Will Running Raid Speed Up My System?

nate247

nate247

nate247

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Its probably something obvious to most of you guys here, but I am absolutely clueless when it comes to Raid as it is something I have never ventured in to.

I have 2 x 1TB Samsung HD103UJ and was thinking of putting them in a Raid configuration (not sure which) in order to give me a speed increase on my PC. I'd probably then buy a further two to run as backup drives.

I guess my questions are will it actually benefit me in real world everyday tasks? Will my PC feel snappier? And completely blowing all things out the water, what would happen if I bought 2 x WD Velociraptors from Overclockers and ran those in a Raid configuration? Will my PC fly along or is it really something that is this whole idea of mine just looked upon as being of little benefit overall (i.e Raid).

Would appreciate any advice any of you can offer.

Many thanks
Nathan :D
 
raid 0 should increase your transfer speed and so you should see a nice boost in speed but it will not lower your access times, if you do want to lower your access times you can try partitioning your drives and install the os on the first 200gb or so of the disk(lower access times is where you will get a real spead boost from).
 
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RAID0 -striping -requires minimum 2 disks, increases read/write bandwidth by ~90% increases latency and increases the chance of losing all your data

RAID1 -mirror -requires minimum 2 disks, wrte bandwidth unchanged, read bandwidth can be increased on server class addin controllers, but not on typical software RAID soloutions (eg: intle matrix). halfs the chances of losing all your data.

RAID10 and 01 requires minimum 4 disks, involves either mirroring a RAID 0 pair, or striping a RAID 1 pair. This gives the data security of RAID1, but the performance increase of RAID0

RAID 5 requires minimum of 3 disks, this uses a pair of striped drives with the third drive containing enough data to rebuild one of the 2 striped drives. DOes not perform as well as RAID0, but better than no RAID, and has the data security of RAID1.

Those are the ones I know about.

Installing applications, running applications, and swap performance will all be improved by RAID0, 10, 01, and 5

RAID1, 10, 01, and 5 protect you from a single drive failure.
 
rather than getting 2 raptors I would suggest a single large ssd like a vertex or falcon, with an OS/programs its random file read/write that is required and some ssds are better at that than raptors, just don't get a drive with a jmicron controller
 
Thanks for the quick response phill0i...

So the way I understand that is if I am moving files about, there will be an increase in speed. In terms of running the OS and things feeling much different, its doubtful my idea will yield much in terms of results?

Sorry to speak in laymen's terms, but despite the fact I have built a couple of PC's in the past and class myself as tech minded. I am completely lost when it comes to Raid :( lol
 
yes you understand it right, just my fauilt i didnt make it clear but you will see an increase in perfromance in the os and programs as this increased transfer rate will allow programs to open faster and windows to boot faster. by raiding i nocked 6 seconds off my boot time.
 
Thanks for clarifying phill0i... appreciate the info so far guys.

Also thanks to HazardO and user1453...

I did think about perhaps an SSD to run the OS from and then run the two Samsung HD's in some sort of Raid backup config.

Are things really that much quicker with either Raid or SSD's though as I have been reading a ton of info on the net (I always try and look first before hassling people on forums) but there are so many conflicting benchmarks, I thought if anyone would know and give me some honest feedback it would be you guys.

If the speed difference's are minimal in comparison to cost, then I might leave it for now. Just have that addiction for more speed at the minute which is a bug caught by many of us enthusiasts I think :) lol
 
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Personally, from experience, I would avoid RAID0 unless you have a server class controller with a battery backup. I lost all my data once, after that I turned my Raptors into a RAID 1 array. :(

I didn't mention, that 2 150G disks in RAID0 will give you a partition size of 300G, 2 150G drives in RAID 1 will give you a single 150G partition.

HTH :)
 
A Vertex or a G Skill Falcon is better than having 2xvelociraptors in raid0. If you are truely interested in speeding things up and making them snappier it's a much better performance boost to go ssd for os/apps/games than to use any hdd in any raid configuration. There is really only one disadvantage to ssd's and that is the price. But if you can afford a good one, you won't regret it. You won't have to bother with raiding with an ssd which means you could save the money buying those other 2 drives for a backup. Just use the one hdd you have now for storage.

A HDD raid0 configuration will only give you a boost over what you have now when opening a large file such as, windows startup, loading a game, or transferring a large file from one drive to another and it may not even be that noticable. It won't speed up your system as a whole like an ssd would. The ssd's do this because not only do they have high throughput to achieve he same boost with large files, but they have a less than 1ms access time. That's what makes the entire pc snappier.
 
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The general idea is theat an ssd will be able to access a certian piece of information in 0.1 ms, whereas a raid0 array of two raptors will still take up to several ms to retrieve a peice of data, this is an artifact of the requirement to have head in the correct place to read the data, and therefore the difference is an order of magnitude
 
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Thanks so much guys... you have been mega helpful and really enabled me to see the wood from the tree's here.

Thanks for the advice thus far and (if you don't mind) could I just push my luck a little further and ask what (in your opinion's) are the best SSD's that I should consider.

Also, really silly question but as they are so small, would I need a 3.5 adapter or just bung it anywhere in my PC case?

I understand budget would shape your recomendations but I really don't know what the sweet spot is in terms of price & performance. From what I have read some of the newer and cheaper SSD's have some really great performance now in comparison to the uber expensive stuff... :confused:
 
I'd get a OCZ Vertex, G-skill Falcon, or OCz Agility as they already support trim. There are some other good ones but really these are number one. They are so light weight you could put one anywhere in your case. Really a 60gb would be plenty of room for os/apps/games.

If you don't get one of the ssd I listed above just let us know before you purchase one so you don't end up with a first generation drive that uses a jmicron controller and has no cache.
 
Thats awesome mate. Thanks to all for the advice, you have been a huge help and will take a look now on Overclockers to see what they list that you have recommended...

Thanks again guys...

All the best
Nathan
 
HazardO said:
Installing applications, running applications, and swap performance will all be improved by RAID0, 10, 01, and 5
Click to expand...

Just to point out, for future reference, installing applications/any writing to a RAID5 array will not perform better than to a single non-RAIDed disk because of the parity calculations slowing the write speed.

Hope you're happy with whatever you get, nate247.
 
miniyazz said:
Hope you're happy with whatever you get, nate247.
Click to expand...

Thanks buddy, I have been chuffed to bits with all of your help and can't believe what a great forum this is and why i'd left it this long to join...

Still deciding on the best SSD at the minute. Prob looking for a bargain that will never come so gonna take the plunge on one of three Monday I think :)

Thanks again guys :D
 
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