What stripe size of raid0 do you use?

silversurfer

silversurfer

silversurfer

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Ive not used raid before and so Ive read a few threads, the sticky and archive on this but Im just wondering what people tend to use.
So Ive just setup one using the defaults and its:

120gbx2
64k stripe
5 partitions, planning to use them for program files. No special applications just general mixed usage in windows
 
most people use smaller raid 0 drives and just put what needs to be fast on them. I on the other hand use 2x 320gb seagate baracuda 7200.10 drives. It was that or 2x 74gb raptor drives. Given that most seem to agree they have negligible speed differences i opted for the larger. Im sure its not that common but i usually have a lot of junk on my computer that i dont care about, for the stuff i do care about i have a 500gb and 250gb backup drive (not in raid)
 
It's been a while since I used raid, but as I remember, the optimal stripe size will depend on what you are going to be using that drive for.

Large files work best with larger stripe sizes, and smaller files with smaller stripe sizes. I think 32 and 64 are the most common. I don't think there'll be much difference between them to be honest, but if you want the best you'll have to try them both out and see which suits your needs best.

Additional - I used to use a 32k stripe size with two 80GB drives.
Whilst it made windows load more quickly compared to a non-raid setup, I didn't notice any difference in games, so after trying both 16k and 64k stripes (with no noticeable difference over 32k) I ditched the raid and now use the two drives seperately.
I'm upgrading soon and will go back to a single drive.
 
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quantumisation said:
Im sure its not that common but i usually have a lot of junk on my computer that i dont care about, for the stuff i do care about i have a 500gb and 250gb backup drive (not in raid)
Click to expand...

True, if your using raid i'd definately recommend backing up your data to an external drive. I've been using computers for about 9 years and i've only ever lost data through my own negligence, last week i lost 7000 important photos because of a raid setup, along with about 10000 songs and 150 films which i'm miffed about but they are all replacable.

I have two 250GB drives that are striped using 16k because i didn't really know the difference between small/large stripe size. Using the 16k i don't notice any problems, it's able to serve my files easily enough accross the network which is all that was needed.
 
silversurfer:

32KB stripe, and 4KB (XP default) cluster is a good all round size for everything.

I tried quite a few stripe sizes (128KB, 64KB etc) and the above, is what worked best for me. :)
 
My RAID 0 setup uses 128k stripes and I'm happy with it.

I do use another PC with RAID 1 (Mirroring) for work and the like.

And yep, don't forget nice weekly backups of anything important.
 
128k stripe size on 2 x WD 250gB Caviars. Started with 64k but changed, can't remember why and tbh didn't notice much difference. Two partitions - System (Windows and prog files), and documents/media.

As for backups, I use a 200gB Caviar for all my important stuff and have an automatic backup daily using Syncback (http://www.2brightsparks.com/freeware/freeware-hub.html), great system.

null :)
 
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