Can RAID configuration make windows boot/work slower?

DarkDubzs

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So my High School just got new computers this year and we have been using them all year so far in my vgw class. They are so slow, i have never seen a computer boot so slow and load applications so slowly. I believe they are Dell Precision T3600 "worstation" computer with a Xeon cpu and low end Quadro workstation gpu (I think i remember i saw it was a K600 or something around-lower than that). I personally believe they are way over priced at possibly $1200 or even more for what model they got.

Anyways, when the POST screen comes up it says something about a RAID controller so i suspect they are using a raid config instead of a AHCI configuration, and they only have one standard HDD so there is no point to using raid, right? Could using raid be what is slowing down the computers so much? We are using Adobe Premiere Pro, Photoshop, and right now using mostly After Effects; it is now typical for AE to crash, and it takes forever to render single frames and also an entire clip. Moving data to and from the hdd is also quite slow and everybody in class complains about it. If these are really "workstation" computers why are they so slow and can barely handle After Effects?

Could the raid setting be slowing down the comps so much or maybe its the hdd itself? What else could it be? Im surprised our school's help desk tech hasnt fixed this unless my teacher hasnt reported it to him. I would love to be able to help my class and entire school with this problem, so please help and shed some light here for me.
 
Solution
The T3600 is definitely not a slow system- Quad core Xeon Sandy Bridge E, Quad Channel RAM, etc, so if it's running slow and crashing Adobe AE, there's something askew.

However, it is slow to boot with the H310 RAID card- it literally takes about 30 seconds just for that card to initialize which is kind of ridic but there's not much you can do about it. As far as running slow in Windows, that could be anything, hardware or software. You seem to think it's a HD issue so start with HD benchmarks and if those are okay, go on to basic Windows troubleshooting. Based on the problems you're having, I'd start with drivers then the startup folder and corresponding registry keys. Of course, this is assuming you have access to an Admin account...

DarkDubzs

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But can using just one drive with raid set in the bios make a difference in speed?
 

Nuclear101

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It is impossible to have RAID with just one hard drive. They require at least 2 to work. It may be an error that is slowing it down. Try finding the "raid controller", it should be plugged into your motherboard and have the SATA data cables connected to it.
 

DarkDubzs

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Its not my computer, its my school's computers. Like i said in the OP, when the post screen comes up it says something about a RAID controller and it seems MEGARaid is installed onto the computers, seems like raid is being used? Also, when i was checking my bios on my own pc, it gave me an option to use raid (along with AHCI and IDE) and i only have one data drive so it seems you can use raid with one drive?
 

carver_g

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I think what's happening is that the T3600 comes with a Dell H310 RAID card and the HD is running off of that. That's how my T3600 came, even though it only had a single drive attached. So you will see the RAID controller initialize with each boot but that doesn't mean it's actually running a RAID array.
 

DarkDubzs

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And could that be the reason why they are so slow to boot and just to operate?
 

carver_g

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The T3600 is definitely not a slow system- Quad core Xeon Sandy Bridge E, Quad Channel RAM, etc, so if it's running slow and crashing Adobe AE, there's something askew.

However, it is slow to boot with the H310 RAID card- it literally takes about 30 seconds just for that card to initialize which is kind of ridic but there's not much you can do about it. As far as running slow in Windows, that could be anything, hardware or software. You seem to think it's a HD issue so start with HD benchmarks and if those are okay, go on to basic Windows troubleshooting. Based on the problems you're having, I'd start with drivers then the startup folder and corresponding registry keys. Of course, this is assuming you have access to an Admin account which maybe you don't....


 
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