36gig Raptors in Raid 0

Agent WD40

Agent WD40

Agent WD40

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36gig Raptors in Raid.

Hi Guys,

I've OCed my machine like a mofo and think it works really well but I want to know more about HDDs and in particular RAID.

Firstly, how does it work? I am on the understanding it uses both HDDs and you only get half the storage and when you save the info it saves half on one and half on the other, is this correct?

Also, what are the performance gains? I play a fair whack of games and like fast info access, will this help me in any way?

I've already got a 36gig raptor and a 76gig one, if I was to go raid. How would I set it up? (mobo in sig). Also, what size raptor should I "RAID"?

Thanks for the help guys.

Agent :cool:
 
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No, that would be raid 1, RAID 0 gives you the 2x your drives size, IE your 2x 36gig drives will be seen to windows as 1 bigger 72gig drive.

Yes it writes part to 1 drive and part to other drive of all files you use the size depends on your stipe setting you set, most controlers default to 32KB, peeps use 16KB to 64KB most commonly.
 
Humey said:
No, that would be raid 1, RAID 0 gives you the 2x your drives size, IE your 2x 36gig drives will be seen to windows as 1 bigger 72gig drive.

Yes it writes part to 1 drive and part to other drive of all files you use the size depends on your stipe setting you set, most controlers default to 32KB, peeps use 16KB to 64KB most commonly.
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OK, woah woah woah.

Whats "Stripe"? Your talking to a noob of HDDs here...

Ok, so assuming I run RAID 1 with 2x 36gig raptors, will I see much of a performance boost in windows and in games?

Any more advice would be much appreciated.

Agent :cool:
 
you wont see any performance gains with raid 1 as the same data is written to both discs, if you use Raid0 half the data is read/written from each disc so technically its twice as fast although in the real world its not actualluy twice as fast
 
T180985 said:
you wont see any performance gains with raid 1 as the same data is written to both discs, if you use Raid0 half the data is read/written from each disc so technically its twice as fast although in the real world its not actualluy twice as fast
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Not strictly true about RAID1. RAID1 improves read performance slighty because you have two drives to read from (but this is only a minor gain), probably 5-10% read gain. IIRC write is degraded due to having to write data to two disks. Again, very minor.

RAID0 is about 60% faster than 1 drive due to overheads I'd say. Certainly Raptors in RAID0 is blisteringly fast.
 
Agent WD40 said:
hmmm... interesting.

So how would I go about getting raid 0 going on my machine? Also, is it worth it?!?!?
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I would say so, so long as you backup any user data onto your WD 250GB.

Setting it up requires you to enable RAID from BIOS, then log into the RAID BIOS which should flash across your screen after POST and setup the array from there (make sure both drives are plugged into the nF4 ports). Then setup a striping array and install windows (you'll need the RAID driver floppy which came with your mobo) and to install that during F6.
 
Hmm, i'll need to find the floppy. If I can't find it, I assume its easy enough to make one...

So, this Striping marleky, is there a better one to have? Is there one which is more stable etc etc?

Has any one had serious problems with RAID0 at all?

Thanks!
 
I've been using RAID0 for 4 months with no problems. The only time you lose data is when /if a drive fails. RAID0 is thhe fastest. If you want a fast, stable array, you need RAID0+1 (what I'm currently building) but this requires 4 drives. (I'm using 4x80GB hitachi SATA-II's which will give me 160GB of fast reliable storage.
 
Hmm, I wouldn't be too fussed if the drives failed on me. I'll probably only have games and Windows on the drives and those can easily be re-installed and I can always back up the config / save game files.

I think i'll go for 2x 74gig drives, so thats another £100 into my PC. I'm going to need to get a bigger case soon!

Ok, i'll set this up if I have enough cash left this month.

But going back to the stripe issue. WHich is the best setting to have? And I assume you set that up during the F6 action?

Thanks again for the fast replys guys.

Agent.
 
the floppy that you get with the motherboards...

can you put this onto cd? or any sites with them on already to download in .iso then burn off?

why do they still give floppies out
 
Tommer said:
the floppy that you get with the motherboards...

can you put this onto cd? or any sites with them on already to download in .iso then burn off?

why do they still give floppies out
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Can only be a floppy. The reason for that is XP Setup will only look for a text setup (txtsetup.oem file) as a method of integrating the drivers. This should hopefully be fixed in Vista though... It doesn't look anywhere other than the A:\ drive with no option for anything else annoyingly.
 
I was very tempted by RAID0+1 like smids is doing. As for Raptor 74GB's in RAID0, Anandtech found hardly any performance improvement against a single Raptor 74GB counterpart. Sorry to burst any forum bubbles, but let us know how you are finding the new drives performance in RAID0. :)
 
damn, but fair cop.

I suppose half of the stuff in my pc I dont "need", but i still have it. So if there is a performance boost then great! If not, oh well. It was fun doing it any way... ;)

Agent.
 
in a raid 0 16k stripped is this best to use for gaming and if it's more processing use a 32k strip 36 gb raptor is not as fast as the 74 but still is good in a raid 0 and not as much money as the 74's are randopn access is about 4.5 5.0 ms were if u use a single it's more like 8.5,9 on the 36 gb and the write ave 65mb
 
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mattio1980 said:
in a raid 0 16k stripped is this best to use for gaming and if it's more processing use a 32k strip 36 gb raptor is not as fast as the 74 but still is good in a raid 0 and not as much money as the 74's are randopn access is about 4.5 5.0 ms were if u use a single it's more like 8.5,9 on the 36 gb and the write ave 65mb
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16K is best for windows, 64K + is best for gaming... 32K is a nice medium.
 
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