Western Digital 640GB RAID 0 questions

[Nosenuggets45]

I plan on setting up a RAID 0 array with 2 WD640's. I run XP and from what I'm reading, I have to load up the drivers from a floppy.

1) Is it possible to use a flash drive or is a floppy the only way possible to get the drivers into the XP install?

2) Instead of making the RAID 0 partiton the total space of both drives, would making it the size of just one drive prove faster in any way? (Someone told me this) And is it really worth the hassle of losing 600+gb of storage to gain the supposed speed I'm going to gain?

 

[nitrobass24]

1) Floppy or Slipstream

2) You will have better access times. You have to decide what is most important. As youself questions like how much do I need? How much do I want?
Nobody besides yourself can answer that for you.

 

[Nosenuggets45]

Well along what lines of better access time are we talking? If its only a difference of 1 or 2 ms then I wouldn't consider that worth it IMO.

 

[DonDon]

This old thread shows the advantages of short stroking very nicely. How much it translates in to real world performance is a source of constant debate.

Thread.

You can get faster transfer speed with near the same access time as a Vraptor.

Don

 

[Nosenuggets45]

Hmm, seems to be legit. Now my final question. What difference does 8ms access time vs 11ms make to me really? Is it a noticeable difference worth losing a little less than a TB of storage or will it make things load .1 second faster? I'm curious because other wise I may just make it about 600GB and call it good.

 

[DonDon]

Like I said. Some people swear by their Raid 0 and will use nothing less. Others try it and yawn. Since you hang out in the [H]ardForums, I suppose you could install Windows and a few apps on a single drive and try it, then install Windows and the same apps on a Raid and see if you like it better.

Don

 

[sgrinavi]

I have 3 of the WD640's in RAID0 short stroked to 640. It's pretty fast - but the access times are not so great. The space is not lost, you can still format and use it. I have my photoshop swap disk and use the rest as a temporary (fast) data storage.