliable and quiet (I'd like to find out if there is a difference in lifespan), I'd go with the quietest avaiable over speed, it would handle most any project, unless you use above 44.1khz recording or something like surround sound.
Using a pci serial-ata raid card to host the drives sometimes makes booting take longer because of the detection period compared to ide. I wonder if motherboards with onboard sata boot faster.