SQL Server configuration / specification recommendations and advice!

I am about to deploy a new server at work as follows:

Dell T610

2 x Xeon 2.53 Quad core

24 GB RAM

1 x Perc H700 RAID controller with 1GB Non Volatile memory

8 x 300GB 15k SAS Hard drives

I am looking for recommendations of how to best configure this for use as a SQL server.
I have the following in mind:

Option 1

Allocate a 4GB RAM drive for TempDB

Group all 8 drives into large RAID 10 array for OS, Database and Log files

Option 2

Allocate 4GB RAM drive for TempDB

Use some mixture of RAID arrays (but only have one controller)!

Option 3

Any other suggestions!

For info, the databases in question consist: 1 x 4GB under heavy Read and Write use, 1 x 4GB clone for testing purposes, 2/3 other more minor databases.

What I'd do

• 4 disks for RAID 10 for all log files

• Disk RAID 5 for all data files + OS

• Don't bother with RAM disks

Why?:

• With 24GB RAM all databases will be in memory so RAID 5 doesn't matter because disk reads won't really happen

• Write performance is determined by log file throughput

• Data files are larger then log files so RAID 5 is more efficient

What isn't ideal:

• Not having one volume per database log file

• Separation of local backup drives

• Not having separate RAID 1 for OS + binaries

Other options:

• Define "heavy write": you could go to RAID 1 for LDFs and another for OS for less than a few million rows per day

StackExchange Database Administrators Q#3285, answer score: 7