Raid Level 0 For Gaming

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NrthnStar5

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Hi everyone. I have a raid level 0 stripe size at 4kb right now, however i'm trying to find the BEST stripe size for optimal gaming performance. Can anyone help ? Thanks!
 
depends on the average file size... the larger the files, the larger stripe size you want.

if your game files are large (most likely) then it would help. however, i believe the smaller files eat up more space that usual.
 
UltimaParadox said:
Sadly this is true, save your disk space and don't RAID
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Well, with Raid 0, you're not losing any disk space. Two 60 gb drives in Raid 0 = 120 gb still, just as if they weren't raided at all. The only worrisome aspect is if you lose one drive, you lose everything.
 
I dont know crap about raid...except for what I read on the intarnets...

But the truth about raid is that

RAID PWNES!!!
terabyte.raid0.array.2.jpg

raid.png


4x 300GB + Raid 0 = 1.08TB

Promise SX4000lite and 5 Maxtor DiamondMax 10's, the 5th one is the boot drive.
Searching through all my "files" is a whole lot fast when not having to search through 5-6
seperate drives...plus with all the leeching from lans (hello 1000 gamer PDXLan5) you dont
want to have to sacrifice a game your invested some time in...especially when lanning with
different people...you never know what game will be called upon.
 
If you're looking for a slight increase in HD transfer speeds then I suggest getting a Raptor. It's definitely an improvement over 7200RPM, but it's up to you to decide if the price is truly worth it. I'd say it's a better investment than RAID though.
 
For gaming, raid isn't going to do much for you, as has been stated. Load times may be slightly faster, but that's it.

A better investment would be memory. Gobs and gobs of memory. That way you don't even touch the disk ( if you can avoid it ).
 
Or... a new video card/ CPU? *shock* If you want performance that's still the only way to get noticeable improvements.
 
The other hassle with raid 0 is if you have to reinstall Windows, you've gotta load raid drivers from a floppy disc during the process. That's a drag, man.
 
One thing I've wanted to try with RAID is create an a RAID 0 array with 8 drives and see how fast it can go. Just for benchmarking purposes. I'd never use such an array for anything serious.
 
I too was lured to the dark side, aka RAID-0, some time ago. Had 2 x 120 GB Seagate SATA drives running RAID-0, honestly, the difference in speed was not really noticeable. Then the RAID-0 array took a poop on me, lost all the data. So I don't do RAID on my machine anymore. :(
 
Yeah, unless you're going hardcore video/photo editing with really huge files being moved around, RAID-0 is probably more of a risk than a benefit. If you just leave the drives separate, either one failing leaves the other one alone. Once they're in RAID, one drive failing loses both drives. (Unless they're in my RAID-1 mirror ;), or my friend's big-ass RAID-5 :eek:.)

Just find something that works for you. If it seems better to you, go with RAID-0. If you're worried about losing your data, grab another drive (I'm assuming you only have 2) and try RAID-5. (You'll need a RAID card for that, I've yet to see on onboard card support RAID-5.)
 
It comes in handy when writing large volumes of files. Compressing DVD's with DVD2One or DVDShrink is one situation where it would help a bit.
 
RAID 0 is only beneficial when writing large files to disk, like video. It can actually slow down read times.

RAID 1 will speed up read times slightly and add fault tolerance but does'nt give you as much capacity.

Your best bet, as has been stated above, is get a single 74gb Raptor drive.
 
I hate resurrecting an old thread, but I'm playing EQ2 and Vanguard currently and have them set to maximum textures. I've been told the file sizes needed to load into the vid cards are huge and thus bottle neck on my single raptor. I have ordered a 2nd raptor and am curious, the file sizes are huge, and my SLI'd 8800GTX's do pretty well, but with 2gb of ram and the cpu at 3.5ghz i'm still getting hitching... So I wanted to try out another 2gb of ram and eliminate the virtual memory, and 2nd try raid zero 150 raptors...

So what is the general thoughts on this. I mean with very large files and the fact that textures in these 2 games are constantly being loaded into the GPU memory, will I see what i hope is a 20% boost in performance with the above 2 upgrades?
 
Sunin said:
I hate resurrecting an old thread, but I'm playing EQ2 and Vanguard currently and have them set to maximum textures. I've been told the file sizes needed to load into the vid cards are huge and thus bottle neck on my single raptor. I have ordered a 2nd raptor and am curious, the file sizes are huge, and my SLI'd 8800GTX's do pretty well, but with 2gb of ram and the cpu at 3.5ghz i'm still getting hitching... So I wanted to try out another 2gb of ram and eliminate the virtual memory, and 2nd try raid zero 150 raptors...

So what is the general thoughts on this. I mean with very large files and the fact that textures in these 2 games are constantly being loaded into the GPU memory, will I see what i hope is a 20% boost in performance with the above 2 upgrades?
Click to expand...
No. Don't RAID.
 
NrthnStar5 said:
Hi everyone. I have a raid level 0 stripe size at 4kb right now, however i'm trying to find the BEST stripe size for optimal gaming performance. Can anyone help ? Thanks!
Click to expand...

I would suggest that you try different sizes and for each time/ benchmark whatever you are trying to optimize. Do at least 3-4 repetitions of each test, rebooting in between to minimize the impact of disk caching. Please share the results and your methodology with us.

Archer75 said:
RAID 0 is only beneficial when writing large files to disk, like video.
Click to expand...
That is incorrect. RAID-0 is also very good at serving large read requests.
 
is there any extra cpu overhead to take into consideration when running a raid setup?

 
The only people that I know that have used or currently use Raid 0 have faced disaster with their set ups. I wouldn't consider it unless I was running some sort of server.
 
Running Raid 5 on my Vista x64 setup. Did it for redundancy mostly. My HD rates at 5.9 if it means anything, but I doubt it (prolly more HD size then anything else)
 
I like my raid 0 array. I am always one of the first to load in a game. Helps in BF2. Lot cheaper then raptors and has similar performance imo. I have a external drive and a burner for backing up. So if my array goes down I have a reason to re format and minimal data loss. Now it could be because I have a already fast rig, but a friend of mine with a similar system except no raid loads like a few seconds slower in cs:s. Non gaming wise, files access is pretty quick, moving files is fast, and I have no slow downs when saving large files.

There is a difference, but its up to you if you care about a few seconds. For bf2 is matters because it means 1st pick at vehicles:p
 
I have never had a problem with my HDD's in RAID 0. I'm pretty much guranteed first spot in any game because of load times I've noticed. Esp. BF2.

No, I have had several problems with the ULI controller on this craptastic motherboard. I need to ditch this thing.
 
I just recently did my first RAID 0 array with Seagate 7200.10 250 GB HDs. I get slightly faster loading on games. The only two things that seem to show a big difference is Disk Keeper and Oblivion.

I first played through Oblivion over the summer and the frame rate dropped and would pause or chug everytime it would "load new area". With the raid array this problem has been eliminated and the game is much more enjoyable. Other then the text being displayed, I can no longer tell its loading.

I actualy decided to get the array thinking it would help dvd shrink since its big files. It made no difference to dvd shrink at all. If you play alot of Oblivion, or other game that has similar loading situations, or want to be the first one loaded in an online game then its worth it to go raid. If not then invest that money somewhere else in your pc.
 
Ok, lets clear up a few things:

1. My op system and critical files are on my 74 gig raptor, which is not setup in a raid.

2. My single 150 raptor right now only houses my games (IE I could lose it all and I'd not shed a tear!)

3. I do play oblivion, and I can honestly say that EQ2 with max settings and Vanguard with max settings is more taxing to my system then oblivion!

Also my improvement estimate is combining a move from 2 gig to 4gig, and adding in the twin raptor 150's in raid 0. So I guess I'm still hoping for 20% boost.

A bit of a question, will the system auto recognize the raid when I plug the 2nd drive into the raid port on my 680i? Or will I need to setup something? Any good guides on setting up a raid 0 out there?

Thanks in advance from a raid newbie!
 
I didn't see it in your posts so I thought I'd point out that you would need to factor in a 64 bit OS if you plan to go to 4 gigs of RAM. A 32 bit os can't see the full 4 gigs, so a change to XP64 or Vista 64 would need to happen. The change is worth pointing out because many people feel XP64 and Vista 64 aren't quite ready for gaming due to driver issues. I can't say either way, but I'd recommend that you look into it yourself to see if the boost to 4 gigs of RAM is worth the potential headache associated with it.
 
Sunin said:
Ok, lets clear up a few things:

Also my improvement estimate is combining a move from 2 gig to 4gig
Click to expand...

More then likely wasting your cash unless ou're running XPx64 or Vista x64. Pretty sure that Winders will only recognize 3 gigs of Ram unless you're running a 64 bit OS.

Sunin said:
and adding in the twin raptor 150's in raid 0. So I guess I'm still hoping for 20% boost.
Click to expand...

Highly unlikey you'll get that kind of boost. I would look into a SCSI controller card and a three SCSI disks set to raid 5 if you want to see a significant boost. But its pricey, and you'll probably not see much of a difference game wise.

Sunin said:
A bit of a question, will the system auto recognize the raid when I plug the 2nd drive into the raid port on my 680i? Or will I need to setup something? Any good guides on setting up a raid 0 out there?

Thanks in advance from a raid newbie!
Click to expand...

I don't have a 680i so I do not know what controller they use for the raid. Typically, you would set it up this way...

Make sure the ports are active in the BIOS and the HD's are recognized. Make sure the Raid controller is active in the Bios as well. When you boot up, you should see a secondary BIOS for the Raid controller itself.

While in this, pick your drives you wish to stripe by following the onscreen directions and selecting the two drives and 'create RAID'. You may have to choose the type of Raid in the mobo BIOS when you're through (AHCPI or something, consult the raid docs for your chipset)
When you boot into windows, format the array. To be on the safe side, I would remove the Raptor holding the OS so you don't accidentally make it a part of the Raid and nuke it. Typically, your first HD should be drive 0, and the different sizes should prevent you from accidentally picking the wrong one. But you never know when the dog will start barking in the middle of it and you do a serious whoopsie! ( in my case, its a swearing parrot :D )
 
Thank you for that very informative post. I think EVGA 680i also has some xp drivers I will have to install for it to recognize the raid controller, I can at least do that before the stuff arrives.

I thought XP sp2 would recognize up to something like 3.84gig... something with the last bit not showing up properly... I guess I will see... I can always return the ram...
 
WarriorX said:
I like my raid 0 array. I am always one of the first to load in a game. Helps in BF2. Lot cheaper then raptors and has similar performance imo. I have a external drive and a burner for backing up. So if my array goes down I have a reason to re format and minimal data loss. Now it could be because I have a already fast rig, but a friend of mine with a similar system except no raid loads like a few seconds slower in cs:s. Non gaming wise, files access is pretty quick, moving files is fast, and I have no slow downs when saving large files.

There is a difference, but its up to you if you care about a few seconds. For bf2 is matters because it means 1st pick at vehicles:p
Click to expand...

Ditto. I'm always in the top 3 in a map with Opt [email protected], 2GB ram and a RAID 0 of 2 x 200GB Seagate 7200.9s.
 
I like my raid-0 as well, though I won't pretend it is life-changing. I have an external HD for backups so the allure of mirroring is gone for me. I do notice games load a little quicker and Oblivion did seem to zone-load quicker as mentioned above.

Next time I install I don't know if I will keep it but at this point I don't see a point in not doing it (for me at least).
 
You'd be better off not using RAID.

Install your OS on one drive, put your games on the other drive, and enjoy. You might see a *slight* increase in load times if the game uses large files, but your overall system performance will improve.

Why do it this way:

-You can read from your game installation drive and write to your paging file on the OS drive simultaneously.
-Your game drive can be 100% defragmented without immovable OS sectors, putting all your large files together and reducing seek times

edit: The RAID 0 in my sig is no longer present. I'm in the process of moving to a four-drive configuration that puts the OS on one drive, games on another, and the paging file on a 15k rpm SCSI drive. (the fourth drive is a 500 GB data drive)
 
Please DO NOT RAID 0 for gaming purposes, this has been beaten to the death! You want HD performance for gaming - get the king raptor150 or the revised raptor74gig edition!
 
chaikovski2002 said:
Please DO NOT RAID 0 for gaming purposes, this has been beaten to the death! You want HD performance for gaming - get the king raptor150 or the revised raptor74gig edition!
Click to expand...

wouldn't raiding two Raptor 150's give you even greater performance?
 
Sunin said:
wouldn't raiding two Raptor 150's give you even greater performance?
Click to expand...

Not significantly.

RAID 0 increases one thing, and one thing only: linear read/write speeds. That means that you have to be reading or writing a large file from start to finish, and that the file is lined up perfectly on the disk (not fragmented at all).

RAID 0 will not improve your seek time, which is the time it takes for your actuator to move the head to a different place on the disk. Any time the drive needs to jump to a different sector because a file is fragmented or you have multiple I/O operations going at once, you're seeking.

Now let's think about what a system does with a single drive. While your game is loading, it's reading heavily from the hard drive and placing what it needs in RAM. While doing this, Windows might decide it needs to put something in the paging file. Read...seek...write...seek...read again. Because you're running off a single drive, your operating system has created a large number of sectors that cannot be moved, forcing other files to fit around them. This can cause you to seek again as it jumps from one file to another on another part of the disk. This problem is made even worse by the fact that ALL of your disk activity is on one disk.

For best performance, I'm convince that four drives is the optimal arrangement. I think I laid it out, but I'll do it again:

One for the OS and apps you don't mind waiting on
One for games and other applications
One for document and media storage (a slower, high-capacity drive)
One for paging file (go for low seek time here)

You could eek a little more speed out of the system by adding a second drive for games and setting up a RAID 1 to squeeze out a small read increase.
 
Sunin said:
with enough memory wouldn't it make sense to remove the page file?
Click to expand...

No. The system needs the file and removing it can cause problems, no matter how much ram you have. Vista is smarter than XP about using every bit of ram it can get but it's still not a good idea to get rid of the page file.
 
well i disabled it, the pagefile, over the weekend and in deed did run into an issue with not enough memory and I'm running 2gb... Vanguard has some huge textures, so I hit the 2gb limit and it crashed... windows had a msg stating not enough memory please enable virtual memory or something like that...
 
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