NEW 150Gb Raptors

smids · 11 Jan 2006 at 17:26

AnastieByte said:
Looking at the graphs mine looks quite poor. As this is the first time I have used this tool what could be slowing mine down?
*EDIT Cant insert image*

So the burst speed shows only 137mb/s
Random Access 8.1
CPU utilization 2%
Average read 75.6

That's almost exactly the same as mine

. Sounds fine to me. Much higher scores are from RAID0's.

AnastieByte · 11 Jan 2006 at 17:36

LOL thanks Smids as ever its appreciated

Just want to be sure all is as it should be.

ColdFusion · 11 Jan 2006 at 18:35

It's not just raptors that are quick.

benjo plz. · 11 Jan 2006 at 18:41

ColdFusion said:
It's not just raptors that are quick.

You know its always useful for you to tell us what drives your using

.

smids · 11 Jan 2006 at 18:47

It's 4 x 160GB RAID0 by my calculations.... Hazard a guess at WD due to the access times.

ColdFusion · 11 Jan 2006 at 19:02

smids said:
It's 4 x 160GB RAID0 by my calculations.... Hazard a guess at WD due to the access times.

You win first prize mate!

I was quite suprised at the performance really. I went from using two raptors in raid 0 and this new array seems quicker both for transfers and also generally in windows.

UnknownParadox · 11 Jan 2006 at 19:23

Hiya guys

I am building a new pc based around the Asus A8N32-SLi Deluxe. Anyway I am planning on having a WD Raptor 150GB and also the Hitachi Deskstar T7K250.

On thing I have noticed while reading up on the Raptor is that you get a better performance with NCQ off for gaming but with the Hitachi you get better performance with NCQ on. As I am not really familiar with NCQ is it possible to have it switched off on one drive and switched on the other?

Or am I worrying about it to much and the performance hardly be noticeable.

Many thanks for your comments

smids · 11 Jan 2006 at 19:28

UnknownParadox said:
Hiya guys

I am building a new pc based around the Asus A8N32-SLi Deluxe. Anyway I am planning on having a WD Raptor 150GB and also the Hitachi Deskstar T7K250.

On thing I have noticed while reading up on the Raptor is that you get a better performance with NCQ off for gaming but with the Hitachi you get better performance with NCQ on. As I am not really familiar with NCQ is it possible to have it switched off on one drive and switched on the other?

Or am I worrying about it to much and the performance hardly be noticeable.

Many thanks for your comments

Welcome to the forums

.

Really, you won't notice it. The performance was done in terms of I/O's per second and really, you won't notice it. You can trust me on that!

Can I say excellent choice of drives though

.

UnknownParadox · 13 Jan 2006 at 01:31

smids said:
Welcome to the forums .

Really, you won't notice it. The performance was done in terms of I/O's per second and really, you won't notice it. You can trust me on that!

Can I say excellent choice of drives though .

Thanks for the quick reply and info. Have pretty much decided on everything except the monitor now but my eyes keep lingering on the Dell 2405FPW more and more

kinggost · 13 Jan 2006 at 08:10

UnknownParadox said:
Thanks for the quick reply and info. Have pretty much decided on everything except the monitor now but my eyes keep lingering on the Dell 2405FPW more and more

i love the monitor wouldnt think twice about buying one now i got it

ubern00b · 14 Jan 2006 at 22:25

Dont mean to go off topic but while discussing stripe sizes and such I am hoping for some expert advice. Putting together my new PC based around an ASUS A8N32-SLi board, a 74gb raptor on the SI controller for boot, and 4 x Hitachi T7K250 250gb SATAII drives in RAID0 on the nForce controller. Now the drive will contain mainly moves (700mb files) and large ISO's, mp3's and some other stuff. My question is, best stripe and cluster size for my configuration? Also, NCQ on or off? SSC (Spread Spectrum Clocking) on or off? I appreciate any help!

smids · 14 Jan 2006 at 22:43

ubern00b said:
Dont mean to go off topic but while discussing stripe sizes and such I am hoping for some expert advice. Putting together my new PC based around an ASUS A8N32-SLi board, a 74gb raptor on the SI controller for boot, and 4 x Hitachi T7K250 250gb SATAII drives in RAID0 on the nForce controller. Now the drive will contain mainly moves (700mb files) and large ISO's, mp3's and some other stuff. My question is, best stripe and cluster size for my configuration? Also, NCQ on or off? SSC (Spread Spectrum Clocking) on or off? I appreciate any help!

Large files = largest stripe. 128K should be considered - won't give the best benchmark but when dealing with large files, you need it. NCQ goes off automatically IIRC and TCQ comes on in the RAID. Remove all jumpers on the board with spread spectrum stuff on default/disabled.

ubern00b · 14 Jan 2006 at 22:53

Thanks for that, as far as I am aware the SSC stuff is enabled/disabled through the Hitachi Feature Tool, so I will leave it disabled. I will go for the larger stripe size, what about cluster size? With enabling SATAII does it automatically enable NCQ/TCQ? I know on the raptors TCQ hinders performance in single user operations, is this not the same with the Hitachi drives then?

Arex · 14 Jan 2006 at 23:05

Hmmm - the read speed of the x4 160GB 7200RPM disks is quite good, but to put it in proper perspective I think it needs comparing to x4 raptors......

smids · 14 Jan 2006 at 23:22

OH MY GOOD LORD!!! 4 x 150GB raptors = 64MB cache!!! They are probably being limited by the SATA-II controller too, with only 300MB/s possible. Then again, you spent £800 on HDU's alone?!

*Goes off for a lie down*

Chandler_90 · 15 Jan 2006 at 03:35

£800 on HDD..

Sweet jesus thats mental..

Arex · 15 Jan 2006 at 07:53

I guess it depends. I have owned 36GB and 74GB raptors and I have always been able to sell them second hand for just a few £'s short of their current "new" cost. If you check ebay now for 74GB raptors they are selling anywhere from £75 to £110 with the majority being well over £85. Given they only cost £99 pus VAT new, that is very high.

I think (and in fact have bet £800 on) the fact that over the next two or three years the price of these drives will probably go down to about £110-£130 which means if I sell them in 3 years time I will probably get about £400 back for them. This makes them one of the slowest depreciation computer components around so if you can afford the outlay to get them, I think they make quite good sense given the level of performance they offer. Certainly better than say a £600 graphics card which would be worth next to nothing in 3 years time.......

Rambaud · 15 Jan 2006 at 11:12

Yes, a Raptor seems to hold its value well. I sold a 74Gb a little while back for not much less than I paid for it.

One needs to experiment with Stripe size. I settled on 128kb, mainly for video use. But, IIRC, 64kb was quite an effective compromise.

mrochester · 15 Jan 2006 at 15:59

I doubt that any currently available(or in the near future) drive would be capped by the 150MB/s interface. Try running HDtach on some hard drives to see how slow they really are.

Just to say that my SATA2 Samsung SpinPoint bursts at around 180mb/sec, so I can easily see these new Raptor drives being limited by 150mb/s throughput.

smids · 15 Jan 2006 at 16:04

mrochester said:
Just to say that my SATA2 Samsung SpinPoint bursts at around 180mb/sec, so I can easily see these new Raptor drives being limited by 150mb/s throughput.

Depends on the controller. Burst is all but irrelevant in any case, so they aren't subject to any limitations. My SIL controller does indeed not combine burst speed when in RAID0 unlike the nF4 controller which has this facility. What difference it makes? Very, very little.

*NEW* 150Gb Raptors

NEW 150Gb Raptors