First MATRIX RAID 0 Setup 2xWD640AALS question

[Q6600FIEND]

Hi guys

I got 2 WD640aals drives today to see what the whole Matrix RAID is all about but I have some questions for you... (using all the parts in my sig)

Currently I have it in Native mode not set to RAID or AHCI, but I have a 500G drive in there with a lot of stuff I cant lose. so the question .....

When I change the options in the BIOS to RAID&AHCI will I lose or corrupt any data just chilling in my 500G drive? This is not an os drive just storage of old home movies and photos taken over the years.:confused:

I will be testing the RAID setup Vs 150G Raptor for some games and audio and visual production. :beer:

Obviously there is a lot to know about this but is there anything I should be aware of that could potentially ruin the data? I have a 1.5 TB drive that I will be using as the backup but thats only once I have built the RAID image.

Thanks in advance guys

[TimoneX]

Nope it won't damage the data. It will simply leave it out of the array when you configure it. Do yourself a favor though...for peace of mind. Unplug the power or data cable going to that drive while you're configuring your array.

How ya planning to set it up BTW? 0+1 or 0+0?

[Q6600FIEND]

Hi TimoneX

Thanks for the reassurance, well I plan to have it RAID 0 all the way, and see what performance I can get out of the suckers. Any suggestions on the setup? I'll have 150GB Raptor for OS and Games, RAID 0 say 150GB slice for my "work" OS and Audio visual production and stuffing around with VMware. I'll have the 1.5TB drive for backup, although recent posts on these forms should have made me choose another drive but then again, who would you go for?

Thanks once again

[TimoneX]

Sounds like you got a good plan there. I think you'll find the WDs will put a lickin' on the single raptor in STR. If you go w/ a 150GB matrix slice first latency should be pretty similar between the two.

There's a 2GB WD Green just announced and the 500GB/platter Seagate 7200.12s are on their way as well. I know the single platter 500GB is already available at newegg. Surely a 4 platter 2GB monster can't be far off. I haven't been pleased with Seagate drives since the 7200.10s so I haven't upgraded since. I'm taking a wait & see attitude on the 7200.12s.

Post up some results when you're done, should prove interesting.

[freeagent]

i think most drives in matrix will put the hurt on raptors in str, even with dual drives in raid, seek time is pretty much where they own. im glad to see the velociraptors are now sata300.

[Q6600FIEND]

May I ask which imagehosts are allowed here at overclockers? I would like to post some pics of my findings but dont want to do anything that might get me kicked or banned? Is there an additional forum I should be reading ?

[TimoneX]

I use either one of my ISPs, photobucket, or just hit the attach and upload here.

[Q6600FIEND]

here is the first test of the raptor HDD - does this look about right ?

http://i706.photobucket.com/albums/ww69/q6600fiend/raptorhdtune1.jpg

[TimoneX]

Looks like you have volume write-back caching disabled in the Intel Matrix storage console. Enable that monkey and lessee what they can do!

You're set to ignore PMs BTW.

[Q6600FIEND]

No worries, thanks for the heads up.

Where did you see that that I have it disabled, or is it seen in the results. Cause I dont think I have the intel matrix storage installed when I took that screen shot. Thanks for the help. Will move into gear and get some results asap.

[Q6600FIEND]

Im impressed with these results so far. The screen shot is of the 2 x 640G drives

OS partition 150G
1st run
72163
2nd run
72160

Data Partition 1000G

72161

And a New Seagate 1.5 TB drive
72162

:beer: I like how fast the OS is now, this ICHR9 is really something. This was just a quick setup and test and there's probably things I can do better, can I ask you guys to have a look at what I can change if it can be changed to get better results? I need to find out about aligning the array ?:screwy: Is this a concern?

[Vengance_01]

great results. :)

[Neuromancer]

Very nice 8ms access time on a raid stripe, that is going to make your raptor obsolete :)

I would not worry about matrix raid since you are running separate backup drives anyway.

(Matrix raid is just the ability to mix types of raid arrays on the same hard drives, IE Having a striped partition and a mirrored partition on the same 2 HDDS. Hence the name Matrix)

[Q6600FIEND]

Thanks NeurO

Yeah, not sure what to do with the raptor now but if I where to get a third 640G drive can I expect to have even better seek times if I stripe across all three but keep the os partition size around 150G?

[Neuromancer]

Yes but not that much better.

(Law of diniminshing returns)

Since you would be basically using the first 25GB of every platter in a 3 drive setup.. Or the outer 1/6 of the platter as far as density goes (much less then 1/6th in diameter)

I wonder why hdd manufacturers have not started building striped multiplatter hard drives yet to compete with the MLC flash drives.

[TehGoober]

Curious what your boot times (and what OS) are looking like one that array. Was thinking about doing it myself, but never see boot/program launch times listed (particularly vs a single drive.)

Thanks NeurO

Yeah, not sure what to do with the raptor now but if I where to get a third 640G drive can I expect to have even better seek times if I stripe across all three but keep the os partition size around 150G?

[Q6600FIEND]

I shall post some time trials asap

1 x 150G Raptor Vs 2 x 640G WD AALS

Can you suggest some other tests that might be of intrest?

And one more question, if I may? Do I need to be concerned about aligning the drives for RAID?

[Jeppesen]

3x640GB WD AALS 180GB RAID0 Short-stroking array on a ICH10R Matrix controller.

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=599488

[Lukee]

Quick question. I created my raid 0 array to include all the space on both 300 GB VRs. I have since decided that I want to created a 150 GB OS partition and then use the rest for programs.

I don't want to reinstall everything.. can I use ghost 14 and make a backup of the C: drive.. then just restore it to the new partition?

[Q6600FIEND]

Thanks Jeppesen

I'll give that a go and post the results asap

[rainless]

That's weird... My burst rate SUCKS... Then again... I haven't even formatted the drive yet! :)

Seek times are almost exactly the same and I felt you might like to know I decided to use YOU as an example and setup my raid for 150GB as well. :beer: