why are peoeple running raid with raptors?

wdEvA · 27 Oct 2006 at 14:47

I've noticed that most people who use raptor harddisks tend to run them in raid.
Whats the reason behind, does the high speed of the hdd cause the drive to be prone to error therefore a backup is needed, or it's jus pure coincident that these people just run raid in case of any hdd failure?

I'm intending to get a raptor for my c: but wont be running raid..

Thanks

wizardmaxx · 27 Oct 2006 at 14:52

I might be wrong here, but most guys run their raptors in raid 0 (speed), not raid 1 (security). Which raid are u refering to ?

Captain Fizz · 27 Oct 2006 at 15:21

Most people run RAID 0 with them.
Most people run RAID 0 for speed.
Most people use Raptors for speed.

If there were no IDE or SATA 10k RPM drives, they'd use the quickest 7200 RPM drive.

Raptors happen to be the fastest SATA drive at the moment.
RAID 0 gives the best speed increase.
Put them together - Quickest HDD.

Simply due to speed/expense.
(If money was no object, these people would have 20K SCSI drives in there)

wdEvA · 27 Oct 2006 at 15:22

hmm i'm not very sure about what raid they run, but what i see is they always buy their raptor in pairs, btw how much faster when running at raid 0?

If i do not run raid, i will see a big increase in speed over the normal 7200 drives
Thanks

Fars · 27 Oct 2006 at 15:51

Raptor to 7200? Not big, but noticable.

The really good 7200 drives are pretty close in performance with the right hardware (Seagate 7200.10's with 16mb spring to mind)

And yes, Raptor's in raid 0 are very fast for those that need raid and can make use of it, many however probably never see any real world benefit from it. If you're bouncing really big files around constantly from disk to system memory then it's great.

I don't use mine in a raid array I just keep one for the OS and one for games, it's nice seeing such high benchmarks with them in raid 0 .. but meh I just don't make use of raid to warrant keeping them that way.

sniper007 · 27 Oct 2006 at 15:54

Captain Fizz said:
(If money was no object, these people would have 20K SCSI drives in there)

And noise

wdEvA · 27 Oct 2006 at 15:55

okie i'm using a normal 8mb seagate 7200 drive for my os now..
so i will see improvement in my games and other processes with the raptor right? wont wanna spend the money if the difference isnt much =)

Thanks.

Captain Fizz · 27 Oct 2006 at 16:04

wdEvA said:
so i will see improvement in my games and other processes with the raptor right?

Ever used a 5400 RPM drive?
Then gone to 7200 RPM?

Not as big a jump as that, but still a fair hike in speed.

It's the access times that are really beneficial.

wdEvA · 27 Oct 2006 at 16:38

er nope, my 1st hdd was a 7200rpm..

Captain Fizz · 27 Oct 2006 at 16:49

Well - I find it faster having one in there...
Apps opening quicker - Game maps loading faster.

Would recommend one if you are not short of space.
(As £/GB they are very expensive)

Not sure on the access times of the new seagates but your will prob be around 13ms... Whereas the raptors are about 8ms. (From memory...)

Don't expect a new breath of life to the PC - But it does speed things up nicely.

Heofz · 27 Oct 2006 at 17:11

Raid 0 with mine, liking them a lot

Sumanji · 28 Oct 2006 at 16:38

The speed increase from a single Raptor to two in RAID isn't that big (and most of it is probably placebo

). The main reason I have two in RAID-0 is because I can have a really fast 148GB C:\ drive instead of a 74Gb one. Games take up so much space these days