Sata/Raid/Heavy IO

[dgk]

I do a fair amount of work with many large (100mb+) audio files involving compression (SHN and FLAC mostly). Also some Video and large RAR and PAR/PAR2 utilization. I'm about to build a new system and as those tasks are very CPU and IO intensive I'm looking for fast IO. The system will be a 2500 Barton, moderately OCd, on an Asus A7N8X-DX or Abit NF7-S. I ready have the Barton (0334 and likely unlocked).

I'm thinking two Raptors in Raid 0 is about the fastest I can do, but that is going to be expensive ($130 each). Are non-raptors (7200) drives in a Raid going to help much with this kind of heavy IO or is the big bonus the 10000 rpms? I've read other threads that say that Raid 0 is not all that great for speed improvements but this kind of sustained IO might be just what it is good for.

Any comments welcome.

[Rav]

I work with large video files (1-30GB) on a 160GB SE drive hooked to a Promise card that sits in a 66Mhz slot, and even with both CPU's at 100% I'm not even stressing the drive. With audio files alone I don't think you will have to worry too much. If you do go RAID, you should be fine with 7200 RPM drives. SATA would be a good bet either way.

-Rav

[Yuriman]

The a7n8x has better onboard sound, but that realy doesnt matter if your going to use a card. As for your question, I would buy a scsi harddrive, you can get 70gb for under $300 if you look a bit. If thats too much, just go with 2 7200's in raid.

[tuskenraider]

Based on most of the benchmarks I've seen, a non-Raptor RAID 0 setup is usually anywhere from 10-20% slower for read/writes, this has more to do with the drives themselves, not the SATA. So if you want this extra bit of performance for the price, get the Raptors.

[dgk]

Originally posted by Yuriman
The a7n8x has better onboard sound, but that realy doesnt matter if your going to use a card. As for your question, I would buy a scsi harddrive, you can get 70gb for under $300 if you look a bit. If thats too much, just go with 2 7200's in raid.

I don't think I want to go scsi. I read a thread somewhere that they are faster but very heat intensive. Plus the price of a scsi card seems to be around $100. Raid/sata should really help.

But I'm concerned about the comment about the sound. I thought both used the same chipset and the sound was about the same. I've read that the A7N8X can have sound problems though most people rave about it. I'm NOT planning on using another sound card. Every time I lead toward one board (and I'm probably getting it Saturday) something pushes me the other way. Thanks for the push.

[Matthias99]

A 10KRPM disk like the Raptor gets most of its benefit from very low seek times. The sustained transfer rate is higher, but probably not by enough to justify the price difference for you. RAID0 (or RAID1) will make much more of a difference than going from a 7200RPM disk to a 10KRPM one.

[dgk]

I think that's the key. Not seeking new files very often but blasting the big things back and forth.

The I in RaId is supposed to be INEXPENSIVE, isn't it?

[Matthias99]

Some companies have actually changed it to "Independent", since a SCSI-based array of any size will rapidly cost more than the computer you install it in. :)