ICH5R RAID0 on 8KNXP v1.0

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Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.gigabyte (More info?)

My present setup is an 8KNXP v1 (non-Ultra), P4 2.8C, 2gb RAM, and a 36gb
Raptor as my C: drive on the ICH5R controller. A 160 PATA is used as D:. I
have an opportunity to buy another 36gb Raptor at a good price, am thinking
about setting up a RAID0 on that controller, and would like some input on
the wisdom of this move.

I do photo editing in PhotoShop and a number of other disk-intensive tasks,
like moving large photo files around, and HD speed is important. When I
moved from a 160gb Maxtor PATA drive (6Y160P0 with 8mb buffer) to this
Raptor I was impressed with the performance improvement, but there will
always be room for more performance. I had a RAID0 setup on an old 440BX
board a couple of years ago and was impressed with its performance relative
to a single drive, though it did not match this single Raptor drive.

I'd like to hear from anyone, especially those who've experienced both, who
can give me an idea of the relative performance increase I can expect from
creating a RAID0 array from these drives. I'm not worried about the risk of
adding another variable to the reliability picture, as I am very well backed
up at all times and can recover quickly from a failed drive should one HD in
the array fail.

I'd also like tweak recommendations, like the stripe size, etc. I used 64mb
on my old RAID setup, which seemed to work well.

--

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Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.gigabyte (More info?)

"Bob Davis" <iclicknix@cox.net> wrote in message
news:9Mo1d.88196$yh.67258@fed1read05...
>
> My present setup is an 8KNXP v1 (non-Ultra), P4 2.8C, 2gb RAM, and a 36gb
> Raptor as my C: drive on the ICH5R controller. A 160 PATA is used as D:.
> I have an opportunity to buy another 36gb Raptor at a good price, am
> thinking about setting up a RAID0 on that controller, and would like some
> input on the wisdom of this move.
>
> I do photo editing in PhotoShop and a number of other disk-intensive
> tasks, like moving large photo files around, and HD speed is important.
> When I moved from a 160gb Maxtor PATA drive (6Y160P0 with 8mb buffer) to
> this Raptor I was impressed with the performance improvement, but there
> will always be room for more performance. I had a RAID0 setup on an old
> 440BX board a couple of years ago and was impressed with its performance
> relative to a single drive, though it did not match this single Raptor
> drive.
>
> I'd like to hear from anyone, especially those who've experienced both,
> who can give me an idea of the relative performance increase I can expect
> from creating a RAID0 array from these drives. I'm not worried about the
> risk of adding another variable to the reliability picture, as I am very
> well backed up at all times and can recover quickly from a failed drive
> should one HD in the array fail.
>
> I'd also like tweak recommendations, like the stripe size, etc. I used
> 64mb on my old RAID setup, which seemed to work well.

I'd suggest buying a second 36GB Raptor and setting up RAID 0 using the
Intel RAID controller. Keep the 160GB drive for backups and data.

The Intel RAID BIOS is VERY easy....i'd leave the stripe size to default,
128K stripe....better fault tolerance and using 64K stripe dosen't gain
much, in benchmarks.

Make sure you download the latest Intel floppy disk drivers for the F6
install stage.

http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df/filter_results.asp?strOSs=44&strTypes=DRV%2CUTL&ProductID=1809&OSFullName=Windows*+XP+Professional&submit=Go%21

I personally have two 74GB Raptors in RAID 0 running over the ICH5R, i just
setup things within the Gigabyte BIOS correctly first, then set up the RAID
array by hitting "Ctrl" + "I" when you see the Intel RAID BIOS pop up on
screen.

The setup within the main Gigabyte BIOS can be as easy or as hard as you
make it, there have been numerous posts about how exactly to configure the
BIOS.

Google is your friend.

 

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Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.gigabyte (More info?)

"Richard Dower" <richarddower@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:ci58dk$u3p$1@kermit.esat.net...

> "Bob Davis" <iclicknix@cox.net> wrote in message
> news:9Mo1d.88196$yh.67258@fed1read05...
>>
>> My present setup is an 8KNXP v1 (non-Ultra), P4 2.8C, 2gb RAM, and a 36gb
>> Raptor as my C: drive on the ICH5R controller. A 160 PATA is used as D:.
>> I have an opportunity to buy another 36gb Raptor at a good price, am
>> thinking about setting up a RAID0 on that controller, and would like some
>> input on the wisdom of this move.
>>
>> I do photo editing in PhotoShop and a number of other disk-intensive
>> tasks, like moving large photo files around, and HD speed is important.
>> When I moved from a 160gb Maxtor PATA drive (6Y160P0 with 8mb buffer) to
>> this Raptor I was impressed with the performance improvement, but there
>> will always be room for more performance. I had a RAID0 setup on an old
>> 440BX board a couple of years ago and was impressed with its performance
>> relative to a single drive, though it did not match this single Raptor
>> drive.
>>
>> I'd like to hear from anyone, especially those who've experienced both,
>> who can give me an idea of the relative performance increase I can expect
>> from creating a RAID0 array from these drives. I'm not worried about the
>> risk of adding another variable to the reliability picture, as I am very
>> well backed up at all times and can recover quickly from a failed drive
>> should one HD in the array fail.
>>
>> I'd also like tweak recommendations, like the stripe size, etc. I used
>> 64mb on my old RAID setup, which seemed to work well.

> I'd suggest buying a second 36GB Raptor and setting up RAID 0 using the
> Intel RAID controller. Keep the 160GB drive for backups and data.

Good to hear from someone who's already set this up! What you've prescribed
is exactly what I have in mind (see first paragraph above), as I have
another 36gb drive I have an option to buy. I'd never try to mate a 36gb
Raptor and 160gb PATA drive in a RAID array, even if it would work (which it
won't).

> The Intel RAID BIOS is VERY easy....i'd leave the stripe size to default,
> 128K stripe....better fault tolerance and using 64K stripe dosen't gain
> much, in benchmarks.
>
> Make sure you download the latest Intel floppy disk drivers for the F6
> install stage.

I would like to set up the RAID array, then restore from a cloned disk (made
with Norton Ghost). This is the way I set up my last RAID array with an old
system two years ago. I already have the RAID option enabled in the bios
(f10) and the ICH5R RAID driver is loaded already for this single SATA drive
presently being used. Device Manager already shows "Intel(R) 82801ER SATA
RAID Controller" under "SCSI and RAID controllers," and according to the
"Read Me" link on the Intel site you provided earlier, "...the system is an
ICH5R system in RAID mode and no further action is required."

Thus, the driver is already be in place and I should be able to (1) add the
second drive, (2) set up the RAID array, (3) restore from a cloned drive,
(4) reboot into XP.

> I personally have two 74GB Raptors in RAID 0 running over the ICH5R, i
> just setup things within the Gigabyte BIOS correctly first, then set up
> the RAID array by hitting "Ctrl" + "I" when you see the Intel RAID BIOS
> pop up on screen.
>
> The setup within the main Gigabyte BIOS can be as easy or as hard as you
> make it, there have been numerous posts about how exactly to configure the
> BIOS.

I added the SATA controller and drive after installing the OS, which was a
trick. When researching, I was told to enable the RAID function in the bios
at the outset, which I did. For this reason I'm assuming this transition
will be easy.

Did you do any benchmarks before setting up the RAID, with one Raptor? Was
there any seat-of-the-pants difference?

 

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Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.gigabyte (More info?)

"Bob Davis" <iclicknix@cox.net> wrote in message
news:9Iq1d.88204$yh.84437@fed1read05...

> Did you do any benchmarks before setting up the RAID, with one Raptor?
> Was there any seat-of-the-pants difference?

Not into benchmarking much, but i know it's fast from everyday usage.