SpinPoint F3 1TB RAID 0?

Jegethy · 14 Aug 2011 at 14:54

I currently have a 250GB hard drive, which is really showing it's age. I'm using it as my OS drive and a 1TB SpinPoint F3 for storage.

I've been thinking of buying another 1TB drive due to my ever growing games and media collection. Should I buy another SpinPoint (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-082-SA&tool=3) and set them up in RAID0?

I haven't been able to find any benchmarks for the 1TB drive, only the 500GB ones. I had read somewhere in the past though, that the 1TB drive is fairly poor in raid0 config.

Cheers.

Surveyor · 14 Aug 2011 at 15:08

You have to remember the risks of RAID 0.

1 drive fails and you've lost everything.

The RAID controller throws a wobbly and you could lose everything.

If you use RAID 0 you need a proper back up solution.

Not mine but this is a benchmark of Samsung 1TB F3's in RAID 0:

From here.

Arthur17 · 14 Aug 2011 at 18:49

Two disks in a RAID-0 config are roughly half as reliable as a single disk. I wouldn't bother personally.

Just buy another 1TB (or bigger) HDD and use it as it is.

Muel · 14 Aug 2011 at 21:38

Or buy three, and use RAID5.

Surveyor · 14 Aug 2011 at 21:57

Muel said:
Or buy three, and use RAID5.

"The RAID controller throws a wobbly and you could lose everything" comment would still apply and RAID 5 would cripple write speeds if that's important to the OP.

Mik3 · 14 Aug 2011 at 22:18

I use 2 in raid 0 with windows 7 raid software, apparently its just as fast if not faster than a controller.

Muel · 14 Aug 2011 at 22:19

What's the best setup then? 2x1tb in RAID0 then a software imaging/backup system to a 2tb external? Trying to decide which to go for myself.

somewhatdamaged · 14 Aug 2011 at 22:20

I use 3 of them in RAID0 and i've never had a single problem. Make sure your data is backed up and you are fine. I just use it for games, which are backed up anyway

Ch3m1c4L · 16 Aug 2011 at 14:26

I wouldnt go RAID 0, I ran two F1's in RAID 0 for a while and saw no difference to load times, and becnhing wasnt even much better than one (using onboard on a 790i). RAID 5 on board was better, not quite as good as below.
RAID 5 when one drive has failed/controller has forgotten about it etc, the writes go all over the place, some as low as 70mbps some still up at the same speed. on the 790i about once a year it would "wobble" and think a drive has gone missing but it wold rebuild in about 30mins/hour. Intel one has only gone dodgy when Ive knocked a stat cable after playing with my water cooling tubing that touches one of the ports, otherwise its been stable as a big, big rock.

Heres a bench of my 5 F1's in RAID 5 using a 64k stripe on a Rampage III Extreme

two F1's in RAID 0 on a fail 2 port sil sata controller (purely just adds ports really), was similar in software raid through that controller, with any stripe size between 32kb and 512 kb. Was better on the onboard but I dont have a saved bench of that.

Jegethy · 17 Aug 2011 at 12:05

Cheers for the replies guys. I've ordered another F3 but I won't have them in raid 0. I'd rather have stability than a little extra speed.