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Best Cluster / Stripe Size for a RAID 0 system

Z

ZeroBurn

Platinum Member
about to setup my RAID config, and was wondering what the best Cluster and Stripe size to use for a RAID 0 system for optimal performance. here's the specifics-

  • Windows 2000
  • 2 IBM 45gb 75GXP HDDs
  • Abit KT7A-RAID

i'm leaning toward a 32k cluster size and 64k stripe unless i can get some more educated responses 🙂

thanks
 
generally on either the trade off is the same:

Larger = faster reads but more slack space wasted.
Smaller = less slack space, but slower reads.
 
16k was much faster for me than 64k stripe .

16k stripe & 32k cluster worked best for me on a promise fastrak66.
 
Hmmm..I am using 4K on my KA7-100...it seemed faster than the larger cluster sizes...I thought the smaller clusters were faster??
 
Oh...so larger is better? What is the optimal size for the best performance with two 75GXP's? I will be moving them to my KT7A-RAID...thanks..I always wondered about that..
 
I tried 64k stipe & 32 clusters & it was much slower than a 16Kstripe with 32k clusters, So i think for me 16kstripe & 32k clusters works best.

But with Slower 64-32 the cpu util was much lower too. the higher the Stripe size the lower the cpu util will be but it get's a bit slower on some apps.
 
Do I really need to be concerned with CPU utilization? I will be overclocking a 1.2ghz CPU...thanks for the info..

BTW - The Highpoint does not let me choose a stripe size I don't think, just the cluster size..
 


<< Type &quot;FORMAT C: /Z:32&quot; to format partition C: Repeat for any additional partitions you created. Note that the &quot;/Z:32&quot; parameter formats the disk with a block size of 16k - equal to that of the stripe size. This has been recommended as optimum. >>




Taken from HERE.

So you make a 16k block on your highpoint bios &amp; format with the /z:32 and you have yourself a 16k-16k setup.

Just test it out for yourself.you might feel it's faster with the default 64k.
 
doh, had the system down for a while and wasn't able to check this thread 😉

should be setting up the RAID soon now, and i'm leaning toward the 16k cluster / 16k stripe setup, but also considering the 32k cluster / 64k stripe based on those benchmarks.

lemme get this straight. you setup the cluster size in the high point bios, and the stripe size when formatting w/ the &quot;format c: /z:x&quot; command? 128=64k stripe, 64=32k stripe, 32=16k stripe ?

Insane3D- what did you end up going with? i have a similar system and'd be interested in your results.

 
Hmm, I always thought bigger was better too. Makes sense on the drive itself, more data being together in one spot, all of that. However, when you involve the RAID controller switching back and forth, it must get interesting.

I wonder how fast each part is: controller switching speed, hard drive operating speed, hard drive read/write speed, data flow through the cables, etc. At some point one item will be waiting for the other to hurry up. I wonder if different speed drives would prefer different settings? There must be an optimum at some point. I've searched this occasionally for a week, haven't seen a real answer.

FYI when I tried the z - 128 switch, I didn't get anything. 64 worked, but 128 came up invalid. Did you get it to go, or just theorizing?
 
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