Raid options...

[Logan321]

Just looking for some suggestions. Right now, I have a 74gig raptor, a pair of 320gig 7200.10 16meg cache seagates, and a 7200.11 32meg cache seagate drive in my personal system.

I have been using the raptor for OS and 2 320s in raid0 for game installs. I was hoping to take a 750gig out of my server and use it for raid but it turns out it's a 7200.10 16meg cache drive instead.

Unfortunately, the 750gig seagates never seem to go on sale at NCIX, it's usually cheaper to get a 1TB than a 750gig now.

Option 1. Keep everything as is, or install OS on raid set. Will I notice a significant improvement going from the raptor to the raided 320s?

Option 2. Wait for a 750gig to go on sale, and make a raid out of that set. Again, either with OS on raid, or separate HD.

Option 3. Pick up a different sized 7200.11 seagate drive, 500gig or 1TB, and raid with 750. What are the disadvantages of this?

I was planning on having the extra space just be archival anyway, I usually partition my raid such that a small OS partition is first, then a larger (1/2 the capacity) partition for games, then the remainder for storage.

 

[d7a7z7e7d]

Well, is it a 8MB or 16MB cache raptor? The 8MB cache ones are considerably slower I thought.

If I were you, I'd do this:

1. Ditch the raptor, especially if its the 8MB version.
2. Use the 2x 320's in RAID 0 for both OS and games.
3. Use the 750GB for your general data storage (movies, mp3s, pictures, documents, etc... you know, shit that you wouldn't want to lose if your RAID 0 failed). Also use Acronis or something similar and backup your 320's to this.
4. ???
5. Profit.

And yes, you should notice a decent increase in performance with the raid over the raptor (even if its 16MB).

 

[Dangman]

A bit old of a post but should help you out:

I do a lot of disk intensive activity, such as media encoding and archiving, so fast sequential reads/writes is what I need. Therefore, a RAID0 array is better for my situation than a Raptor. However, I do have both, but still prefer a RAID0 array over a Raptor. With or without a RAID array, make sure you have a good backup solution.

Avg Transfer Rate, Access Time: HDD info, Price
78MB/s, 08.2ms: WD Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB, $160AR
65MB/s, 13.7ms: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS 320GB, $80
65MB/s, 13.2ms: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3300620AS 300GB, $60
52MB/s, 14.0ms: WD Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB, $70
112MB/s, 13.2ms: RAID0 'cuda's, 600GB total, $120 (ICH9R on P35-DS3R)

As you can see, the 'cuda is twice the size and half the cost, for nearly the same transfer speed. Stick them in RAID0, and you've got an even more cost effective solution. Though, the seek time of the Raptor can't be beat. If you have cash to burn, do so on a Raptor if you really want it. Otherwise, there are better cost effective solutions.

I would not go with Option 2 or 3. Both seem like a waste of cash.

 

[d7a7z7e7d]

Option 3. Pick up a different sized 7200.11 seagate drive, 500gig or 1TB, and raid with 750. What are the disadvantages of this?

Only real disadvantage is loss of storage space. If you raid drives of separate capacities, the smallest capacity is used. So, 500GB & 750GB raided gives you 1TB of storage (500gb x 2). Raid a 750 and a 1TB and you end up with 1.5TB (750x2).

 

[nitrobass24]

Ditch the raptor and sell it.

Run the 320's in Raid 0 for OS/apps/games
Run the 750 for storage/ backup for the R0 array.

 

[Logan321]

Alright. Sounds reasonable. I'll try just copying the drive over with some imaging software.