RAID and other related questions?

manoz · 18 Sep 2006 at 23:03

Hello, looking at the 74gb raptor and figured I could get two 80gb and one 250gb for the same price(all SATA 2). I'm a n00b at HDDs so will it be better if I get the 74gb raptor or put the two 80gb HDDs in RAID 0?(forget taking the 250gb into account since I back up externally anyway) It's gona be used for workstation and some gaming.

If the two 80gb HDDs are better, which ones would you recommend for performance?(Shame there is no 7200.10 in 80gb

).

Thanks

EDIT: Is it possible to have 3 HDDs in RAID 0 or does it have to be an even numbers?Cheers.

manoz · 18 Sep 2006 at 23:14

Yeah that's what I meant. 2 80gb in RAID 0 and 250gb storage.Better then a raptor?

manoz · 18 Sep 2006 at 23:34

I thought the whole point of RAID 0 is that it would improve performance? I know it won't be exactly twice as much cos of the overheads but I just wana know whether it's better then a raptor. I can't find any benchmark comparisons etc.

manoz · 19 Sep 2006 at 00:05

Dist said:
RAID can improve performance, its JBOD (Just a Bunch Of Disks) that just merges the drives into one and do nothing else.

RAID 0 splits the data across the 2 hdds, so instead of 1 hdd that has 1 large chunk of data, where it has to load it all, with raid 0, the 2nd hdd can read part of the file at the same time the first hdd is reading part of the file, thus improving read speed (write speed is still the same).

no idea whats best myself though, was just explaining raid

Yeah the increased read speed would be great for games but the write speed is the same(or slightly less) and that would be a shame for writing large CAD files. Hmmm, what to do? I could get 2x250gb 7200.10(16mb cache) for slightly more then one raptor. Maybe those would be better in RAID cos they are the best 7200rpm HDDs?

manoz · 19 Sep 2006 at 08:39

smids said:
Oh dear, oh dear....

manoz: Your original setup suggestion was perfect. 2x80GB in RAID0 with backup on the 250 or externally...

This is virtually what I do and it is better than a raptor. The raptor will feel slightly faster due to half the seek time but I personally can attest to the speed of a RAID0 array. I have owned all sorts of drives including all the raptors at some point and I think the extra space you get with 80GB RAID0 is better.

RAID0 - 2 drives or more (any number, odd or even, up to controller supported max) - read 175% of one drive. Write 175% of one drive approx.

Ok I'll go for 2 or 3 80gb HDDs then, cos I wasn't sure if I can have an odd number.

Which 80gb HDDs are the best out at the mo? Hard to decide.

manoz · 20 Sep 2006 at 01:06

Yeah I heard about the error tolerance but hopefully it should all go smoothly. So I'm getting 2 80gb Hitachi Deskstars and a 250gb Seagate 7200.10. Thanks for the help peeps.

manoz · 20 Sep 2006 at 01:25

smids said:
An excellent choice - VERY similar to mine in 2x 80GB Deskstars RAID0 + 320GB Seagate 7200.10 (and a 2x80GB Hitachi RAID1 for good measure ).

Yeah I was gona go for the RAID 0 + 1 but if I do that I won't have a storage drive. can only spend around 120 quid on HDDs. Maybe later on when I get some more moneys