New Mac Pro - is it worth installing Windows on a separate drive?

[skerfoot]

Just took delivery of a new Mac Pro with 3 internal HDs. We plan to install Windows 7 via bootcamp. I've looked around before and I remember reading that it's possible to install the Windows OS on one of the "other" HDs, instead of the home HD running OSX.

Are there advantages to this approach? If I remember correctly, the process to do this isn't trivial, so is it worth it? What's the disadvantage of running OSX and Windows from the same HD?

Thanks for the advice.

 

[Grannyville7989]

The only disadvantage I can think of is that you won't get as much storage space on the root drive if you have it partitioned along side with OS X. If putting Windows on a separate drive is going to be a pain the arse, I would say it's probably not worth it.

What kind of activities will you be doing in Windows 7?

 

[skerfoot]

The only disadvantage I can think of is that you won't get as much storage space on the root drive if you have it partitioned along side with OS X. If putting Windows on a separate drive is going to be a pain the arse, I would say it's probably not worth it.

What kind of activities will you be doing in Windows 7?

We're running some fairly processor-heavy programs for analysis of scientific data (gene chip analysis, Amnis analysis of cell flow image data). Some of these only run, or run better, in Windows, so the intent is to have a machine capable of being either a Mac or a PC, depending on what we're doing at the time.

According to the Boot Camp manual, I have to pull out the other drives if I want to put windows on it's own separate internal HD. I know this isn't hard, but, as you say, I don't really see enough of an advantage to do it. There's a lot I don't know about computers though, so I thought it'd be worth asking.
Thanks

 

[Grannyville7989]

Agreed. How big are the internal drives in the Mac Pro? At the end of the day, if you do run out of space on the root drive that Windows is on, you can always partition another drive for Windows to use.

 

[balamw]

I've got two Mac Pros at work running Windows exclusively for some high performance computation that is unfortunately Windows only. They are such a joy to work on compared to your run of the mill PC. Pulling the drive is easy as is putting it back in place.

We opted for the separate drive just because it was easier to explain to the IT department. There should be no performance hit from running it on a shared drive.

B