Noob RAID 0 questions

[naits360]

OK, so this is going to be my first time I setup a RAID configuration. I'm planning on building a new rig, which will almost only be used for gaming, and of course applications, like mozilla,ITUNES, maybe some Photoshop etc. I got a couple of questions though:

Planning on getting 2x Western Digital VelociRaptor 150 GB and one Western Digital VelociRaptor 300 GB. The 2 150s will run in a RAID 0 the other 300 GB will be primary HDD. This will totaly 450 GB disk space. ( I dont need more then that)


Where should I install my OS in the RAID 0, or in the individual 300 GB?
And what drive should I use for what? Like games in the RAID 0? and applications in the individual 300 GB?


Will this be any good? or will it just be waste...

 

[cjl]

The RAID volume will be faster, so I'd use that for OS and apps that you care about speed (oh, and your plan would total 600GB - when a couple drives are used in RAID 0, their storage adds). I wouldn't get another velociraptor though - for an additional volume, I'd use a larger, cheaper drive, like a WD Caviar Black 640GB. It'll cost less, and still be fast enough.

 

[4745454b]

What does the rest of the build look like? AID0 is not for gaming rigs.

 

[roadrunner197069]

If you are going for storage and speed get 2x wd 640s.

If you want sheer speed get some SSDs and raid them. Then maybe a 640 for storage.

I just bought 4 32g OCZ core series for $69 a piece on newegg. Once they get here I will post my raid 0 results. My total was $279 and i will only have 120g GB space "which is plenty for os and apps" my speeds will be rediculous. 400-500MB/s read. And I will use my 2 WD 640s raid 0 for storage, and a seperate 1TB drive for backups.

My current WD 640s get 181MB/s transfers.

1 velociraptor will do about 180 according to some reviews I saw. 2 in raid 0 260. The smaller rators will be like 120 single, 240 raid 0.

Its all about what you need, speed or space.

I cnat wait to get my new SSDs.

My raid 0 640s are bottlenecking my i7 920 3.8.

 

[cjl]

If you are going for storage and speed get 2x wd 640s.

If you want sheer speed get some SSDs and raid them. Then maybe a 640 for storage.

I just bought 4 32g OCZ core series for $69 a piece on newegg. Once they get here I will post my raid 0 results. My total was $279 and i will only have 120g GB space "which is plenty for os and apps" my speeds will be rediculous. 400-500MB/s read. And I will use my 2 WD 640s raid 0 for storage, and a seperate 1TB drive for backups.

My current WD 640s get 181MB/s transfers.

1 velociraptor will do about 180 according to some reviews I saw. 2 in raid 0 260. The smaller rators will be like 120 single, 240 raid 0.

Its all about what you need, speed or space.

I cnat wait to get my new SSDs.

My raid 0 640s are bottlenecking my i7 920 3.8.

1 velociraptor will actually do about 100-120MB/s, with 7ms access times. Here's a benchmark from my pair:

The transfer rates aren't that much higher than a pair of the 640s or anything like that, but the access time is quite a bit faster, which helps a lot in many applications.

 

[roadrunner197069]

Wow, I didnt kow the transfers were so close to the 640s. But ya yiou got to love the access times.

I am so excited to get my ssds, i cant wait.

 

[naits360]

Hmm, I see ok. I thought when you put two drives into RAID 0 their disk space would be the equivalent to that of one of them..
Anyways I'm looking for speed. 300 GB would be enough for me (cause I have another laptop which I use for school and stuff) So if I got 2 WD VelociRaptor 150 GB and set them in RAID 0, I would get 300 GB, which is enough for me!

Does that sound good?

 

[4745454b]

Depends, again, whats the rest of the system like? What will this computer be used for. Don't throw all/most of your money into harddrives if you are sacrificing CPU or GPU speed.

 

[allhands]

Depends, again, whats the rest of the system like? What will this computer be used for. Don't throw all/most of your money into harddrives if you are sacrificing CPU or GPU speed.

I agree with the above post. But definitely put your apps on your RAID 0 drives. I would get a much larger drive for data since the loading of apps is where you are going to see the most speed differential. Now if you are really that concerned about speed then I would go for the X25M since it's not that much more expensive than the 3 HDDs that you have in mind and it will pretty much blow everything else out of the water as far as speed.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167005

 

[naits360]

ATI RADEON HD4870x2
Asus P6T Deluxe
Corsair Dominator TWIN3X DDR3-1600 6 GB
Intel Core i7 940
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit
Antec TruePower Quattro 1000W
2 of these, in RAID 0! Western Digital VelociRaptor 300 GB


gonna buy all this sometime next week

 

[geofelt]

There is generally no real world(vs. synthetic transfer rate benchmarks) performance advantage to raid of any kind.
Go to www.storagereview.com at this link: http://faq.storagereview.com/tiki-index.php?page=SingleDriveVsRaid0
There are some specific applications that will benefit, but
gaming is not one of them. Even if you have an application which reads one input file sequentially, and writes
it out, you will perform about as well by putting the input on one drive, and the output on the other.

For such a no-compromise setup like you are planning, I would suggest the 80gb Intel x25-M SSD. The price is high($600 or so), but there is nothing close. Beware of any other current MLC based SSD because they have unacceptable random write issues. Anandtech has the definitive article on this issue.
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3403

Put your OS on the SSD, and whatever current games that will fit. Use a velociraptor for overflow and storage.

Pay for it by getting the 920 instead of 940. The difference in performance is minor, and easily made up by a mild overclock. All I had to do to get to 3.33 was to raise the bclk from 133 to 160 with similar ram.
I would also look into a decent oem cooler, because the chip can get hot.
The psu is somewhat of a overkill, even if you will be planning on crossfire .
---good luck---

 

[4745454b]

Ok, your system is good overall. The only thing I would urge you to do is not put your OS on an AID0 system. For me, reinstalling windows is a PITA. Put your OS on a single fast drive (Vel, or SSD.) and then build whatever array you think will help with your gaming. Seeing as AID0 responds well with more drives, I'd build one with 3 or 4 (or more) 320/640GB drives. The more drives in your array, the faster it will be overall.