OS on Dedicated Drive

[donsor]

I have a WD 36G Raptor which I plan to install as the primary drive in my new rig. I also intend to install a much larger capacity SATA drive in addition. I would like to install in OS in the primary drive and restrict its contents to the essentials. All other programs and storage will be installed in the secondiary drive. My thinking is that it will boot faster and also improve security for the drive contaiining the OS. Tell me if I am just wasting my time doing this with no apparent improvement in operation or performance.

[StinkyPlant]

Well, seems to me you are defeating the whole purpose of having a raptor. The performance that you will gain from the Raptor will be lost b/c your machine will be accessing the secondary (slower) drive to access programs.
Typically, you would want your OS, programs, etc.. On the main drive (raptor) and use your larger disc for storage and backup.
Now, this technically, will work however you want it to. Just remember the default location when you go to install a program is going to be c:/... and you will need to change that to your larger HD.
You may run into a few problems having applications installed on a non- C drive. I can't think of any off the top of my head, but It seems that I ran into a few things trying to access the wrong location before.

At any rate, i don't think that you will really see that much difference however you do it. If I were you, I would put two of the 36gb raptors and run them in Raid 0 to maximize performance.