raid 0 question

[dmplssb]

im building a new computer and was originally just going to run a 500gb wd 7200rpm hd, but after doing some ready i really like how people seem to be going with rapotrs in a raid 0 confic. My question is, if i were to just get 1 raptor would i be able to run it in raid 0 with my 500gb hd. and also, would i then be able to partician the remaining 350gb into a separate drive for vids/music and the like? thanks for any posts. cheers.

 

[4745454b]

You can AID0 the raptor and the 500GB, but just because you can doesn't mean you should. From what I understand, most controllers won't let you recover the lost 350GBs. If you use the matrix raid found on the Intel ICH8R controller, then you might. I'd do some reading on it before you commit to doing that however.

What are you doing that requires that many harddrive reads? Unless your running a database or editing hi bit rate video, you don't really need anything like AID0 on a desktop.

 

[SuperFly03]

Yes you can RAID them but it is a very bad idea. The drives aren't matched which creates issues for the controller.

Also, I believe 474 is incorrect. The extra 350GB should show up as a JBOD drive from what I understand. However, it is HIGHLY advised that you don't RAID non similar hard drives. It creates alot of extra work for the controller and likely increases degradation to the array.

Run a raptor for your OS and just back up to the 500GB hard drive if you really want a raptor.

Edit: Damn typos are getting me tonight!

 

[choirbass]

Run a raptor for your OS and just back up to the 500GB hard drive if you really want a raptor.

100% agree. unless youre working with the types of media that will actually show much benefit from raid 0, theres not much point to doing it really, other than to say you have it for the most part

mismatching drives in raid 0 isnt advisable though either (hence the agreement with the above post)... the 500GB being a slower drive than either of the newest raptors, will infact reduce the speed of the raptor down to the speed of the 500GB, and youll lose the extra capacity of the 500GB, which isnt good either, by any means. so again, raptor for OS, 500GB for storage/media/backup.

 

[SuperFly03]

good point about the speed.

Interesting sig btw. That must have taken a small bit of effort (interesting setup too, 6 hard drives? 8O )

 

[choirbass]

lol, thanks , yeah, i was bored, seemed like it would be fun to do. i only have 2 of them powered, the 74GB raptor, and the 400GB maxtor (too much heat produced otherwise as i found out)... i had another 36GB raptor installed before too, but i just installed it into my brothers system, gave him quite a boost over his older 80GB 7200

 

[4745454b]

No, I believe 4745454b is correct, though the answer would depend on the RAID controller used. Most of them would discard the 350 unused Gigs and just use the first 150GB. The "extra" space is lost, at least according to all RAID info I've read. As I mentioned, the Intel controller is different as it can raid partitions and not drives. If you use the ICH8R which has the Intel RAID matrix controller, then it might be possilbe to use all the space. Again, I don't have any data to back up the intel claim, but a quick search should prove the extra 350GBs would be lost.

(as a side note, even choirbass said "and youll lose the extra capacity of the 500GB")

 

[SuperFly03]

Well it does appear I was wrong.... I just can't remember where I got the idea that that excess space shows up as a JBOD drive.... Hmmm.

Can't win them all. :?

 

[SK711G]

I have a somewhat simular question, and dont really wanna start a new thread for this, i have 2 320GB 7200.10. my question is should i keep them seprate and use one for OS and other for swapfile, or would i benift more from raid 0.

Thx

 

[SuperFly03]

I have a somewhat simular question, and dont really wanna start a new thread for this, i have 2 320GB 7200.10. my question is should i keep them seprate and use one for OS and other for swapfile, or would i benift more from raid 0.

Thx

What do you do with your computer? Gaming, video creation, web browsing? Then we can advise you.

 

[SK711G]

Gaming/encoding mainly

 

[choirbass]

for gaming and encoding, those i would imagine are mostly cpu bound, gaming being more gpu bound than anything... encoding large files may possibly benefit from raid 0, if youre reading and writing to the hdd a lot (otherwise, it would be mainly just your cpu limiting you)... but for gaming, in nearly all situations, raid 0 will not help to any noticable degree. for gaming, you would be much better off going with a single faster hdd, more memory, a faster cpu, (or a faster gpu for during gameplay)

but, i guess to answer your question, if your cpu is in fact what is limiting you in regards to encoding (most likely), you would benefit more from keeping the 2 hdds seperate... ...one for your os and applications... the other for your media storage, pagefile, internet cache, backup data

 

[SuperFly03]

Agreed.

Unless you are swapping huge files during the encoding you will likely not see any noticeable benefit to RAID 0 but you will take on all the risk. So, IMO, it isn't worth it.