1X500GB or 2x250GB RAID-0?

F

feo

Honorary Master
Joined
Jan 22, 2006
Messages
13,722
Reaction score
109
Location
Pretoria, South Africa
I realise that having a RAID setup is risky in that if one HDD fails. all your data goes as well but in terms of speed i.e. startup time, loading times for apps, copying speed etc. would I see a significant increase in speed if I chose to go the RAID route?

For the record, let's just say the drives in question were to be the latest Seagate drives out there.

Let's hear your opinions. Links also welcome.
 
feo said:
I realise that having a RAID setup is risky in that if one HDD fails. all your data goes as well but in terms of speed i.e. startup time, loading times for apps, copying speed etc. would I see a significant increase in speed if I chose to go the RAID route?

For the record, let's just say the drives in question were to be the latest Seagate drives out there.

Let's hear your opinions. Links also welcome.
Click to expand...

I'd like to bandwagon this thread. I have two identical 160GB Seagates that I am thinking of raiding - is it worth it?
 
I think killa has a couple of raptors in raid and he swears by them if i recall correctly (was going to buy them and he backed out :p )
 
With RAID 5 setups and striping, maximum transfer rates increase drastically the more drives you add, but access times increase at the same time. In other words, large transfers are faster but situations where many smaller files are accessed are slower, so programs probably take longer to open.

You'd probably find a similar situation with RAID 0, where you're access times increase but transfer rates also increase. If I remember correctly, there is a 10-20% transfer rate increase. Raptor drives offset the slowdown in access times somewhat because they already have significantly faster access times than standard drives.
 
It is technically more risky, as if one fails, you lose your stuff, but IMO the only reason this is emphasized so often is because RAID was originally for servers, where everything is on 24/7 and downtime isn't an option... I would definitely go for it. I'm sure killa will come say something in a moment.
 
I've read lots of good reviews of the Seagate 500GB 11 series drive and wouldn't expect the reviews of the 250GB models to be any different so these drives as standalones are pretty quick, I'm sure in RAID-0 they'll fly.

Raptors are pricy and have very small capacity and frankly they've NEVER been good value for money.

I'll await killadoobs analysis..:D
 
What do you need the speed for? It's possible to run software raid with a 20gig (or however much you need) file on each drive, allowing for almost half your data being recoverable if one drive fails...
 
raid 0 is worth it for sure

you will notice your system to be alot more responsive, apps load faster

i dont suugest raiding 2 x 250gig drives to be honest

you should raid 80 or 160 gig drives nothing higher

problem with raid 0 is not that the drives fail because your 500gb hdd could also fail but if your mobo fails your screwed basically

raid 0 should not be used for anything but windows games and programs, should not be for any type of storage
 
So get two 80gb drives to install Windows on and then a 320gb drive for data.
 
carderne said:
So get two 80gb drives to install Windows on and then a 320gb drive for data.
Click to expand...

Sounds like the best idea :)

Does the cache size matter in this regard? Like will a 16MB cache drive perform that much better than an 8MB cache one?
 
I use RAID0 on 2 older Seagate 200GB on an Intel 945x motherboard at work, and it's been reliable since day one. Since it serves as the server of the network, I also have Diskeeper installed to do defrags often.

It's hard to say, but I think that keeping the array well defragmented has resulted in the system still staying smooth despite its age.

I remember AnandTech doing an article on it, and found that RAID0 actually did next to nothing for performance. The Raptors may benefit slightly, but it's hard to say. Maybe RAID0 also doesn't do much because of onboard RAID in the motherboard. Perhaps using a dedicated RAID controller will help out, but who wants a dedicated card or has space for it in your system?

Rather leave the disks out of RAID, but enable AHCI mode at least. Performance is still going to be awesome, and if the MB goes, you can still plug the drive in another pc easily. With RAID, usually everything goes bye bye, as you have to recreate the array, which wipes the disks of all data.

Just my 2c :)
 
Asha'man X said:
I remember AnandTech doing an article on it, and found that RAID0 actually did next to nothing for performance.
Click to expand...

Really? That is without a doubt false!

From the little research I've done now on RAID-0, this implementation of RAID was DESIGNED to increase the speed at which data is transferred to the logical drive. Also, the differences between a hardware and software RAID-0 config is minimal with CPU usage and also whether the array will be used to house an OS being the only factors that sets a hardware/software config apart i.e. to be able to load an OS onto a RAID-0 array, it must be a hardware array, not software. Check this out.

I'm also gonna go the RAID-0 route using 2x160GB Seagates instead of the 250GBs and I'll report back once it's done. You guys are welcome to post more info and discuss in this thread, I'll be watching it.
 
ashaman i read that article as well

i think its fulla shyte man

you can notice a massive performance increase using windows when you use raid 0

i dont care what their tests say
 
I'd suggest rather getting 1x raptor than 2x 160GB, obviously it's still going to cost more and you end up with less space, but you get the benefit of increased performance, with transfer rates AND access times without running the risk of losing your data if something were to go wrong.

1x WD Raptor 74GB = R1650.00
2x SG 7200RPM 160GB = R1000.00

Money well spent imo.
 
quik said:
I'd suggest rather getting 1x raptor than 2x 160GB, obviously it's still going to cost more and you end up with less space, but you get the benefit of increased performance, with transfer rates AND access times without running the risk of losing your data if something were to go wrong.

1x WD Raptor 74GB = R1650.00
2x SG 7200RPM 160GB = R1000.00

Money well spent imo.
Click to expand...

Still can't get my head around shelling out so much for one hard drive that is just going to increase performance though :eek:
 
yea but one raptor is still faster than 7200 drives in raid

raptors access time/seek time is lower so everything on your pc opens faster and windows just runs faster

raptors FTW
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X