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Another RAID scenario..... please confirm!

L

limsandy

Golden Member

Hi, I have a Raptor 74GB HDD and 2x 250GB Maxtor ATA/133 HDD with 16MB cache. I have a n00b in RAIDing stuffs, but I believe I should install Windows XP on the Raptors and RAID 0 the 2 Maxtors, right?

I have been reading about arguments on both sides and here is my scenario. I play World of Warcraft and CS:S everyday, so yes I am a hard-core gamer. My question is, if I load Windows on the Raptors, will it give me the benefit of loading the maps faster, than if I load Windows on the RAID'ed Maxtors?

Again, if the above is not making sense to you, just give me a suggestion on what I should do. LOL. TIA.


~limsandy
 
It really depends. If you're using software RAID, then the benefits aren't really there.

I bet the raptors would just be better overall anyway. I wouldn't go with RAID because if one crashes, then you're SOL for the whole 500 gigs.

There isn't much benefit in using RAID for gaming anyway. In all the benchmarks I've seen maybe it dropped loading time from 100 seconds to 99 seconds, or some negligible difference like that.
 
Go to the main AnandTech site, click the Storage tab, and page through until you find "Raptors in RAID" article. It also compares a single raptor against non-raptors in RAID. See which loads maps fastest, put the maps there.
 
Originally posted by: limsandy

Hi, I have a Raptor 74GB HDD and 2x 250GB Maxtor ATA/133 HDD with 16MB cache. I have a n00b in RAIDing stuffs, but I believe I should install Windows XP on the Raptors and RAID 0 the 2 Maxtors, right?

I have been reading about arguments on both sides and here is my scenario. I play World of Warcraft and CS:S everyday, so yes I am a hard-core gamer. My question is, if I load Windows on the Raptors, will it give me the benefit of loading the maps faster, than if I load Windows on the RAID'ed Maxtors?

Again, if the above is not making sense to you, just give me a suggestion on what I should do. LOL. TIA.


~limsandy
Click to expand...

the amount of time will not be that much, at least not worth losing all your data if one hdds takes a sh!t. imo the only time to use raid is raid 1,5 or some type of redundant array that is hardware based, not software and definately not striping.

in my setup i have my os, apps and games on my 10krpm scsi hdd and use my ide hdd as storage. works excellent this way.
 
Originally posted by: bob4432
Originally posted by: limsandy

Hi, I have a Raptor 74GB HDD and 2x 250GB Maxtor ATA/133 HDD with 16MB cache. I have a n00b in RAIDing stuffs, but I believe I should install Windows XP on the Raptors and RAID 0 the 2 Maxtors, right?

I have been reading about arguments on both sides and here is my scenario. I play World of Warcraft and CS:S everyday, so yes I am a hard-core gamer. My question is, if I load Windows on the Raptors, will it give me the benefit of loading the maps faster, than if I load Windows on the RAID'ed Maxtors?

Again, if the above is not making sense to you, just give me a suggestion on what I should do. LOL. TIA.


~limsandy
Click to expand...

the amount of time will not be that much, at least not worth losing all your data if one hdds takes a sh!t. imo the only time to use raid is raid 1,5 or some type of redundant array that is hardware based, not software and definately not striping.

in my setup i have my os, apps and games on my 10krpm scsi hdd and use my ide hdd as storage. works excellent this way.
Click to expand...


Me too, recommended.
 
Don't waste your time striping a pair of SATA drives. RAID 0 is unreliable and with SATA provides little benefit.

Instead, find a used SCSI controller (plenty of cheap U160's out there now) and throw a 15.4k Cheetah on it. Use that for your boot drive.
 
Originally posted by: bob4432
in my setup i have my os, apps and games on my 10krpm scsi hdd and use my ide hdd as storage. works excellent this way.
Click to expand...

Same.. and it works and its safer and we wont have to see threads on my raid 0 died !
 
Software RAID is NOT slower than hardware RAID. Last time I saw them compared there was no big difference with a simple mirror or stripe (RAID 5 was a different story).

I would install Windows and all your games on the 74GB and MIRROR your 250GB drives. Then keep all your MP3s, Movies and Data on the mirror.
 
I have quite a few file servers running with dual 74G Raptors in Raid-1 (Mirroring). They have all been running well over a year now. I have had no problems with the built-in sata hardware raid controllers. I have lost only 1 hard drive so far, which is great for the amount of them I have out there.
 
Originally posted by: t3h l337 n3wb
Why do you need to? As Tick said, JBOD (Just a Bunch Of Disks/Drives) will work.
Click to expand...

Sorry, come again? RAID n00bie here? Hahaha.....

How can I JBOD the 2 Maxtors? What software do I use?
 
I have been running Raid 0 for 3 years now Raptors 36 GB not one problem ever and the speed differance is actually pretty good if you set up correctly. I also use a external HD to store all my valuablies.
 
I have the MSI Neo4 Platinum and the Silicon Image RAID controller does support SATA, but it didn't say it supports RAID 0 or JBOD for IDE/133 HDDs???
 
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