shortstroke velociraptors

D

dengar

Weaksauce
Joined
Dec 7, 2008
Messages
125
KICK ASSSSS!!!!!!

I've reinstalled OS's like 30 times now with different stripe sizes....

I'm very impressed with this result in XP

This is while installing Left4Dead off Steam

238.0 max
129.1 min
212.7 avg (was better without installing L4D)
3457.8mb burst courtesy of write caching i believe

5.0ms access time :D

2X150gb velociraptors RAID 0
runnign 32k stripe
40gb OS partition
rest as storage
 
dengar said:
40gb OS partition
rest as storage
Click to expand...

Just as a point of information; That's really not short-stroking a drive.

Short-stroking means that only a fraction of the entire HD is actually used. For example, if you short stroke to 10%, for a 300GB drive that means only one 30GB partition is created, and the other 270GB are unpartitioned and go unused.
 
Well when I made one large 300gb array and put a partition on it, I did not get that performance.. I decided to see if I could make 2 seperate raid 0 arrays and it let me and now I'm getting alot better performance

Went from 7ms to 5ms access times and about 20-30 more mbs a second
 
Thuleman said:
Just as a point of information; That's really not short-stroking a drive.

Short-stroking means that only a fraction of the entire HD is actually used. For example, if you short stroke to 10%, for a 300GB drive that means only one 30GB partition is created, and the other 270GB are unpartitioned and go unused.
Click to expand...

Whether it's truly "short-stroking" or not, it's as good a name as any for the performance boost it gives me. In the past 6 months that I've been getting into RAID and data storage issues, this is the first time I've heard your definition of short-stroking. Every other time I've read about it has been in reference to multiple partitions on a RAID array.

I have 3 WD6400AAKS is matrix RAID0 with a 200GB OS partition. The rest is an additional RAID0 volume that I use as temp working space. I have WHS so I don't really need any storage in my other machines.
 
Grats OP on the VR RAID0 shortsroke. Lovin' mine. HOWEVER, I'm am determined to get some of those new OCZ Vertex SSD's whenever they go for sale. I'll have 5 VR's for sale...
 
Short stroking is specifically leaving part of the drive unpartitioned so the heads never have to travel there to access data. If you partitioned the rest of the space, then you lose whatever performance gained when you start accessing the data on that part. What you've done is no different than defragging your drive while putting the most used data at the front.
 
Well is the benchmark software lieing to me because with 1 large 300gb raid 0 i get higher ms then with a small partition and one larger partition

Wouldn't the first partition use the first section of the drive so in theory it would be segregated from the rest of the drive only time i would obtain the slower access times ect is when I'm pulling something from the second partition?
 
dengar said:
Well is the benchmark software lieing to me because with 1 large 300gb raid 0 i get higher ms then with a small partition and one larger partition

Wouldn't the first partition use the first section of the drive so in theory it would be segregated from the rest of the drive only time i would obtain the slower access times ect is when I'm pulling something from the second partition?
Click to expand...

No, the benchmark's not lying. As long as you're not hitting data on the 2nd partition. you'll get the same performance as a true shortstroke.
 
yeah wha ti thought so im going to benefit from shortstroking my OS and games on the one partition and just put my junk on the other portion of the drives
 
im still not going to lose sleep anyways the damn velociraptors haul ass period..
 
I never thought I'd live to see the day where someone had to define "short stroke" in geek terminology. :D
 
ryan_975 said:
Short stroking is specifically leaving part of the drive unpartitioned so the heads never have to travel there to access data. If you partitioned the rest of the space, then you lose whatever performance gained when you start accessing the data on that part.
Click to expand...

This.

Furthermore the term "short stroke" is referring to the the shorter distance the arm has to travel. Instead of going from the outer edge of the platter all the way to the center, it only travels about 1/2~1/3, thus making its swing or "stroke" short.

imo Short stroking made much more of an impact back in the day and was more beneficial under heavy loads.
 
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