Shall i go RAID?

I've got 4 h/d's right now, why not add a 5th?

My OS is loaded on a 36gig raptor. Do you folks think it would be worth it to buy a second one and install windows on these running RAID?

Don't have the money to "upgrade" right now really.

Dont think its worth it to buy another 36gb.

What are the other three drives? There is a chance if they are newer that two of them would be just as good in raid 0.

RAID is always a nice boost. The Intel Matrix Raid is the leader for software raid controllers.. I have four 250 gigers in RAID 0, very fast. I get an average read of 468MB/s. I can read an entire CD in 1.5 seconds... lol. My games load much faster. Granted if one drive fails, I loose everything... This question has been asked / answered a bizillion times. Reson why probably no one has answered yet. Do a search for "RAID" and read a few threads... a 36 gig drive is very slow compared to the stuff today. I would go with two smaller 80 gig WD drives and RAID 0 them. Would be cheaper and faster anyway. SATA-II of course

Joeteck said:

RAID is always a nice boost. The Intel Matrix Raid is the leader for software raid controllers.. I have four 250 gigers in RAID 0, very fast. I get an average read of 468MB/s. I can read an entire CD in 1.5 seconds... lol. My games load much faster. Granted if one drive fails, I loose everything... This question has been asked / answered a bizillion times. Reson why probably no one has answered yet. Do a search for "RAID" and read a few threads... a 36 gig drive is very slow compared to the stuff today. I would go with two smaller 80 gig WD drives and RAID 0 them. Would be cheaper and faster anyway. SATA-II of course

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His question was more if he should buy another 36gb to raid them and the answer should really be no he shouldnt. Has nothing to do with raid performance, just that 36gb's are old now and not worth it.

CGR said:

His question was more if he should buy another 36gb to raid them and the answer should really be no he shouldnt. Has nothing to do with raid performance, just that 36gb's are old now and not worth it.

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Right, that's kind of what my thinking was. The whole purpose of the raptor is that it's faster than my other drives (as far as i know...certainly was when i put it in).

3 other drives i've got.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148136
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148111
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144309

Your Raptor is still quick enough and is a better OS drive than the others you list, and almost certainly even if you bought any of those to put in RAID0. Some people clearly don't know more STR doesn't guarantee better user performance. I'd also take rediculous RAID0 improvements with no measurements but feel with a large grain of salt.

tuskenraider said:

Your Raptor is still quick enough and is a better OS drive than the others you list, and almost certainly even if you bought any of those to put in RAID0. Some people clearly don't know more STR doesn't guarantee better user performance. I'd also take rediculous RAID0 improvements with no measurements but feel with a large grain of salt.

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I agree, RAID0 = Higher STR's, but those STR's dont always correlate into more performance. You are really after quicker access time, and lower latency drives. If anything, buy a new firmware 16mb Raptor 74 for an OS/PageFile drive and run your other drives in a Raid 1 mirroring setup for redundancy.

I have had almost every setup you can imagine. (1x raptor 74, 2Xraptor74 originals, 2Xraptor 74 16mbs, 2X raptor 150's, 3X raptor150's) The raid 0 array improved performance in certain specific areas: boot, game loads, large file read/write operations, and photoshop. In the end, I chose to run a single 150 raptor until I recently made the switch to Solid State. Raid 0 does have its quirks, as well as its benefits but you are not always guaranteed more single user desktop performance especially if you are raiding a higher random read drive with higher latency. ie: non raptor

However, with solid state technology you have non existent latency thanks to NAND flash. Therefore Raid 0 (if your wallet can afford) is solely going to add more horsepower to your drive setup. sorry for the SSD splurge.. lol

The raid 0 array improved performance in certain specific areas: The raid 0 array improved performance in certain specific areas: boot, game loads, large file read/write operations, and photoshop., game loads, large file read/write operations, and photoshop.

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That's really all i'm seeking..actually

dominick32 said:

The raid 0 array improved performance in certain specific areas: boot, game loads, large file read/write operations, and photoshop.

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Over the years I have seen ups and downs with RAID0 performance as well and the most benefit I ever saw was about 15% reduction in whatever it was I was timing. I should've kept all my old data, but this was my last comparison(all done with the exact same OS/app image) which then led me to go back to a single drive:

http://www.wideopenwest.com/~vacationdave/aa.JPG
http://www.wideopenwest.com/~vacationdave/boot.JPG
http://www.wideopenwest.com/~vacationdave/photoshop.JPG
http://www.wideopenwest.com/~vacationdave/obliv.JPG

tuskenraider said:

Over the years I have seen ups and downs with RAID0 performance as well and the most benefit I ever saw was about 15% reduction in whatever it was I was timing. I should've kept all my old data, but this was my last comparison(all done with the exact same OS/app image) which then led me to go back to a single drive:

http://www.wideopenwest.com/~vacationdave/aa.JPG
http://www.wideopenwest.com/~vacationdave/boot.JPG
http://www.wideopenwest.com/~vacationdave/photoshop.JPG
http://www.wideopenwest.com/~vacationdave/obliv.JPG

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Again, everyones test rig and methodology is going to differ. But, that seems about right performance wise. I guess its up to the OP if he wants to spend his money and try it out for size. I found that Raid 0 has always been an oddity that you want to try out, but you have doubts at the same time. Its something that if he is curious about, he will not lose his curiosity until he does it himself. Just like you and I have done in the past.

After all my testing over the years I have personally preferred a single Raptor 150 for my needs. I am a gamer and overclocker at heart. Raid is definitely beneficial with higher level read/write operations. ie: digital video, etc. But, thats just something that I am not into.

Cheers.

dominick32 said:

Again, everyones test rig and methodology is going to differ. But, that seems about right performance wise. I guess its up to the OP if he wants to spend his money and try it out for size. I found that Raid 0 has always been an oddity that you want to try out, but you have doubts at the same time. Its something that if he is curious about, he will not lose his curiosity until he does it himself. Just like you and I have done in the past.

After all my testing over the years I have personally preferred a single Raptor 150 for my needs. I am a gamer and overclocker at heart. Raid is definitely beneficial with higher level read/write operations. ie: digital video, etc. But, thats just something that I am not into.

Cheers.

Click to expand...

I've been intrigued for years but have never really had the funds to justify it. My first addon hard drive was a single 120gig...i replaced that with a 200gig, then when i got some more money (last winter) i got a killer deal on the two segate drives (came as a combo), then an offer on the raptor i couldn't pass up.

Point is i've got a TB of storage now, more than i need at the moment (though quickly running out), but i've only gotten it by slowly collecting drives that have never matched.

I use my computer for the following, and in this order:

Browsing the net
Digital photography (its a source of income at times)
Games

eye of the hawk said:

I've been intrigued for years but have never really had the funds to justify it. My first addon hard drive was a single 120gig...i replaced that with a 200gig, then when i got some more money (last winter) i got a killer deal on the two segate drives (came as a combo), then an offer on the raptor i couldn't pass up.

Point is i've got a TB of storage now, more than i need at the moment (though quickly running out), but i've only gotten it by slowly collecting drives that have never matched.

I use my computer for the following, and in this order:

Browsing the net
Digital photography (its a source of income at times)
Games

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Digital Photography, I am assuming you use a work bench with the latest versions of Photoshop CS including additional photography apps. You will definitely see a scalable performance increase using Raid 0. And I think if you use photography as a source of income you will save a little time when working with high res files.

Good luck and shoot me a PM if you have any questions regarding configuation, etc. Also, the member Bing should be able to help you out tremendously on here.

dominick32 said:

Digital Photography, I am assuming you use a work bench with the latest versions of Photoshop CS including additional photography apps. You will definitely see a scalable performance increase using Raid 0. And I think if you use photography as a source of income you will save a little time when working with high res files.

Good luck and shoot me a PM if you have any questions regarding configuation, etc. Also, the member Bing should be able to help you out tremendously on here.

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The thing is that my photographs (currently, on the H/D, about 60-70gigs worth) are not on the hard drive i'd be considering to RAID.

Now that i'm thinking about it though, i really ought to get some sort of redundancy going with my photos. I back them up, but not often enough.

eye of the hawk said:

Now that i'm thinking about it though, i really ought to get some sort of redundancy going with my photos. I back them up, but not often enough.

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Well you don't want to use RAID as a permanent backup solution and it certainly won't protect files from corruption, deletion, etc. Maybe pull out one the drives after making copies. Put it in the closet and do incremental backups at whatever interval you deem necessary.

tuskenraider said:

Well you don't want to use RAID as a permanent backup solution and it certainly won't protect files from corruption, deletion, etc. Maybe pull out one the drives after making copies. Put it in the closet and do incremental backups at whatever interval you deem necessary.

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Truth of the matter is that i can shoot a DVD's worth in one if not two shoots, it really shouldn't be all that complicated of a process.