RAID 0 on Asus crosshair IV

zytok · 11 May 2011 at 12:56

Have set up the above using two 500GB Seagate Barracuda drives but was rather disappointed to see the Hard Drive score remain at 5.9 in Windows 7. Everything was installed from scratch and the array shows up as functional. I have tried SATA 6GB and SATA 3GB modes but it makes no difference. Am I missing something?

Surveyor · 11 May 2011 at 15:56

zytok said:
Have set up the above using two 500GB Seagate Barracuda drives but was rather disappointed to see the Hard Drive score remain at 5.9 in Windows 7. Everything was installed from scratch and the array shows up as functional. I have tried SATA 6GB and SATA 3GB modes but it makes no difference. Am I missing something?

Yes.

You're missing the fact that the Windows Experience Index won't go any higher than 5.9 for mechanical drives.

I think it goes up to 7.9 for SSD's.

zytok · 11 May 2011 at 16:12

Surveyor said:
Yes.

You're missing the fact that the Windows Experience Index won't go any higher than 5.9 for mechanical drives.

I think it goes up to 7.9 for SSD's.

hehe, that would explain things though it's a dumb idea. So Windows can't really tell the difference speed wise between a crappy £20 IDE device and Raptors in RAID0?

Any recommended tools for benchies?

Surveyor · 11 May 2011 at 18:12

A £20 IDE drive might not get 5.9

HDTach will test read performance across the whole disk:

http://www.simplisoftware.com/Public/index.php?request=HdTach

CrystalDiskMark tests read and write:

http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskMark/index-e.html

sharkkk · 11 May 2011 at 19:31

Surveyor said:
Yes.

You're missing the fact that the Windows Experience Index won't go any higher than 5.9 for mechanical drives.

I think it goes up to 7.9 for SSD's.

Wait, that's not true!

But what is true is that the WEI scoring is god-awful

Surveyor · 11 May 2011 at 20:47

sharkkk said:
Wait, that's not true!

Really?

That's what I've always understood and read about. For example:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...indows-7/23aa9a0b-dfb9-4114-b591-3f52e89dc28e

Do you have a point of reference which says something different?

simbady · 11 May 2011 at 20:53

sharkkk said:
Wait, that's not true!

But what is true is that the WEI scoring is god-awful

I'm pretty sure 5.9 is the max for mechanical drives too

sharkkk · 11 May 2011 at 20:59

It may be for a single mechanical drive, but we're talking about RAID 0 here
I have 2 pairs of (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-082-SA) in RAID 0, each in different machines. One is using a motherboard firmware raid and the other is a Windows software raid, but both give a score of 6.2!
I trust my own computer more than unofficial posts on microsoft answers

(....but do I trust WEI more than... anything..)

andrewdodd13 · 11 May 2011 at 21:03

I believe the 5.9 is because random seek times on mechanical drives are inherently higher than on SSDs and Windows 7 WEI's program has a random-seek time test.

TehJumpingJawa · 11 May 2011 at 21:04

I wonder how the hybrid drives rate in WEI's tests.

Surveyor · 11 May 2011 at 21:07

sharkkk said:
It may be for a single mechanical drive, but we're talking about RAID 0 here
I have 2 pairs of (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=hd-082-sa) in raid 0, each in different machines. one is using a motherboard firmware raid and the other is a windows software raid, but both give a score of 6.2!
i trust my own computer more than unofficial posts on microsoft answers :d (....but do i trust wei more than... anything..)

ah, you should have said that in the first place.

sounds like a bit of an oddity on the result though.

someone here got 6.1 and then ran it again and it went back to 5.9:

http://www.sevenforums.com/performance-maintenance/103578-windows-experience-index-raid-0-a.html

You're a brave man.

2TB in RAID 0.

I hope you do regular backups.

sharkkk · 11 May 2011 at 21:13

Surveyor said:
Ah, you should have said that in the first place.

Sounds like a bit of an oddity on the result though.

Someone here got 6.1 and then ran it again and it went back to 5.9:

http://www.sevenforums.com/performance-maintenance/103578-windows-experience-index-raid-0-a.html

I've had exactly the same, I think I got a few results between 5.9 and 6.4. -tries again now- Possibly the result of testing on a questionable raid controller and running plenty of other applications at the same time that probably demanded some attention?

Surveyor said:
2TB in RAID 0.

I hope you do regular backups.

Like a paranoid madman, on-site and off-site without a single over-sight!

-
Huh, 6.2 again, lucky!