Some Raid 0 questions

[Alakazam]

This new rig I'm putting together has me in a quandry as to which way to go with my HDDs. My original plan was to have 2 WD SATA Raptors and a standard 80 or 120 gig EIDE drive for backups, mp3s, etc.

I was going to load the operating systems on one raptor, and use the other raptor for loading programs, games, and the usual software along with the page file. I think the system would be fairly quick this way.

Then I got to thinking, hmmmm, 2 raptors in raid 0, that would also be extremely fast so I've got a couple of questions for you raid folks. After you set up the array and start the Windows XP installation, can you partition the array from within XP, lets say a primary of about 8-10 gigs for XP, then other logical and extended partions? Also, what about stripe size, what are you folks using and why, I've done some reading but there seems to be a vast difference of opinions on this subject.

And finally, am I outta my mind for even thinking about going raid? :D

[Furton]

I'm sure flopps will be around here soon to tell you about the specifics of Raptors in RAID 0 but there was a report written a few months ago stating that drives in RAID in most cases offerd no significant speed improvement.

Although I'm not speaking from expirence people do say RAID 0 set up does "feel" faster.

[floppybootstomp]

Yes, go RAID if you have Raptors, it is worth it.

Once you've configured the RAID 0 setup (usually hit cntrl + S on boot) it will be seen as one hard drive during XP install. You can do to the RAID 0 setup exactly the same you can do with a single drive.

You could even RAID the pair of Raptors and make two partitions if you wanted to stick to your original plan.

I've used a lot of RAID 0 setups and the only instance in which I've noticed a significant speed performance increase is using the Raptor drives. I'm using 2 x 35Gb atm.

I'm also running 2 x WD SATA 120Gb drives in a RAID 0 on another machine. I've run these disks previously as single disks and no, there isn't much difference in speed between the two setups.

Nice advantage here though is getting a 240Gb drive without having to worry about Windows baulking at seeing anything over a 160Gb drive. But that's a small point to consider.

As for stripe and cluster sizes, you're right, there is a huge difference of opinion, but I've found the best setup is 16K for each. However, my experiments with stripe and cluster sizes were carried out on an older system and at the time I was using 2 x Seagate Barracuda 40Gb IDE drives. And before that, 2 x IBM Deskstar 20Gb drives. These were the only two RAID setups I've used where I experimented.

So, not sure really, perhaps with larger hard disk sizes, the rather small stripe and cluster sizes may not be apropiate. I'm using the 16K sizes on both setups. My Raptors are small, they only total 70Gb so not a lot of change there, but I sometimes wonder if 16K on both settings is best for a 240Gb total size Hard Drive.

Anyways, to summarise, yes, it's worth going RAID 0 with Raptor drives, definitely.

Jizzy also has 2 x Raptor drives in a RAID 0, maybe he could offer an opinion as well.

[BobGuy]

Raid 0 is the fastest, however if you lose one drive you have lost everything, so backups everyday would be the way to go.

Will you be using a hardware or software raid setup?

Your drives should all be the same size, that is
80+80gig = 160 gig
80+120gig = 160gig
So you will not be able to use 40 gigs on the larger drive, because raid will only use what will match for the smallest drive in the array.

I don't even know if something like drive image would work in a raid setup.

Good luck :)

[Alakazam]

I forgot to mention that the raptors are the 37 gig ones so that would give me roughly 70 + gigs for the OS and programs, plenty of space for sure. I don't do any video stuff so perhaps the 16K stripe size would work out ok, I dunno which way I'm going to go, decisions, decisions, I guess that's good.

[floppybootstomp]

I'm using Acronis True Image V8.0 for my RAID 0 setup, no problems at all.

And yes, as you're using two drives as one, I suppose theoretically there's twice as much chance of a failure. However, the Raptors are built to a high standard, 3 year warranty, they have a much lower failure rate than most.

I've never needed more than 70Gb for a primary drive, I have 23 games, full office suite, Photoshop and all the usual software apps on mine and it's only half full.

I also have 2 x 80Gb IDE drives here for storage and regular backup.

[Alakazam]

You got me curious as to the warranty Floppy, I was thinking 1 year as usual but I went to the WD site:

"Unsurpassed Reliability: 5-year warranty and 1.2 million hours MTBF"

:thumbsup: That's impressive to say the least, I don't know of any other drives with an offer like that.

[floppybootstomp]

5 years eh? Woo-hoo :) Never realised that.

Go on, go for it, RAID those puppies, you won't regret it :D

[sooty]

Came across this article on RAID 0 using Raptors might be of some interest to you flopps

http://www.tweakers.net/reviews/515?

[Alakazam]

I picked up another Raptor so now I have a pair of em and will try out a raid setup as soon as I gather up the final parts for the rig. Mobo, CPU, and ram is all I need now, everything else is bought and paid for except those items.

[floppybootstomp]

Originally posted by Alakazam
I picked up another Raptor so now I have a pair of em and will try out a raid setup as soon as I gather up the final parts for the rig. Mobo, CPU, and ram is all I need now, everything else is bought and paid for except those items.

What you gonna go for then? Socket 939?

Been reading good things about the Abit Sckt 939 3rdEye board.

I think, when you finally put this thing together, you will be pleasantly surprised ;)

Keep us posted :)

[Alakazam]

Yeasir Floppy, it'll be a socket 939 board with probably a Winchester core 3500, I'm still debating the board brand though, I love my abit but the new 939 boards by Abit don't like Antec PSUs very well and I've already purchased a True Blue 480wt model so I'm still up in the air. Right now, I'm leaning toward the Asus A8V Rev.2 model with the MSI NEO2 running a second.

[Furton]

What graphics card have you got? If you've not got a good one yet then I would wait until nForce 4 comes out so you can get an SLI board and PCI Express support.

[Alakazam]

I've got a BFG 6800 GT Furton, so it'll be a long while before I go PCI express. I've been putting things off for over 6 months now, waiting on the latest and greatest but we all know how that works, it's always right around the corner, hehe.

[jimborae]

Originally posted by Alakazam
Yeasir Floppy, it'll be a socket 939 board with probably a Winchester core 3500, I'm still debating the board brand though, I love my abit but the new 939 boards by Abit don't like Antec PSUs very well and I've already purchased a True Blue 480wt model so I'm still up in the air. Right now, I'm leaning toward the Asus A8V Rev.2 model with the MSI NEO2 running a second.

Zammy, I've seen reports that the Neo2 also has probs with Antec PSU's & OCZ ones as well. My Winnie does handle vcore properly and therefore I and others think the problem is actually the cpu itself rather than the psu.

[Alakazam]

Thanks Jim, what to do, lol? I've been reading soooooo much these last couple of weeks on the different mobos and combos my head is swimming. I'm going to have to decide soon and just live with it, hehe.