Hench bench - 4 x F3's @ 50GB

JamesTuc

JamesTuc

JamesTuc

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I just received my 4 500GB Samsung F3's

I've got them in raid 0 shortstroked to 50GB and just ran CrystalDiskMark

4x500_50GB.png


I'm going to have a play around with the size of the array to see things like whether making it 100-250GB will affect the speed much. My intention is to use these drives as my OS. The left over space will be used, but probably for less used programs/files so as not to degrade performance.

Got to say I'm thoroughly impressed with the performance.

Any opinions/suggestions welcomed.
 
What are access times like? Can you run HDTune or something that will test it?

I love the idea of short stroked drives.
 
Ok will do.

I just ran the same test again but without shortstroking:

4x500_2000GB.png


I thought the head would have to move more and I would get decreased performance. Or is this only the case if the drive is accessing two different places?
 
Just ran HD Tune, it gives values a lot lower than Crystal, what should I make of this? I've never used it before.

Anyway, screens:

The full 2TB since it was set up already

4x500_2000GB_HDTune.png


and the 50GB shortstroked

4x500_50GB_HDTune.png


Access times are a lot better for the 50GB shortstroked as expected.

What size would you recommend for the boot drive? I was thinking 75GB as this will give me space for the OS as well as all programs. I'll then use the rest for games
 
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JamesTuc said:
Ok will do.

I just ran the same test again but without shortstroking:

http://i.imagehost.org/0159/4x500_2000GB.png[/IMG

I thought the head would have to move more and I would get decreased performance. Or is this only the case if the drive is accessing two different places?[/QUOTE]

The heads function exactly the same way, you're only limiting what the OS can address. So 'shortstroking' is pointless compared to partitioning as you can use all that extra space for storage.
Click to expand...
 
I thought the point of short stroking was that you used only the outer potion of the platter which is spinning faster than the inner segment, so picked up better sequential speed? Of course, the trick is making sure you get the outer edge and not a random chunk from somewhere else...
 
AbsenceJam said:
The heads function exactly the same way, you're only limiting what the OS can address. So 'shortstroking' is pointless compared to partitioning as you can use all that extra space for storage.
Click to expand...

This is what I've done. Seemed pointless to just not use the space, so used it for stuff that's not likely to be accessed much.
 
cavemanoc said:
I thought the point of short stroking was that you used only the outer potion of the platter which is spinning faster than the inner segment, so picked up better sequential speed? Of course, the trick is making sure you get the outer edge and not a random chunk from somewhere else...
Click to expand...

Partitions are created from the outside, and when you limit how much the drive can address it's done from the outside too. Same effect.
 
Similarly bought 3 for a Promise TX8660 this month - "synthetic" test on a tiny partition (4k one looks way off though!):
cdm_3x_f3_test.png



Then settled for a 200GB OS partition with remainder for working/temp stuff:
cdm_3x_f3.png


Should do the job 'till/if 256GB of NAND becomes affordable on 25nm :)
 
Isn't short stroking a low level drive formatting issue? The only short stroked drives I’ve come across were server drives deliberately modified to increase the IOs for database applications. I’m sure that just creating an array using a small part of each drive’s capacity just isn't the same thing at all.

A four drive RAID0 array is just an accident waiting to happen. It also still, judging by the benchmarks above, has really poor 4K performance when compared to a SSD.
 
Multi mechanical disc RAID0 is no alternative to an SSD for a lot of stuff... my gaming PC has a 5 disc RAID setup and a couple of cheapy SSDs and games when loaded off the SSD are easily 3 times faster loading than the RAID and the RAID has 2-3x higher transfer rates and fairly decent access times.

I notice HD Tune seems to cap out at around 260MB/s on a lot of setups.
 
bremen1874 said:
Isn't short stroking a low level drive formatting issue? The only short stroked drives I’ve come across were server drives deliberately modified to increase the IOs for database applications. I’m sure that just creating an array using a small part of each drive’s capacity just isn't the same thing at all.

A four drive RAID0 array is just an accident waiting to happen. It also still, judging by the benchmarks above, has really poor 4K performance when compared to a SSD.
Click to expand...

There's no such thing as a low level format any more but I don't think you know what you're saying really. 'Short stroking'' is just limiting how many blocks the operating system can address using the manufacturers utility. It's nothing special at all, the drive just appears to be lower capacity. Partitioning does the same thing.
 
bremen1874 said:
A four drive RAID0 array is just an accident waiting to happen. It also still, judging by the benchmarks above, has really poor 4K performance when compared to a SSD.
Click to expand...
Well the 256GB Crucial RealSSD died on me in 5 hours, how's that for an accident :p

Sorry but won't again be dropping half a grand on something that can't even work for a day, RAID 4tw!
 
For me an SSD wasn't really an option, I couldn't justify spending that much and getting zero space. Really loving the raid setup, can tell the difference when opening programs etc
 
Echo said:
Well the 256GB Crucial RealSSD died on me in 5 hours, how's that for an accident :p

Sorry but won't again be dropping half a grand on something that can't even work for a day, RAID 4tw!
Click to expand...
You were just unlucky. Everything can fail within hours minuites seconds or even arrive dead.

Oh btw for more accurate results in CDM you should use at least 5 passes and 1000MB file size (this is even more important for SSD's). :)
 
John24 said:
You were just unlucky. Everything can fail within hours minuites seconds or even arrive dead.

Oh btw for more accurate results in CDM you should use at least 5 passes and 1000MB file size (this is even more important for SSD's). :)
Click to expand...
I've gone and done a right U-turn today :eek:

Ordered an SSD but a wallet friendly Intel X25-V, can't get disappointed for under a ton.

Going with a hybrid solution: Win7 + Prog Files on the SSD where fast writes aren't so important, with RAID partition for C:\Games (i.e. "mount in the following empty NTFS folder") - any other bulky data can be handled by the array.

Just fancied nippier shutdown/startup, opening control panel / firefox etc. :)
 
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