triple raid raptors, worth it?

dangerousmouse

dangerousmouse

dangerousmouse

Associate
Joined
25 Jul 2005
Posts
892
an opportunity arose to buy a couple of 74gig raptors for cheap, obviously i jumped at the chance.

i already have one, so would like to set these up in a raid array to increase general performance and running speeds.

i dont know anything about raid, never done it before. so,
is it possible to raid the 3 drives?
would it be worth raiding all 3, or just use 2?
which array would be best. my mobo supports 0, 1, 0+1

thanks guys.
 
RAID1 will take 2 drives. You could RAID0 all 3, but there'd be no redundancy (and 8x the chance of failure and total data loss compared to risk of single drive failure).

In theory, you could run RAID10 with 3 drives (there is a clever way to achieve same redundancy as RAID5 for 3 drives), but I am not aware of any controllers that can actually do this. So your options are RAID1 + spare or RAID0 + 8x risk. If you RAID1 them, make sure you use the two disks with the biggest difference in the batch/serial numbers to alleviate the probability of near-simultaneous failure.
 
tbh, sell them and buy a single velociraptor. I really dont think you will see much increase in speeds as a general user. I raid0'd 2x150gb raptors and honestly didnt notice the difference. So I bought a 300gb VRaptor. Better again.
 
I've got three 74gig raptors in RAID0 as my main OS/Games drive. Works a charm, very fast at unraring. Seemed the cheaper option to buy another one rather than loose 2 drives.
 
Three raptors in Raid 0 will work well, using any sort of redundancy will remove any performance benefit that you might be hoping for.
 
Redundancy isn't bad for performance. More copies of the data means more sources to read data from. This is why 2 disks in RAID0 will yield same read performance as 2 disks in RAID1 (which will be twice as fast as a single disk) in terms of bandwidth. But your latencies in RAID will always be the same as a single disk, so if you're latency rather than bandwidth limited, it won't make any difference either way.
 
hmm, so right now im thinking of having 2 in raid0 and the third seperate.

popped into the local computer shop today to see if they would do it for me as i really dont have the time/know what i am doing. they seemed to be a bit put off and didnt really want to. basically they said my psu wouldnt hack it.

if it makes any difference, im using a corsair 520w, have amd x2 6400 processor, 2x dvd burners, a pants 6600gt gfx card and there will be 3x raptors.

can anybody confirm whether or not what i have been told is correct?

cheers.
 
dangerousmouse said:
hmm, so right now im thinking of having 2 in raid0 and the third seperate.

popped into the local computer shop today to see if they would do it for me as i really dont have the time/know what i am doing. they seemed to be a bit put off and didnt really want to. basically they said my psu wouldnt hack it.

if it makes any difference, im using a corsair 520w, have amd x2 6400 processor, 2x dvd burners, a pants 6600gt gfx card and there will be 3x raptors.

can anybody confirm whether or not what i have been told is correct?

cheers.
Click to expand...

They're talking balls. Do you plan on using the two new disks in raid0 and leaving your current drive as is ? If so, that will literally take 30 minutes max.
 
If your going to go for RAID then put all 3 drives in RAID0 - forget about reduncancy* - just make sure you have regular backups of all important data on another drive - you will get very good performance and general windows useage will definatly be nippier - though game load times, etc. probably won't be that much different.

You will need a floppy disc on XP to load the raid drivers when you reinstall tho.

*I'd look at something like rsync with say twice daily automated backups to an external HDD is a good way to keep your data safe. I've seen whole raid array failure just as regularly as a single drive dying.
 
Rroff said:
You will need a floppy disc on XP to load the raid drivers when you reinstall tho.
Click to expand...

how about with vista, will i still need the floppy disc then?

not really bothered about potential hard drive failures. the guys in the shop were really trying to deter me by saying that if any 1 of the drives fails, then i lose everything. at the end of the day though, i am only running vista plus any software from them. all of my data is stored on 2 other drives. also, how is running 3 drives in raid 0 and having one fail any different to having only 1 hard drive and that failing? in my eyes they are the same.

so, triple raid 0 with the raptors. what exactly do i need to do?
obviously plug all the drives in, but is there anything else i need to set before putting on a fresh windows installation?

thanks.
 
dangerousmouse said:
how about with vista, will i still need the floppy disc then?......
.....so, triple raid 0 with the raptors. what exactly do i need to do?
obviously plug all the drives in, but is there anything else i need to set before putting on a fresh windows installation?

thanks.
Click to expand...

Download the latest drivers / matrix storage manager software from the Intel website.
A fresh install of Vista should recognise the RAID setup straight away due to it's in-built drivers but it is still recommended to force a driver update (hence downloading them from the intel website) to the latest version.
To do this you should either put the drivers on a floppy, CD, USB stick etc and then insert the media when pompted to do so using the "Update drivers" (or whatever option it is) in the Vista installation setup screen.
Once Vista has been installed you then install the 2x Matrix Manager .exe files.

Can you post a benchmark in this thread once complete please?

Thanks
 
You can always update the Intel Matrix drivers after you complete the Vista install, just using the built in ones whilst installing, it saves any potential problems during the install. Your power supply will be fine. Definately go with Raid 0, redundancy is all about system uptime, not data protection, remote backup is the only way to to go for data protection.
 
Mike1983 said:
Download the latest drivers / matrix storage manager software from the Intel website.
A fresh install of Vista should recognise the RAID setup straight away due to it's in-built drivers but it is still recommended to force a driver update (hence downloading them from the intel website) to the latest version.
To do this you should either put the drivers on a floppy, CD, USB stick etc and then insert the media when pompted to do so using the "Update drivers" (or whatever option it is) in the Vista installation setup screen.
Once Vista has been installed you then install the 2x Matrix Manager .exe files.

Can you post a benchmark in this thread once complete please?

Thanks
Click to expand...

:rolleyes: think i must have done something wrong!

plugged in the drives, went into bios and set it to raid.
launched windows installation, and it doesnt detect any hard drives!

msi k9a platinum mainboard, amd x2 6400, the raptors and one optical drive are all i have in at the moment.
 
You need to set up the RAID array in the RAID BIOS - you usually get a special screen that says something like "press CTRL+I to set up RAID".
 
As above,

Read the text that comes up during the POST / startup routine, eventually it will flash up a message along the lines of "Press XX key(s) to enter RAID setup". This is where you will tell the system to combine the Raptors in RAID 0 and is the step that should be taken prior to Vista installation.

After getting into this setup, your next question will probably what stripe size should I use?

I use 32kb but I suggest you use the search button in this forum using the term "stripe size" to read up and decide which is the best size for your needs.

In general, 32kb or 64kb is a good all round figure. 128kb / 256kb for video editing and smaller than 32kb for benchmarks.

The smaller you go, the greater the performance but the increased need to defrag frequently.

As you're installing your OS on this disc and I think you mention it will be the only volume in your system then 32kb is probably a good figure for you.

Mike
 
64KB used to be a good block size back in the days when the performance of things was so low, and disks so small, that sticking to this on the basis that this is the maximum size of of a block that the DMA controller can shift in a single operation actually yielded some advantage.

Nowdays, smaller block sizes up to around 16KB seem to yield best results. Since most disks can handle transfers of 16 sectors (8KB) in one operation, I'd go with 8KB.
 
PhillyDee said:
tbh, sell them and buy a single velociraptor. I really dont think you will see much increase in speeds as a general user. I raid0'd 2x150gb raptors and honestly didnt notice the difference. So I bought a 300gb VRaptor. Better again.
Click to expand...


Same asm i went from 2x 150 raptors in raid, to 1 300gb velciraptor, no noticeable decline in peformance at all.
 
this is really starting to annoy me now (mainly because i am SO impatient).

so far, this is what i have done;
enter bios and set something onto raid, save and exit
ctrl+f to enter the raid settings. set 2 raptors to raid 0 with 64kb stripe (lowest option that was available), save and exit
insert vista cd and restart pc
load the drivers from a usb drive (as it doesnt find any itself)
install windows.

this is as far as i can get. the installation begins, then the computer restarts and i am sent back to the welcome screen for the disc, as if installing windows again.

something that i have noticed though, when i search for the drivers there is an x: labelled 'boot' on the list of drives. this is something small like 32mb and contains program files, sources, users folders and maybe one ot two others.
i tried formatting this, but it says that the drive is write protected.

any help is greatly appreciated.

edit: oh, i also have a sata dvd burner. do i need to do anything with this regarding a raid setting, as this flashes up every time the computer restarts on the raid screen
 
You say the installation begins... then restarts.

I can't remember the Vista installation process as to whether it restarts intentionally.

Does the restart appear to be an error or an intentional restart as part of the installation process?

Has it actually already installed but you no longer have a HDD set as one of the options in the boot order? I.E you only have the BIOS set to boot from DVD drive?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom