Anyone have bookmarks to RAID-0 Gaming benchmarks?

[Codesmith]

Anyone know have any links to some good reviews/benchmarking that shows the effects RAID-0 has on loading/level loading times for a variety of games?

Particularly I have yet to see any numbers in regards to MMORPGs which may be more hard drive intensive than your average FPS.

 

[areseebee54]

http://faq.storagereview.com/SingleDriveVsRaid0

http://www.opentechsupport.net/forums/archive/topic/31802-1.html

Hope this helps.

 

[Codesmith]

Thanks, I added those to my Tech->Hardware->Hard drives bookmarks.

But what I am really trying to find is a comparison of RAID-0 vs Single Drive using actual loading times for various games.

Particularly MMORPG's since I have had many people claim dramatic improvment with these games, but have yet to see any hard numbers to prove things one way or the other.

My personal guess is that RAID 0 had only a small (0-12%) affect on game/level loading times, but I haven't really seen it put to the test.

---
OK I found this

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=2760&p=10

If you just focus on the single 750 GB vs the 2x750 RAID 0 you can see actual measurements for current games. Unfortunately no MMORPGs.

 

[Codesmith]

I have a friend who is dead set on building a new system with RAID 0 to play his MMORPG's and I am trying to convince him otherwise, but he says that FPS game data is not relevant.

It doesn't help my case that Alienware advertises RAID 0 as the "perfect solution".

Extreme Performance – Serial ATA RAID 0
For users seeking the highest levels of hard drive performance, Alienware offers Serial ATA RAID 0 configurations. RAID 0, or “striping,” distributes data between the two identical hard drives to enable enhanced system performance. In addition to increased performance, RAID 0 combines two hard drives sequentially, which doubles total available storage space. Suitable for situations in which drive performance and capacity are crucial, RAID 0 is the perfect solution.

Also more than once when stating that RAID 0's (or a Raptor's) average read rate benifits will not carry over to an equal benifit in game/level loading time someone will say that MMORPG's work differently since they have such massive levels.

I don't play such games, but I am guessing at some point there is a delay in moving between city to city or zone to zone that is long enough to bug people, and if its that long its measurable. A stop watch will do.

I am not willing to buy an extra hard drive reinstall my system and sign up for a MMORPG just to personally prove the point one way or the other.

So I am hoping that someone who else out there has done the work for me.

 

[morbidgames]

A Blizzard "Blue Post" about WoW not gaining any significant benefit from Raid 0 http://blue.mmo-champion.com/topic/45449/wow---raid-0

This is pretty universal for any MMO as any slow down you're experiencing from transitioning maps has to do with network latency, speed, server response, etc - not your HD performance.

Of course it does help when it comes to installing the 9+Gigs worth of files, but that's only a one time thing.