RAID/HDD advice needed...

[Titanion]

How to Configure and Benchmark the Ultimate $300 RAID 0 Array
Posted by Philipp on: 2002-08-14 00:55:59 - News Source: webkido13 [Print this story]


Hardwaretech has posted an article on how to configure and benchmark the ultimate $300 RAID 0 array

The ultimate disk subsystem ought to have performance and capacity to burn. The boot disk should have disk access times on the order of 8ms and should boast 8MB of cache. The user space should offer a similar seek time for frequently used files and be capable of transfer rates around 90MB/s. An archive, on a separate disk, should be available for all data files in the user space. The system page file should be in a RAID 0 array off the boot disk. This article argues that with intelligent partitioning, a $100 80GB Western Digital boot disk, two $70 40GB IBM 120GXP Deskstars in RAID 0, and a $40 Highpoint RAID controller can offer all of these performance characteristics within a $300 budget.

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I read this a few months back, but now I canot find a good link to it...

I have 3 80 GB Maxtor HDDs (about 2 year old)... currently one is my boot disk and 2 are in a RAID0... I am thinking about buying a 36GB Raptor as my boot disk, making my extra 80BG HDD a storage disk/and/or games, applications that do not need the speed of the Raptor, and then still using my other 2 80GB HDDs as a RAID0... but I want some advice on the best setup... I will be using an ABIT NF7-S, and I want the system designed for both gaming and video editing... with this setup, where should my page file be...

this article seemed like it had a lot to offer...



<font color=red><b>The mind is in its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n.</b></font color=red>
John Milton, <i>Paradise Lost</i>, Book II

 

[sjonnie]

I agree, the article was a sensible look at the best usage of RAID0, and as a result I have posted links to it often on this talkboard. Let me see...huoh, the website appears to be offline at the moment.

The website you were lookign for was www.hardwaretech.info and the article in question www.hardwaretech.info/guides/configure_bench_raid.php

Anyway, as neither are working at the moment let me see what I can glean from your question.

Basically boot disk should have maximum seek performance because random read is the only operation a boot disk performs. A 36GB raptor will give you better random read than an 80GB Maxtor due to the lower latency. You can improve random reads even further by limiting your OS partition to 10GB or so, that way the disk heads will spend most of their time in the first 10GB of your 36GB raptor - the fastest part. I have no idea what it means to put a separate partition for games so I can't comment on that. Your pagefile would be best put on your RAID0 array.

The article also mentioned something about how to arrange files on a RAID0 array for best access. First a partition with files you don't access alot, then a partion with often used files in the middle, and another partition with unfrequently accessed files. I think the idea was to keep the heads in the middle of the disk as much as possible so if they did have to go outside the frequently accessed partion they didn't have far to go. I never implemented such a system as I already have too many drives letters on my system and partitioning my RAID array even further would loose me entirely.

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/myanandtech.html?member=114979" target="_new">My PCs</A>

 

[Titanion]

Thanks... I likely got the link from you, scanned over it, saved it, but now that I am ready to get serious about reading it, when I went back a few days ago, I could not find it...


What I currently have are three 80 GB Maxtor HDDs (about 2 years old)... one is my boot disk, and 2 are in a RAID0 on my Soyo KT333 Dragon... I suspect my cache is 2MB on all those drives...

I have a Barton 2500+
1GB XMS Corsair PC3200 ram
ABIT NF7-S (in the mail)
ATI 9500np modded to a 9700np

1) How important is the 8MB of HDD cache for a boot disk?
2) How important is the seek time of the boot disk?

I am building for both a video editing computer and a gaming computer...

I can either get a 36GB Raptor as my boot disk, have one 80GB Drive as a slave (for storage, games, etc.), and use the other 2 80GB drives in a RAID0...

or I can get a WD 80GB drive with 8MB cache (instead of the raptor) try to sell my extra 80 GB Maxtor Drive, and have the remaining two 80GB HDDs for my RAID0...

The article mentioned something about "user space" being off the boot disk and not part of the RAID...

With my current parts, and maybe another $90-$120 going toward another HDD, what should I do?

I will save more detailed partitioning questions for later?


<font color=red><b>The mind is in its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n.</b></font color=red>
John Milton, <i>Paradise Lost</i>, Book II