just ordered 2x 74gig wd Raptor hd's

[ApltnHkyMutt]

Hey guys, I ordered a pair of the Wester Digital Raptor hard drives 74 gig version.
I have a abit kv8max3 mobo with a 3200+ amd 64 cpu. im going from 2x 100 gig western digital 7200rpm 2meg ata hds to these s-ata hd's i was just wondering what you guys think? is this going to really improve performace?

[Markel]

Were the PATA WD drives in a raid-0 set? If not, will the SATA ones be?

I think you'll see some improvement even if both are raid-0. A pair of Raptors in raid-0 is getting close to some of the best speed arrangements you can find (outside of some pretty exotic scsi stuff).

[ApltnHkyMutt]

Were the PATA WD drives in a raid-0 set? If not, will the SATA ones be?

I think you'll see some improvement even if both are raid-0. A pair of Raptors in raid-0 is getting close to some of the best speed arrangements you can find (outside of some pretty exotic scsi stuff).


I had the old wd hard drive in a raid-0 before i upgraded to the 64-bit stuff. but then once i got the new mobo. it didnt offer ide raid. but only s-ata raid. so thats why ive decided to finally change to s-ata. im going to keep the 2 hd's for storage of movies and music. and use the raptors for os, apps. and games.
thanks for the info markel

[bachviet]

I wish I have $$$ to get two 74GB Raptors so I could run SATA RAID-0 with my AMD 64 3200+ system.

[LegendKiller]

Raid for normal consumer applications is a waste of time and very dangerous in 0. I would certainly not recommend it.


LK

[CynJon]

Raid for normal consumer applications is a waste of time and very dangerous in 0. I would certainly not recommend it.


LK
:stupid:

I don't know if I would classify it as DANGEROUS, but I certainly wouldn't keep anything on a RAID 0 array that I couldn't replace easily. I've got a system that has been running a RAID 0 nonstop for over two years and it's never given me a problem...and I saw a significant increase in speed--most likely because I went from a single 2MB buffer HD to RAID. If I had an 8MB buffer I would guess the difference would be less noticeable.

The Raptors would be pretty darn fast by themselves--probably no real need to RAID them except for braggin' rights :P Any idea what the reliability of the Raptors is compared to IDE drives from Western Digital? I've thought about picking up a single 74GB for my primary drive, but the 36GB is just a little small and the 74 is a little too expensive (I guess I'm just getting spoiled with sub-$.50/GB hard drive deals :) )

[ApltnHkyMutt]

From the reviews ive read this morning if i raid the raptors together, I should be able to compete against an avarage scsi single drive.. now that is fast.

[LegendKiller]

From the reviews ive read this morning if i raid the raptors together, I should be able to compete against an avarage scsi single drive.. now that is fast.

In raw bandwith yes, in real world tests, no. Not unless you are running databases or larger stuff, it makes no difference at all.


http://www.storagereview.com/cgi-bin/news_archive.pl/10

[ApltnHkyMutt]

looks like i will have to do raid-1 then.. that is the non mirror array. correct?

[LegendKiller]

RAID 0 is stripped, RAID 1 is mirrored, RAID 5 is parity but you need more than 2 drives.

[kcrilly]

Raid 0 has little to no advantage to a single drive. If you dont believe me test it yourself, and then goto toms hardware. I have tested it myself with 2 36 raptors vs 1 raptor. In most cases the dual was slower.

The test I performed were srtickly with BenchmarkHQ and 3dmark. Maybe different with database stress tests, but highly unlikely.

My 2 cents

[LegendKiller]

Raid 0 has little to no advantage to a single drive. If you dont believe me test it yourself, and then goto toms hardware. I have tested it myself with 2 36 raptors vs 1 raptor. In most cases the dual was slower.

The test I performed were srtickly with 3dmark. Maybe different with database stress tests, but highly unlikely.

My 2 cents



There are certainly advantages with applications that need rapid IO's, even StorageReview acknowledges that. However, games don't need to access disks all that much and even when they do its just to load maps/textures.


LK

[kcrilly]

I think most people do this just to have a larger capacity 10k drive. Since 74 is the biggest 10k drive out right at this moment.

[ApltnHkyMutt]

Got them up and running tonight.. man are they fast. alot faster than i had originally thought they would be. installed xp pro in minutes. and formated ntsf in 10 seconds. my other hd would have taken 10 minutes. and not that wasnt the "fast" format. i couldnt believe my eye's

[gazou]

10 seconds ??? and its not the quick format :gle: wtf....

[LegendKiller]

Got them up and running tonight.. man are they fast. alot faster than i had originally thought they would be. installed xp pro in minutes. and formated ntsf in 10 seconds. my other hd would have taken 10 minutes. and not that wasnt the "fast" format. i couldnt believe my eye's


Strange, 146GB 15k drive wasn't even that fast

[kcrilly]

Raid does a quick format. All Raid controllers are fast formating drives. I am not complete sure why. Anyone know why? My adaptec raid controller can format 2 146 gig drives in a few seconds.

[ApltnHkyMutt]

Raid does a quick format. All Raid controllers are fast formating drives. I am not complete sure why. Anyone know why? My adaptec raid controller can format 2 146 gig drives in a few seconds.

I couldnt even start to explain it, just was very impressed with the results.

[Showtime]

I read that the drive performs really nicely by itself. So sell me one and well both be happy. :)

-j