What are you using? RAID 0 / RAID 1

[rox1co]

i'd like to know your experiences with these 3 RAID options (i'm thinking of running RAID 0)

did you notice a significant increase in performance using RAID 0? ever crash?

things to keep in mind about me: i don't really have anything important, i already have wut is important to me backed up on DVDs

added: important

wut stripe size should i use? i'll be burning 3 movies at a time, maybe play CS:S if my computer can handle it

i was reading and i read that i could find the best stripe setting

If you go into XP disk defragmenter and click on Analyze for your array, it should return a value of the average file size.

Take this number, and divide it by 2 x # of harddrives in the array, then round DOWN to the nearest available stripe size you can choose.

Let's assume that the average file size on your harddrive is 512Kb.
Divide that by a factor of the above calculated number. In my case, I have 4 harddrives in my array, so I would choose 8.

So, 512Kb divided by 8 = 64K (the optimal stripe size for my average files).

Let's say you had 2 harddrives in the array, then using the above formula, you would choose 128K stripe size.

would this formula be right?

 

[Dark Prodigy]

I'm personally running the 74Gb Raptors in RAID 0...They are VERY fast. Apps pull up so fast its like I didn't even click the mouse to do it. Level loading in games is ridiculous. I hate waiting that's why I went with this config. No probs with it so far.

If security is your thing, I'd go with RAID 3...it offers the performance benefits of RAID 0 and the security benefit of RAID 1 (mirroring)...

RAIDing your drives with a normal 7200rpm drive will offer decent performance over a single drive to the flavor of about 8-13%...

Hope it helps...

 

[rox1co]

my load time for maps aren't that bad, i only play CS:S so i'm ok

and raptors or 10K speed HD are just too much for me

thanks for the info tho

 

[unhappy_mage]

i'd like to know your experiences with these 3 RAID options

What's the third option? Raid 0, raid 1, or what?

You're best off not running raid for your application, IMO - the drives have fast enough STR that you're not helping anything by increasing that, and you hurt the seek time where they're lacking. Raid 0 hurts you on reads and writes with added latency, raid 1 hurts you on writes with added latency (although it helps on reads - you can do two in parallel) and raid 3 has extra latency on reads and brutal punishment on writes - parity. For performance in games, you can get an extra 10% or so with raid 0, but it's not really worth the extra cost of disks when you compare it with just using a single WD2500KS or something.

 

[defakto]

I run 2 software raid 1 arrays in my FreeBSD server, but that's just to keep it consistently running.

 

[rox1co]

i'm trying to get rid of my IO limitation and i plan on getting a 2nd HD to do so

but i was thinking of getting 2 Hitachi 80GB in RAID 0 and my WD 250GB as my storage or 2 WD 250GB in RAID 0

you say it would only be 10% increase, that's good enough on top of the decline of my IO limitation but then i would get added latency

 

[Crosshairs]

I had a 36 Raptor RAID 0 array, and a 74 GIG Raptor RAID 0 array.....The 74's were obviously faster that the 36's..

Im now using the 2 74's without RAID and I honestly see no real difference....

I also have a pair of 150's that I have not even put in my rig yet.....but I highly doubt that when I do , they will be in any type of RAID array....

 

[rox1co]

i think i'll definitely just go with 2 WD 250GB w/ no RAID unless i wanna try it out for fun

thanks guys

 

[Nacho]

I had my 2x80 gig seagate cuda's in raid 0 for almost 8 months and even changing now to a higher power system, and no raid. I dont see a thing.

Have raid 5 for mass storage though.

 

[Zamboni]

I went from RAID-0 Rapors to RAID-1 using Samsung Spinpoints (SATA-300) and I think the new setup actually feels a bit smoother (no benchmarks).

Plus I no longer fret like an old lady worrying about blowing a drive.