WD VelociRaptor 3000glfs RAID 0 prep

[Baby3ater666]

Hey guys I recently just purchased another VelociRaptor so that I can go RAID 0 but I'm wondering which SATA to use for RAID? JMicron or the Intel RAID? I can see on my mobo that there are 2 JMicron sata and 6 Intel sata. Also I saw that I'm to have to load up drivers for RAID using Vista, is this true? If this has already been discussed then please direct me to the correct post :) I'm a total n00b to this so any info would be most appreciated!

[Parad0x420]

Use the Intel SATA ports for your RAID array. This way you can use Intel's Matrix RAID and make a blazing fast system :) I'm not sure about loading drivers with Vista, but it won't hurt to have them handy.. on a floppy or usb drive.
Enter the Matrix (http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=467848) is a guide in the storage section above, describing how to 'slice' out the fastest section of your HDDs if you want even a little more speed. :D

[jason4207]

Try Win7!

But yeah, Intel all the way. Disable that Jmicron crap in the BIOS unless you have some IDE devices. It just slows boot-time and will give you headaches later. The Intel RAID is vastly superior.

I don't think you need the F6 RAID drivers w/ Vista or Win7. I recently upgraded a P4 rig that had a couple of 250GB drives in RAID0 to a new E5200 rig. I just connected the HDDs to the new mobo, and I was able to install a fresh copy of Win7 w/o any drivers and w/o any problems.

[Xaero_toast]

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=566969&page=11

There is an alleged incompatibility between intel SATA RAID controllers and Velociraptors. I've read the above linked thread, top to bottom, more than once, but I still cannot determine if the problem is real, or conspiracy theory.

[Baby3ater666]

Yeah I don't have a 3 1/2 floppy drive! Can I throw the drivers onto my external hd? I also have a USB thumb drive that is currently formatted to FAT32. What would you guys suggest?

[Xaero_toast]

I've got one usb floppy drive for just such an occasion.

Another possibility, look in your bios. In mine, there's a place where I can change a setting that determines whether the bios treats usb storage as fdd or hdd. Maybe that will work too.

[Baby3ater666]

Actually I was just reading up on RAID at Intel's website regarding RAID installation and from what it says that I don't need to do the F6 installation and that it should be cakewalk! All I need to do is enable RAID in the BIOS! it can't be that easy can it? I'm using Vista Home Premium SP2 x64 BTW.

[Marshmallow64]

For Xp you need a floppy, for Vista and win 7 you should be able to use a USB thumb drive and it will load up the raid drivers for your mobo.

[Baby3ater666]

Wait Marshmallow64 so I do need some type of drivers? When does this come into place? before Vista installation?, in between? after? also what file would i be putting on there? is a FAT32 formatted USB thumbdrive good?

[Parad0x420]

Actually I was just reading up on RAID at Intel's website regarding RAID installation and from what it says that I don't need to do the F6 installation and that it should be cakewalk! All I need to do is enable RAID in the BIOS! it can't be that easy can it? I'm using Vista Home Premium SP2 x64 BTW.

enable raid, enter raid utility to build array.. reboot tell bios to boot from array as 2nd device.. install away :p

[Baby3ater666]

Alright then so I don't need any special drivers or things to boot from just do what it says for RAID and I'll be good?

[jason4207]

You don't need them, but you can still us the latest Intel drivers if you want. At the screen where you select the partition you want to install Vista onto you can add drivers (and you can use a USB drive).

On XP you had to use the drivers or it would never see the HDDs.

[Marshmallow64]

It is during the installation, the screen where it shows which harddrive to set up windows on. Theres a small button at the bottom to add drivers.

[Baby3ater666]

Alright cool! Thanks guys for all your help! I should be receiving it either on Wednesday or Thursday! Can't Wait! :D

[jason4207]

You should give Win7 a whirl. The RC1 is free until next summer.

[Baby3ater666]

I have given it a whirl and I absolutely loved it! That's why I bought Vista from Newegg with a free upgrade to Windows 7! :D

[Baby3ater666]

Oh yeah one last question, what stripe size should I use? 64 or 128?

[tuskenraider]

Oh yeah one last question, what stripe size should I use? 64 or 128?Default 64 is just fine. Lots of worthless chatter about what's best based on uproven logic. I've tested many stripe sizes on many RAID controllers and never found a difference in bootup, OS or typical app use.

[Baby3ater666]

Hmmm sweet! I might just do a fresh install with Win 7 when I get the VR just because it's soooo much better, faster and seems slightly better for gaming too! :D And FYI to everyone that has helped me out I am a gamer looking for some sweet load times and am hoping that this will do it! It better! I've invested over $400 for 2 of these and I never even planned on spending so much for a hard drive! That's why I decided against the SSD, that and it's new technology and new technology=very expensive! BTW is defragmenting safe for VR's? I heard it degrades SSD's and while I know VR's aren't SSD's I just want to make sure. :) Thanks!

[Damekko]

Defragging is fine on disk drives (VR included). The only reason it wares out SSDs is because they're flash media which is limited (somewhat) in that area. Theoretically disk drives can be used until the hardware dies unlike flash which has a limited number of uses. That's not to say a SSD won't outlast an older disk drive or vice-versa.

[Baby3ater666]

Gentlemen! Behold! I have successfully put my newest VR in with my other VR to form RAID 0! Installed with no problems! I used a 64k stripe and I did a HD tach test and only got 427 =( how do I get a better score?

[tuskenraider]

427 what? If that's burst speed, so what, that measurement is worthless. Average access time and sustained transfer rate are the only meaningful data really.

[Baby3ater666]

I just ran HD Tune 2.55 and my following results are Minimum: 141.6 MB/sec, Maximum 230.5 MB/sec, Average: 182.9 MB/sec, Access Time: 7.0 ms, Burst Rate 169.0 MB/sec, CPU Usage 29.5%!:confused: That seems a little high for CPU usage don't you think? Are these results decent? This is with Write Back Cache disabled.

[Baby3ater666]

Wow talk about update! Just enabled Write Back Cache and following results are: Minimum 132.2 MB/sec, Maximum 235.9 MB/sec, Average 192.9 MB/sec, Burst Rate 1602.5 MB/sec!:drool: Is that about on par now for VelociRaptor RAID 0 bench?

[MongGrel]

Intel Matrix but thats been said, I like a 16K stripe myself on the 3X150 AFDF's, but I might be weird I guess.

Works for me but I have a couple arrays going and just personal preference.

:beer:

The JMicron stuff just sucks to be blunt about it hehe :)

I did forget about maybe a velo and intel conflict I guess mine the regular ones, but I still haven't seen JMicron do much right on much that I've ever read :P

[Baby3ater666]

Well hopefully that Velo and Intel conflict has been done with because I got it working and am hoping that nothing goes wrong!:-/

[Vengance_01]

Enjoy those drives. Solid setup for people looking for speed and some more storage space. Did you short stroke your drives, or just 1 big raid array?

[Baby3ater666]

It's just one big array :) what is this short stroking that I've been hearing about anyways?