Raptors Slow?

[AGampher]

Hey guys,

I have two 36GB raptors in RAID0. They are the first iteration of raptors, so they're several years old. My HD Tach is ~175MB/s burst and around 80 MB/s average; my HD Tune is ~91 MB/s burst and around 72 MB/s average. Now, I compare these to this thread (http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=467102) (as well as other benchmarks I see here and there) and it seems they're coming up woefully short of the new "cheap" perpendicular drives. Is there something I'm doing wrong or is it because they are just old?

[jivetrky]

yeah, I'd bet it's just the age of the drives....those old 36GB raptors don't compare to the new ones (Like the 150)

Also the new 7200RPM perpendicular drives are pretty fast.

[Captain Helghas]

Yes, you're not looking at the Raptors for their access times. That's where the difference is. Now the access time for the perps can be lower using Matrix raid vs. your current raid, but if you were to take your drives on Matrix raid, I'm sure you would get a similar reduction in random access.
If you originally bought your Raptors for the burst speed and average read, well then they're old. Even when we were all raving about the new Ultra IDE, it still rang true that newer HDD will have a better burst and average read.

[tuskenraider]

I have two 36GB raptors in RAID0. They are the first iteration of raptors, so they're several years old. My HD Tach is ~175MB/s burst and around 80 MB/s average; my HD Tune is ~91 MB/s burst and around 72 MB/s average. Sounds a little low but it isn't that off. My old ones did 94MB avg. on a VIA chipset, but the best thing is still the low seek(8ms) time of the drives. Let me just warn you from experience that the new single drives may look attractive, but your RAID setup is still quicker. After selling mine off, I'll be back on two 36GB Raptors in RAID0 when my other new one arrives today. So unless you want ultimate performance that the new 16MB cache Raptors offer, keep yours.

[AGampher]

Thanks for the replies. Actually, my random access times are lower than the aforementioned threads (around 9.0ms on both Tach and Tune). Would I see any significant gain by going to a couple of those 200GB seagate perpendicular drives in RAID0? At only $100 for both it seems to be a pretty cheap swap.

[Opteron 1100]

http://techreport.com/reviews/2006q2/raptor-wd1500/index.x?pg=12

[EternalX]

The 8mb cache 74gb raptor is a tad slower in transfer than the new perp drives. The 16mb cache raptor, however, spanks it pretty good. Someone did a test and figured this out in another thread. If you get the latest raptors that are out, you will see a rather large jump in transfer speed. I think the other guy got a 20MB jump in a peak transfer over the older raptor.

[Opteron 1100]

Sounds a little low but it isn't that off. My old ones did 94MB avg. on a VIA chipset, but the best thing is still the low seek(8ms) time of the drives. Let me just warn you from experience that the new single drives may look attractive, but your RAID setup is still quicker. After selling mine off, I'll be back on two 36GB Raptors in RAID0 when my other new one arrives today. So unless you want ultimate performance that the new 16MB cache Raptors offer, keep yours.
good point , burst speed does depend on your set up , i have two 74 gigers with an average read of 92 mb/s striped , its also in a via chipset using the promise raid setup

[Opteron 1100]

The 8mb cache 74gb raptor is a tad slower in transfer than the new perp drives. The 16mb cache raptor, however, spanks it pretty good. Someone did a test and figured this out in another thread. If you get the latest raptors that are out, you will see a rather large jump in transfer speed. I think the other guy got a 20MB jump in a peak transfer over the older raptor.
If you look at the link its a 10mbs difference , i dont see that as a spanking , especaily when the older drive still is faster on the random access time

[tuskenraider]

If you have a VIA RAID controller on your mobo, it should be faster. I lose about 15% performance in average read/writes going from VIA to Promise on my A8V-D, of course seeks are the same.

[Opteron 1100]

If you have a VIA RAID controller on your mobo, it should be faster. I lose about 15% performance in average read/writes going from VIA to Promise on my A8V-D, of course seeks are the same.
I was told different thats why i went with the promise controler avg about 92 mbs
I have the same mobo as you with a opteron 175

[tuskenraider]

Well I can speak from experience and multiple testing with single and RAIDED drives. There were some people saying OC'ing and using the VIA controller could cause corruption problems and I never have run into that with my rig. Always good to have an image backup though. Anyway, ditch the Promise and I bet you break 100mb/s on VIA.

[tuskenraider]

You know I forgot to mention something I found out with the A8V-D after a lot of testing of different BIOS' and OC'ing speeds. At least with mine. If I go over 262mhz with the FSB, the benchmark scores for all my hard drives drop about 10-15% in performance. Doesn't matter what the HTT is(3,4....) or RAM divider. Took me quite awhile to figure this out after not being happy with my Raptor performance with this board. So if you're running above that, I'd be curious to see benchmarks at say 260 FSB and whatever you run your FSB at typically, if it is indeed higher than that.

[dominick32]

Just for comparison sake. A single 74gig 16mb raptor will give you around an 84 MB/s transfer and 7.7ms seek time. So pretty much you are comparing apples to oranges. The older 8mb raptors are not in the same ballpark as the newer 16mb guys. In the XP Environment and when loading files my Raptor 150 Raid setup is just about the most snappy and fluid setup I have ever built in my life. Windows boots so fast, you only see boot for a milisecond. Even single user performance (non raid) is astonishing with my Raptor 150. Slap 2 X 150's or 74's in Raid 0 and than youre talkin.

Regards,

[Opteron 1100]

Just for comparison sake. A single 74gig 16mb raptor will give you around an 84 MB/s transfer and 7.7ms seek time. So pretty much you are comparing apples to oranges. The older 8mb raptors are not in the same ballpark as the newer 16mb guys. In the XP Environment and when loading files my Raptor 150 Raid setup is just about the most snappy and fluid setup I have ever built in my life. Windows boots so fast, you only see boot for a milisecond. Even single user performance (non raid) is astonishing with my Raptor 150. Slap 2 X 150's or 74's in Raid 0 and than youre talkin.

Regards,
did you see the link i put up ??

[Opteron 1100]

Well I can speak from experience and multiple testing with single and RAIDED drives. There were some people saying OC'ing and using the VIA controller could cause corruption problems and I never have run into that with my rig. Always good to have an image backup though. Anyway, ditch the Promise and I bet you break 100mb/s on VIA.
DIdnt you post on VIA you avg 94 mbs ?
I dont have to worry about the fsb , I can only get my opteron 175 to 2.53 ghz 1.47v
What I did notice thou was the mobo does not like ram freq over 220 mghz so i have to use the 333 divider.
Right now its running 230 x11 Hypertransport set to x8 ram running at 210 mghz

[Opteron 1100]

Well I can speak from experience and multiple testing with single and RAIDED drives. There were some people saying OC'ing and using the VIA controller could cause corruption problems and I never have run into that with my rig. Always good to have an image backup though. Anyway, ditch the Promise and I bet you break 100mb/s on VIA.
Here is the benchmark showing the faster promise controler compared to via
via only beats the promise in burst thats it and really its pretty close.
CPU utilization is way up there for via also
http://techreport.com/reviews/2004q3/asus-a8vdeluxe/index.x?pg=10

[dominick32]

did you see the link i put up ??

Where in that link are you pointing to?
I see old benchmarks with 8mb 74g raptors. There is no 16mb 74g benchmark in that article.

[Opteron 1100]

Where in that link are you pointing to?
I see old benchmarks with 8mb 74g raptors. There is no 16mb 74g benchmark in that article.
the 150 iam sure is close enough

[tuskenraider]

Here is the benchmark showing the faster promise controler compared to via
via only beats the promise in burst thats it and really its pretty close.
CPU utilization is way up there for via also Hey, if you want to believe an article over testing yourself, that's your choice. Just last night I put my RAID0 setup on the Promise controller and I was shocked at how poorly it compared as I didn't have as drastic a difference with the older drives. I wish I kept screen shots, but it wasn't worth it. My average read went from 144MB/s to 92MB/s! Burst from 180MB/s to 95MB/s! Seeks were the same, CPU usuage was a little less(which is a non-factor IMO). You very well could get different results, but unless you try, you don't know. I think you're leaving a lot of free performance on the table.

[Opteron 1100]

Hey, if you want to believe an article over testing yourself, that's your choice. Just last night I put my RAID0 setup on the Promise controller and I was shocked at how poorly it compared as I didn't have as drastic a difference with the older drives. I wish I kept screen shots, but it wasn't worth it. My average read went from 144MB/s to 92MB/s! Burst from 180MB/s to 95MB/s! Seeks were the same, CPU usuage was a little less(which is a non-factor IMO). You very well could get different results, but unless you try, you don't know. I think you're leaving a lot of free performance on the table.
Its fine like it is , i dont feel like reimaging

[Opteron 1100]

Hey, if you want to believe an article over testing yourself, that's your choice. Just last night I put my RAID0 setup on the Promise controller and I was shocked at how poorly it compared as I didn't have as drastic a difference with the older drives. I wish I kept screen shots, but it wasn't worth it. My average read went from 144MB/s to 92MB/s! Burst from 180MB/s to 95MB/s! Seeks were the same, CPU usuage was a little less(which is a non-factor IMO). You very well could get different results, but unless you try, you don't know. I think you're leaving a lot of free performance on the table.
where can i find the VIA sata driver that will fit on disk floppy
EDIT>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I got the driver is there anything in the bios i have to change

[vanessab]

dude all you gott do is go to your raid drives and enable the write cache

[Opteron 1100]

dude all you gott do is go to your raid drives and enable the write cache
What ?
The drives are in an array already (Promise) i want to switch them over to the VIA controler

[Opteron 1100]

nver mind , after researching the VIA controler is not stable while ocing , i will keep it as is