Which option is fastest

[SGTBASHIR]

Hi,
I am hoping for someone to enlighten me on this raid 0 issue. Will a pc with 2 x western digital caviar black sata 3 1tb 7200rpm hard drives on raid 0, be faster especially when it boots than a pc with an intel ssd 120gb sata 3 cherryville hard drive with the os installed on it and another hard drive western digital caviar black sata 3 1tb 7200 rpm. Basically looking for the fastest option in boot up time and general usage especially hard core gaming on socket 1366.

 

[Dereck47]

Any SATA 3 SSD will be faster than any 2 HDDs in RAID-0.

 

[photonboy]

Agreed.
My setup is like this:

a) SSD - Windows, applications

b) RAID0 (2x WD Green 2TB) - Steam and normal games, videos, downloads, backups

Re: bootup
Not only is the fastest speed for booting going to be an SSD, but Hibernation would also be much faster than turning off completely.

When I Hibernate my computer, it copies my System RAM to the SSD. When I start my computer, it does a quick POST then copies the data from the SSD back to the System RAM and continues my session.

So the FASTEST startup is: SSD + Hibernation,

And the SLOWEST startup is: Hard Drive + Cold Boot

 

[ahnilated]

You have to also remember the X58 motherboards are limited in their SATA3 support. You won't get the maximum through put on the SATA3 slots. I have an Asus motherboard and get a hair over 250MB/sec out of my SATA3 slots.

 

[ahnilated]

Agreed.
My setup is like this:

a) SSD - Windows, applications

b) RAID0 (2x WD Green 2TB) - Steam and normal games, videos, downloads, backups

Re: bootup
Not only is the fastest speed for booting going to be an SSD, but Hibernation would also be much faster than turning off completely.

When I Hibernate my computer, it copies my System RAM to the SSD. When I start my computer, it does a quick POST then copies the data from the SSD back to the System RAM and continues my session.

So the FASTEST startup is: SSD + Hibernation,

And the SLOWEST startup is: Hard Drive + Cold Boot

SSD's are notoriously bad for using in a Hibernation or sleep setup. It can cause all sorts of issues.

 

[larkspur]

You have to also remember the X58 motherboards are limited in their SATA3 support. You won't get the maximum through put on the SATA3 slots. I have an Asus motherboard and get a hair over 250MB/sec out of my SATA3 slots.

This is true but is not going to be very noticeable for the usage the OP indicated. The IOPS are still going to be awesome when using a 6gb/s drive on a 3gb/s controller. And plus, even with reduced throughput, an SSD still gives very noticeable performance advantages. But, yeah it's still a consideration.

sgtbashir - Definitely an SSD. Doesn't have to be huge (but if you want to install a lot of games on it then plan accordingly). 60gb is plenty for a great boot drive, while 120 or 240gb is really the sweet spot (both in performance and price). Windows boots much faster and anything installed on it loads much faster than a couple HDDs in RAID-0. Even though you only have SATA 3gb/s ports on your motherboard, get a SATA 6gb/s SSD, it'll work great and you can carry it with you into future systems.

 

[blackhawk1928]

OP: The SSD will most certainly be faster. You may get better sequential transfer/read/write speeds of your HDD's in RAID...and thats a maybe, BUT in general usage you are accessing many small files rather than few large ones. When you do this, it requires quick access times and this the arena where the SSD absolutely destroys HDD's...kind of like the Hulk was bashing people in the Avengers movie.

However, do know that your storage system (SSD or HDD) will not affect gaming performance. It may help you load quicker, but your FPS is unaffected by your storage device.

 

[SGTBASHIR]

Sorry I should have mentioned that my drives are all 6Gb/s and my motherboard is a gigabyte G1. Assassin intel Socket 1366. The mobo only has 2 6Gb/s connectors.

hard drives : 1 x Intel 520 Series 120 GB Interface- Sata-III /6Gbps

: 2 x Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB Sata 6Gbps 64mb Cache

 

[J_E_D_70]

SSD with a single drive is a great choice.

 

[SGTBASHIR]

C

 

[SGTBASHIR]

Could I put the os on the Intel ssd and then raid0 the 2 western digital hard drives, with the Intel ssd on the 3Gb/s connector and the 2 x Western Digital hard drives on the 6 Gb/s connector. Is this configuration possible and if so will it decrease boot up time while increasing performance?

 

[ahnilated]

Could I put the os on the Intel ssd and then raid0 the 2 western digital hard drives, with the Intel ssd on the 3Gb/s connector and the 2 x Western Digital hard drives on the 6 Gb/s connector. Is this configuration possible and if so will it decrease boot up time while increasing performance?

Don't bother putting the 2 HD's on the SATA6 controller. It would be a waste of that controller. You could put them on the SATA 3 and be 99.9% guaranteed that they wouldn't saturate it.

 

[J_E_D_70]

If this is strictly gaming you can get a 256GB SATA3 SSD and eliminate the HDD completely.

If you have a lot of movies and music, still get the 256 and one HDD and only put media on it.

 

[SGTBASHIR]

Thankyou for all your replys. Just one last question, would it be better to put the Intel 120Gb ssd on the 3Gb/s controller and the 2 western digital 1Tb hard drives on the 6Gb/s in raid0 or the other way round?

 

[ahnilated]

Thankyou for all your replys. Just one last question, would it be better to put the Intel 120Gb ssd on the 3Gb/s controller and the 2 western digital 1Tb hard drives on the 6Gb/s in raid0 or the other way round?

I already answered this question.

 

[game junky]

Agreed.
My setup is like this:

a) SSD - Windows, applications

b) RAID0 (2x WD Green 2TB) - Steam and normal games, videos, downloads, backups

Re: bootup
Not only is the fastest speed for booting going to be an SSD, but Hibernation would also be much faster than turning off completely.

When I Hibernate my computer, it copies my System RAM to the SSD. When I start my computer, it does a quick POST then copies the data from the SSD back to the System RAM and continues my session.

So the FASTEST startup is: SSD + Hibernation,

And the SLOWEST startup is: Hard Drive + Cold Boot

+ 1 - even if you were running a RAID 5+1 a single digital drive would smoke it. The Cherryville drives are the fastest out there at the moment and I have had really good experience with the 120GB I have in my desktop. Go for it, you'll have no regrets.

 

[SGTBASHIR]

Thankyou to all who replied, I now know what set up I will be using:

os on my ssd drive and the 2 western digital caviar blacks on raid0.