need help with stripe size in RAID 0

S

slowbiznatch

Gawd
Joined
Oct 24, 2001
Messages
856
I'm setting up a RAID 0 system with an Epox EP-4PDA2+ rev2 and 2 WD 120JB drives. What size of a stripe should I use for best performance?
Thanks in advance for your help.
 
I'm just curious what stripe size you guys use on your RAID arrays for gaming. I've been using the default 128k stripe size for my 2 36GB raptors in RAID0. Should i go smaller?

MaximumPC just did some HDD benches using different stripe sizes in the June 2004 issue and 16k came out being the top performer according to HD TACH.
 
heres a ton of stuff :p

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=automaton+forums+raid+


http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/perf...rfStripe-c.html
http://www.storagereview.com/php/ti...page=StripeSize
Performance
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/perf...ncepts/perf.htm
http://www.storagereview.com/guide2...perfStripe.html
http://www.harddiskinfo.com/Section...eries=0&index=5

http://www.techspot.com/vb/showthread/t-1596.html
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/sh...html?i=1491&p=5
Forum chatter
http://forums.devshed.com/archive/21/2002/3/4/33101
http://www.techspot.com/vb/showthread/t-1596.html
http://www.abxzone.com/forums/showthread/t-62045.html
Raid0


hd cache size/ raid
http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=getarticle&articID=69
heres more

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NDk3LDM=
http://www.sudhian.com/showfaqs.cfm?fid=8


hope this helps :eek:

http://www.sudhian.com/showfaqs.cfm?fid=8&fcid=20 = highpoint
http://www.madshrimps.be/gotofaqlink.php?linkid=111
http://www.soyo.com.tw/kb/kbdesc.php?id=205

http://publib16.boulder.ibm.com/pse...gd/2365c818.htm
http://www.buildorbuy.net/raid.html
http://www.pctechguide.com/tutorials/RAID.htm
http://www.techtutorials.info/hwraid.html
http://www.techtutorials.com/tutori...ware/raid.shtml
http://www.acnc.com/04_00.html
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/sh...html?i=1491&p=2
http://www.computerhope.com/help/raid.htm
http://www.storagereview.com/guide2...ngleLevel0.html
http://www.tweakhardware.com/raid/
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/perf...s/single-c.html
http://searchstorage.techtarget.com...i939868,00.html


http://tech-report.com/reviews/2002...id/index.x?pg=1
http://www.itstorage.co.uk/default....s/item_list.asp
http://www.arstechnica.com/paedia/r/raid-1.html

For more detailed information on RAID levels you can visit The PC Guide Single RAID Levels and Multiple (Nested) RAID Levels. There is also a HUGE RAID glossary on the Adaptec website that I would recommend looking over as well. The Adaptec site also has a decent section on the difference between Hardware and Software RAID designs.
http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=80







http://www.recoverdata.com/raidfaq.htm
http://www.buildorbuy.net/raid.html
http://www.acnc.com/04_01_00.html
http://www.raidtoolbox.com/raidinfo.html
http://www.tutorgig.com/searchtgig....ywords=Ide+Raid

http://www.dalantech.com/boards/sho...o--fpart-1.html

http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach...raid/misc03.htm

http://support.premiopc.com/faqs/raid.htm

http://www.gen-x-pc.com/more_raid.htm

http://faq.storagereview.com/

http://www.uni-mainz.de/~neuffer/scsi/what_is_raid.html
http://www.sms.com/raid_tut.htm

i ended up at 64k
i use passmark performance test v3.5 too readily compare with previous machines

2x plus9 8mb gets

on my kt333 in raid 0 on promise 20272
benched 40read 60write max

my epox 4pca3+
on hpt 374

43 read 110 write max
both 64k stripe

please let me know your decision and results

the reference library of raid is miniscule
compared even to case mods

best luck :eek:
p.s if you want a wicked tweak program
to be able to custom configure your windows o/s
http://www.litepc.com/xplite.html

i use 98lite
and so far @804 fsb mem 1:1

im crashless 4 months Yipeee
 
There is no "best" stripe size. Selecting the proper stripe size is all about what you intend to use the machine for. Smaller stripe sizes are good for general day-to-day usage and can help the OS and most programs feel faster. Larger stripe sizes are better for reading or writing very large datafiles, like in the case of editiing digital video or audio.

I would say that 16k or 64k is ideal for a gaming machine. Anything above that is probably a bit too big. Of course, stripe size performance is also affected by the drives you're using, as well as the RAID controller, so there are no absolutes.
 
It would also yield significat performance, if you format your array with the same cluster size as your stripe.
 
M4d-K10wN said:
It would also yield significat performance, if you format your array with the same cluster size as your stripe.
Click to expand...

really? didn't know that one.. might re-format a partition and try...
 
You'd have to do it from another hard drive, booted in Windows. If you format frin floppy, it will give you the default 4K cluster size. Not a problem for me, since I have a ghost IDE drive for backup, but a royal pain in the ass for people who don't.
 
I have 64 stripe size and 64k cluster size with two 36gb raptors, and after a defrag(before the defrag it's MUCH MUCH worse) I get around 75 mb/s write and 50 mb/s read. When I installed XP onto the stripe a couple months ago it was like 90/85, I don't know what happened :-[ I have to defrag extremely often to maintain these meager rates, too. I have two partitions, each score almost the same.

I'm about to reformat with 32k stripe size and 32k cluster size to see if that helps.
 
Try half cluster stripe first, might do the trick. However that stripe size is going into the "too large" territory.
 
Ugly_Jim said:
half cluster stripe? :confused:
Click to expand...

stripe is half a cluster i think he means. one would think that having each cluster be half a stripe would work better.
 
But that guy had 95 mb/s average with the same access time as me with 512k cluster and 16kb stripe size. I want to try this configuration, any objections?

edit: using huge cluster sizes didn't help my speeds any, the main thing was using the 16k stripe size. I get around 90 mb/s read average in HDtach now, no matter what cluster size. I'm going to use 32k just for kicks.
 
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