RAID 0 - Striping question

[Hiro]

Anyone ever used this to increase performance? I have ordered some new hardware which should be here tomorrow, and I will be setting up two 36.7GB 10krpm Hard Drives under RAID 0.

I am intending to test benchmarks on my current set up and the new one to see just how much of an increase I will be getting through a new motherboard, CPU, Memory and the hard drives.

I'm just curious if I should really be expecting that much of a difference or not.

Current build:
P4 3.2Ghz
1.5GB DDR333 Memory
80GB 7200 RPM Hard Drive
Intel 915G Motherboard

New build:
AMD Athlon 64 3200+
2GB DDR400 Memory
36.7GB Western Digital 10krpm Raptor x2 set up in RAID 0
Asus A8N-SLI Motherboard - Built in RAID

[LegendKiller]

You will get improvements in loads, such as windows and heavy program loads. However, the benefits beyond that are less than marginal and well within statistical error.

If starting up windows half as fast (30 sec instead of 1min) is worth it for you, then go ahead and stripe it.

However, keep in mind that you are essentially doubling your chances at losing *all* data.

[Markel]

I'd probably just use a single Raptor for a primary drive for the OS, etc., and a larger SATA drive for main storage. Or, set up the 2 Raptors in Raid 1 or a similar safe type setup (plus the second drive).

[shocky123]

You'll notice the difference simply by swapping to the Raptors.
However, in my own experience, raid-0.. or even for that matter, any raid-setup on Raptors tends to lack anything particularily spectacular in terms of performance.

Faster Response/Seek Time:
Yes, you'll have faster response time and quicker seeks, but using two raptors in any raid-setup means you have the potential to have a 2x normal delay if things work out just right. So really, at that point, the Raptors' "quick response time" really isnt helping that much...

Faster Overall Transfer Speed:
Yes, you'll get much faster transfer speeds/rates. w/ Raid-0 you'd likely see approx a 1.5-1.9x increase in disk transfer speed, assuming your controller (which if it's onboard, you're looking @ 1.2-1.5 times because it's going to hit the cpu a lot) doesnt provide any type of bottlenecking. So yes, transfer speeds will increase, but realistically they won't ever 'double' your speed.
On a slightly different note... Comparitively, in terms of Disk I/O rates, Raptors in RAIDsets are only ~5% faster than some other SATA drives, which have 8-10x's the storage space.

At any rate, loss of data. everyone's always worried about that. That's what raid does for you... there was a thread a bit ago where I mentioned the MTBF rates of some drives. doubling your 'technical' chances of having a drive failure still puts you at 60+ years of 'statistical' lee-way.

But yeah.. you'll notice a bigger difference from swapping to the AMD-based system than you will from raid'ing the Raptors. Well, you'll notice a difference simply by using 1 raptor. but the performance gain you'd get for raiding them isnt generally worth it...

I'd use one disk for OS, and the other for large games. that way I can guarantee I'll never be hitting the same drive over and over going from the OS to and from games.

~Kyle

[Hiro]

I'd use one disk for OS, and the other for large games.... that way I can guarantee I'll never be hitting the same drive over and over going from the OS to and from games..

I'm going to go this route. Thanks for the information everyone.

And just so you're aware, the motherboard is having some issues. SATA3 is dead and I'm getting a "MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION" blue screen of death about 50% of the time when booting. New board is already on the way. :toxic: