Ordered 2 Raptors how to set them up for RAID?

[oqvist]

Got an Abit NF7-S rev 2 mainboard.
Also got a Western Digital 800 JB special edition 7200 U ATA 100 drive since before and also a IBM 60 GXP deathstar (on RMA process)

So how would you set it up for maximum game performance? I play FS 2004 a lot which reads from the harddrive a lot regardless of amount of RAM.

Should I run all 3 WD Drives in Raid mode or only the Raptors? On which drive should I have the op system, the applications and the swap files for best performance? I guess it´s wise to have one drive as backup drive so I don´t loose all data so perhaps I only will use the 60 GXP for storage.

Also is RAID hardware supported with the NF7-S. It supports raid but is it hardware or CPU accelerated?

[hulksterjoe]

well first off the board only supports raid with the SATA drives so the wd is out of the picture for raid and the setup is pretty easy in the bios.

[oqvist]

Originally posted by hulksterjoe
well first off the board only supports raid with the SATA drives so the wd is out of the picture for raid and the setup is pretty easy in the bios.

Thank you would make my choice easier?

But how would you set it up?

Op system on the WD drive and applications/swap files on the Raptors?

[hulksterjoe]

You can do that if you'd like or set up a partition on the raid 0 logical drive and load the os into that and then the data into the next partition and get the speed benefit of both. you could then still back up the 2nd partition to the WD drive if you want some redundancy.

[oqvist]

Originally posted by hulksterjoe
You can do that if you'd like or set up a partition on the raid 0 logical drive and load the os into that and then the data into the next partition and get the speed benefit of both. you could then still back up the 2nd partition to the WD drive if you want some redundancy.

Yes that would give me a faster loading OS but maybe that would hurt gaming performance with the application data getting further in to the disk and the head may have to jump between the OS and application data? How frequent do the hard drive read from windows XP while gaming? Anything at all or do it just read from the swap file?

I am thinking having windows on the old WD drive on primary partition of course having the secondary partition with junk and backup data and the WD Raptors purely for demanding applications and swap file in RAID configuration is that the optimum way of doing it?

[hulksterjoe]

The problem is there's no right answer here. How often does the head move to read windows .. who knows! it'll depend on what services you have running. which games etc etc.

[tracerwilly]

i would think that with 1 gig of ram the optimal setup would be the os on the raid and the swap file and junk (in seperate partitions) on the wd. unless u are doing hi res video editing the swap file probably won't even be accessed by the games or other apps on the raid.

[oqvist]

It is being adressed by FS 2004...

[tracerwilly]

do u mean flight simulator is on the wd or do u mean the swap file is accessing fs. if u mean flight simulator is on the wd, u can use the files and settings transfer prog in windows after u set up the raid to put fs in the raid setup. if u mean that the swap file is accessing it, it would still be better(IMHO) to have the swap file on a seperate drive as the outer most partition and using a raid setup.

[oqvist]

Originally posted by tracerwilly
do u mean flight simulator is on the wd or do u mean the swap file is accessing fs. if u mean flight simulator is on the wd, u can use the files and settings transfer prog in windows after u set up the raid to put fs in the raid setup. if u mean that the swap file is accessing it, it would still be better(IMHO) to have the swap file on a seperate drive as the outer most partition and using a raid setup.

I meant that FS 2004 is a memory eating game and will make use of the swap file. So it´s best to have the swapfile on the non raid disc then and win xp and FS 2004 on the same? I ain´t sure how RAID works. Is it better install FS 2004 on one raid disc and FS on the other or does RAID mean they automatically install on both so it can read in between them? So if you have setup your discs in RAID mode even if you install it on the first in real life it installs them on both RAID discs?

[hulksterjoe]

raid 0 will take both discs and make it appear that they are 1 drive so you dont have the choice of another "raid"
if you have the 3 drives installed.. not counting partitions and such when you look you'll only see 2 drives. The raid and the wd not 3 individauls

[oqvist]

Originally posted by hulksterjoe
raid 0 will take both discs and make it appear that they are 1 drive so you dont have the choice of another "raid"
if you have the 3 drives installed.. not counting partitions and such when you look you'll only see 2 drives. The raid and the wd not 3 individauls

Ah that was what I suspected. That is also why you loose all data if one harddrive dies on you if in RAID configuration?

Guess it makes sense having the swapfile on the 80 GB drive. Then I have loads of space for storage.

[tracerwilly]

not exactly true... raid 0 (which is considered the fastest and therefore best for gaming) has no parity check and yes can possibly lose data. that sata board of yours(i checked) also offers a raid 1 option. this setup places 1 data bit parity check per every 8 bits of data and is very safe for recovering any lost data. it is very minimally slower (a few milliseconds access rate) and with those raptors u got i think u would hardly notice a gaming difference. i still recommend the setup i suggested.

[oqvist]

Thanks. I see you got some SCSI discs. How much faster are those in games than the Raptors? I have seen in databases and such they are like up to 40 % faster...

[tracerwilly]

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?threadid=609694

here is a good link in this forum about the raptor. i just ran hdtach and can give u these numbers.(p.s. -i only have one scsi, wish i had 2 setup up in raid).

access time - 6.7 milliseconds
read burst speed - 91.4 megabytes
read speed - maximum 42.2 megabytes.

the numbers are very close indeed to a raptor i think.

p.p.s. - the seagate cheetah x-15 ultra 320 scsi drive is out, but to run in in raid with an ONBOARD scsi controller(i am using an adaptec pci controller which takes an additional 8 second boot time to read the bios and spin up the scsi thus causing my boot time time to be 23 seconds from power off to internet online which is another story) would cost me a minimum of $258 for a gigabyte board and $400 for a tyan board. too much right now.
GL with the raptors.

[oqvist]

Originally posted by tracerwilly
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?threadid=609694

here is a good link in this forum about the raptor. i just ran hdtach and can give u these numbers.(p.s. -i only have one scsi, wish i had 2 setup up in raid).

access time - 6.7 milliseconds
read burst speed - 91.4 megabytes
read speed - maximum 42.2 megabytes.

the numbers are very close indeed to a raptor i think.

p.p.s. - the seagate cheetah x-15 ultra 320 scsi drive is out, but to run in in raid with an ONBOARD scsi controller(i am using an adaptec pci controller which takes an additional 8 second boot time to read the bios and spin up the scsi thus causing my boot time time to be 23 seconds from power off to internet online which is another story) would cost me a minimum of $258 for a gigabyte board and $400 for a tyan board. too much right now.
GL with the raptors.

Was that numbers for your Raptor? I get the same with my WD 800 JB SE but worse access times of course.