What stripe size?

IAmATeaf · 15 Dec 2009 at 21:57

I've goggled and read around so I know there's no definitive answer to this but for my mobo with the ICH10R controller what would people recommend for the stripe size or any other parameters come to think of it.

I'm going to be rebuilding my PC as Windows 7 feels a bit sluggish so have the opportunity to trash and start again, will be putting 2 500gb drives in RAID 0.

Another question I have is is it possible to RAID0 the 500gb drives with an 80gb partition for the OS and then to have the remaining space as either non RAID or even RAID1?

jbloggs · 15 Dec 2009 at 23:28

I found that a 32KB stripe was the best all round size for "general" usage, i.e.' for an OS...

is is it possible to RAID0 the 500gb drives with an 80gb partition for the OS and then to have the remaining space as either non RAID or even RAID1?

(If I remember correctly) yes this is possible, not quite sure how to do it though, I'm sure someone else will be able to state how to achieve this...

Zarf · 16 Dec 2009 at 04:55

Another question I have is is it possible to RAID0 the 500gb drives with an 80gb partition for the OS and then to have the remaining space as either non RAID or even RAID1?

I think that you can only do this sort of thing with software RAID, which means using Dynamic Disks in windows. You'd want to set the drives up in non-RAID mode, and then sort out partitions to volumes in disk manager (It would help if you set the windows partition size during installation, but there are apps available to shrink it afterwards if you need)
Windows can't boot from a striped dynamic disk volume though, but you could set up a large RAID1 (Mirrored) volume for the OS and data, and then a small RAID0 volume for your games or whatever apps you needed the speed on.

I think the Linux software RAID is a bit more powerful and you could have the setup you want with that, if you diddn't mind using linux.

IAmATeaf · 16 Dec 2009 at 17:53

Thanks for the replies guys, I've done some more reading and it looks like 32k or 64k is regarded as the best for an OS partition, think I'll flip a coin to pick 1 of the 2

Robdata · 16 Dec 2009 at 19:30

What is the advantage of such small stripe size as default is 128

ChileanLlama · 16 Dec 2009 at 19:42

The stripe size determines at what point files will be split (striped across drives) or left in one piece on a single drive within the array.

If you have lots of smaller files, such as in an OS then a smaller stripe will probably be more beneficial than a larger one, but it's not going to be the same for everyone depending what they use it for.

Personally I've found a 128KB stripe better for my use, which will go against the grain

CaptainCrash · 16 Dec 2009 at 21:54

IAmATeaf said:
Another question I have is is it possible to RAID0 the 500gb drives with an 80gb partition for the OS and then to have the remaining space as either non RAID or even RAID1?

Yes, Intel Matrix allows you to do this - you can create separate arrays of different types on the same two physical drives. It's not really "partitioning" in the strict sense - the OS will see the arrays as if they were separate (differently sized) physical drives which can be partitioned/formatted as usual.

I think though if you're expecting a radical performance boost from a RAID-0 OS partition, you're likely to be disappointed...

Simon42 · 17 Dec 2009 at 11:36

ChileanLlama said:
Personally I've found a 128KB stripe better for my use, which will go against the grain

Same here. I did lots of tests before my first RAID setup and settled on 128KB. I found the smaller sizes made the drives noisy although faster for small file operations, but overall the 128KB gave the best balance.

SMN · 17 Dec 2009 at 12:31

Wouldnt RAID a 500GB with an 80GB drive as A) your going to lose 420GB theoretical space and B) they are probably different speeds and R/W performances which will **** your latencies and disk reads up no end. My advice - get a same model 500GB and use that.

IAmATeaf · 17 Dec 2009 at 22:05

SMN said:
Wouldnt RAID a 500GB with an 80GB drive as A) your going to lose 420GB theoretical space and B) they are probably different speeds and R/W performances which will **** your latencies and disk reads up no end. My advice - get a same model 500GB and use that.

No I meant I was going to RAID 2 500gb HDDs as I have Seagate 7200.11 500gb drives coming out of my ears so thought I'd make use of them but only wanted an 80gb RAID0 partition for the OS.