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View Full Version : Is SATA RAID worth the $$$$$?

Thunder888
03-30-2004, 05:29 AM
Need some help please:

I'm seroiusly considering getting a RAID strip for my next upgrade. I've seen a couple of benchmarks at some obscure site (can't recal exactly where:p)

Them pictures an' graphs are all lovely an' all, but I want to know from the guys in the know. Is a RAID 0 strip worth the expense for gaming applications?

Going down this route is going to cost me, but I'm more than willing to spend the bucks if the rewards are worthwhile.

Please let me have your opinion.

Thanks :D
djnes
03-30-2004, 09:08 AM
It will NOT increase FPS or anything like that. It will improve level loading, and if anything needs to be loaded from HDD during the game, will load faster. I am happy with my setup, because it's faster loading everything.
Odigo
03-30-2004, 09:27 AM
I love my RAID setup. Haven't notice any real perfomance difference with games..
IceDigger
03-30-2004, 09:34 AM
Windows boots up faster. Programs load faster. It's a win win situation :)
srage2k2
03-30-2004, 09:35 AM
It won't change gaming much other than how quickly levels load as has been said.

If you do anything else like video manipulation or play with big photoshop files the difference is AMAZING.

I've got a 4 disk raid0 stripe and the difference in speed when editing large video files is astounding.
CallMeIshmael
03-30-2004, 10:04 AM
RAID 0 improvement for gaming performance depends on game & memory. If you do any HDD paging during your game, RAID 0 will make a big difference. If you have enough RAM to avoid paging, then (as noted before) you will see the difference just in your load times at startup and level change.
thorban
03-30-2004, 11:13 AM
Yes, I think it's worth it for games and everything else.

http://www.thorban.com/images/pc/hdtach_2.jpg
Thunder888
03-31-2004, 03:55 AM
All things considered - I think I'm getting myself a RAID stripe!:D

Thanks for your help, guys.
jen4950
03-31-2004, 04:34 AM
I'm all for system performance etc. which you most assuredly get with a RAID0 setup- but I use my machine(s) for way more than games-

I'm partial to redundancy over flat out speed. I'm buying parts for my RAID1 boot drive, and RAID5 mass storage array now. (Note Dual XEON Machine in the works-)
JetUsafMech
03-31-2004, 08:39 AM
Not to get off topic sorta, but have you looked into a u320 setup?