Going Raid 0+

[DCrew1X]

First off, do you guys feel that raid setup was a good option? i just purchased another WD raptor 74gb to raid and i was wondering how you guys feel about the setup as opposed to a single HDD. Another thing is that if i want to go raid, is there any software or program that would let me copy my current computer setup (programs, windows, settings, etc) like NOrton Ghost or anything when i raid both my HDD's, or would i simply have to raid, then format, then clean install from scratch? Well, thx guys for all your input.

 

[ribbon13]

Striping with raptors offers zero benefit to desktop users.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Striping with anything offers Zero benefit to us. People who transfer huge amounts of data and manage huge databases benefit from RAID.

I would return the Second Raptor in favor of a larger Seagate Drive, preferably one with SATAII and NCQ which your M/B supports.

-Kevin

 

[VTrider]

I've been a RAID 0 user for a long time, also a Raptor user since they came out...here is my two cents.

RAID 0 array for me was a great option, I do a lot of video editing and nothing beats the performance. If I wanted similair performance without a RAID 0 array, I would choose those WD Raptor 74gb drives - honestly IMO it would be just as good. Now two of those 74gb raptors in a RAID 0 would kick some serious arse when transferring large files, ect. Contrary to popular belief about RAID 0 not benefitting 'desktop' users, I would beg to differ. Certian maps in my games load a heck of a lot faster on my RAID machine, and that particular machine just feels more quicker when working with data and such. I'm not saying that a single 74gb raptor wouldn't feel just as fast, but if you have the money to burn on a 2x74gb raptor RAID 0 I say go for it.

BTW: Don't worry at all about all those "OMG your risking all your DATA!!" phreaks when you mention the word RAID 0 - it's so over-rated. Regardless of how many hard drives and/or striping you have - you should always have a fool-proof backup plan always in effect so that whole point is moot. Just do it and see for yourself, if you don't like it you can always go back to the original plan, but now you'll have the experience to backup your opinions on it - unlike many anti-raid users who have never even tried it

 

[DCrew1X]

thanks a lot Vtrider. Either way i've already purchased it so no looking back now. I just wanted input on raid users, and you've helped me out a lot. For backup purposes, i always store my setup files and important files in my other storage drive, so losing data is not an issue for me. NOw if only someone can tell me if i can backup my whole harddrive that is not in a raid array and put it into a raid array. Im leaning on the idea that i will probably most likely have to reformat as raid, and jsut start over and do a clean re-install of everything.

 

[Stangs55]

Originally posted by: VTrider
I've been a RAID 0 user for a long time, also a Raptor user since they came out...here is my two cents.

RAID 0 array for me was a great option, I do a lot of video editing and nothing beats the performance. If I wanted similair performance without a RAID 0 array, I would choose those WD Raptor 74gb drives - honestly IMO it would be just as good. Now two of those 74gb raptors in a RAID 0 would kick some serious arse when transferring large files, ect. Contrary to popular belief about RAID 0 not benefitting 'desktop' users, I would beg to differ. Certian maps in my games load a heck of a lot faster on my RAID machine, and that particular machine just feels more quicker when working with data and such. I'm not saying that a single 74gb raptor wouldn't feel just as fast, but if you have the money to burn on a 2x74gb raptor RAID 0 I say go for it.

BTW: Don't worry at all about all those "OMG your risking all your DATA!!" phreaks when you mention the word RAID 0 - it's so over-rated. Regardless of how many hard drives and/or striping you have - you should always have a fool-proof backup plan always in effect so that whole point is moot. Just do it and see for yourself, if you don't like it you can always go back to the original plan, but now you'll have the experience to backup your opinions on it - unlike many anti-raid users who have never even tried it

ditto

 

[boyRacer]

Do it. You bought it because you wanted to do it.

EDIT:

 

[ribbon13]

There are tools that can do that for you, but I've never used any. Just back up your data, stripe it, reformat, and reinstall, and then you can put your data back on it.

Oh, and welcome to the fold.

 

[bgbysleepy]

I hate RAID 0. It is troublesome. I have 2 sata drives, 2 pata drives. Everytime I try to install windows into the raid 0 sata drives, it keeps on crashing and lost data. If you put lots of important stuffs on that drive, and once the drive fail. OH man you lost all of the files. That's why i'm going on single drive now. it still fast as long as you partition the big drive to multiple drives and lots of memory. I'll consider using raid again if i have 6 sata drives to use raid 50.

 

[fstime]

Raid-0 is excellent for doubling your storage capacity, its fine as long as you have a backup drive, if you have problems with raid-0, you most likily have a POS hard drive or POS motherboard.

 

[ribbon13]

Raid 0 on desktop machines is pretty bad right now because the best chips are designed for PCI-X

Take a lood at raid performance...
http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content.asp?id=dualduel&page=4

 

[RiDE]

Originally posted by: bgbysleepy
I hate RAID 0. It is troublesome. I have 2 sata drives, 2 pata drives. Everytime I try to install windows into the raid 0 sata drives, it keeps on crashing and lost data. If you put lots of important stuffs on that drive, and once the drive fail. OH man you lost all of the files. That's why i'm going on single drive now. it still fast as long as you partition the big drive to multiple drives and lots of memory. I'll consider using raid again if i have 6 sata drives to use raid 50.

PEBKAC

 

[airfoil]

Go with RAID 0 for the heck of it, you can always change your mind later.

 

[sharkeeper]

I used to be a big SCSI fan (my last machine had 4 Cheetah X15s in RAID0 on a cached Mylex controller.) From my own tests, two Raptor WD740 drives in RAID0 absolutely SMOKE two Cheetah X15 drives in RAID0~

~To be fair, the Raptors are, for all intents and purposes, SCSI drives with an SATA interface...

I don't know if this has been quoted for sarcasm, stupidity, ignorance or a combination of all of the above.

I don't know what tests were performed but there is no way in hell (I'm there right now thank you very much!) that a Raptor will "smoke" a 15k drive. Perhaps if the user was re doing their power connectors and reversed the planes. I guess that would smoke anything. Bwahahaha.

Mylex HBA's certainly aren't speed demons. This is the chief reason for LSi scrapping them after acquiring the line from IBM. The AR600 was the exception, however this strange beast appeared shortly on the market in the USSR and some were imported in the States. These had blistering performance utilising up to 80% of the available bandwidth at 133MHz! Too bad it was impossible to get larger SODIMM modules that would work and batteries weren't readily available. The real deal breaker on the AR600 was its non friendly copings with disk imaging software and total lack of support for Win32/64 2003 Server.

The ER2K was a contemptible DB server performer when properly configured by a qualified person. Improperly configured, these controllers were a train wreck.

LSi HBA's OTOH, are pretty hard to misconfigure although there are a slew of options to "play" with that have direct impacts on users' performance. The newer ones using X-scale based XOR and cache accelerators absolutely rip anything out there to shreds. (well within their price range of course)

On the DESKTOP, the Raptor will beat a first and possibly second genny 15k disk connected to a DUMB HBA just on the basis of firmware optimisations by WD. If Raptors were true "Enterprise Class" drives, their multi-user performance would be much better than currently and the desktop performance lower just like it is in 10K SCSI land. Of course the target for this product is the enthusiast not the NAS professional whose primary concern is availability and cost is not particularly of concern.


Cheers!

 

[ribbon13]

Come on now sharkeeper, I have a Raid10 of 15k.4s, why do you think I quoted it? WD's are not in the same league as a Seagate Cheetah x15.

 

[sharkeeper]

No RMA's for this one!

Got a little mud there

Ok this one didn't stand a chance!

Cheers!

 

[ribbon13]

Jesus...

I think the Cheetah attacked the Raptor, and the Raptor went the way of the dinosaur.... oh wait...

 

[0010010110]

Originally posted by: VTrider
I've been a RAID 0 user for a long time, also a Raptor user since they came out...here is my two cents.

RAID 0 array for me was a great option, I do a lot of video editing and nothing beats the performance. If I wanted similair performance without a RAID 0 array, I would choose those WD Raptor 74gb drives - honestly IMO it would be just as good. Now two of those 74gb raptors in a RAID 0 would kick some serious arse when transferring large files, ect. Contrary to popular belief about RAID 0 not benefitting 'desktop' users, I would beg to differ. Certian maps in my games load a heck of a lot faster on my RAID machine, and that particular machine just feels more quicker when working with data and such. I'm not saying that a single 74gb raptor wouldn't feel just as fast, but if you have the money to burn on a 2x74gb raptor RAID 0 I say go for it.

BTW: Don't worry at all about all those "OMG your risking all your DATA!!" phreaks when you mention the word RAID 0 - it's so over-rated. Regardless of how many hard drives and/or striping you have - you should always have a fool-proof backup plan always in effect so that whole point is moot. Just do it and see for yourself, if you don't like it you can always go back to the original plan, but now you'll have the experience to backup your opinions on it - unlike many anti-raid users who have never even tried it

Couldn't have put it better myself.

 

[Baked]

I always RAID 0 a pair of HDs for D: as the storage drive. I hate 5 million drive letters. Boot C:, storage D:, DVD-ROM E:, DVD Burner F:. Only reason don't RAID 0 C: is I can't get my version of Ghost (DOS v.7) to clone RAID 0 to a single HD and vise versa.

 

[HannibalTheCannibal]

I have a RAID0 with 2 36GB raptors. I love it, my PC is snappier after I raided them. I have had no crashes in 2 years. Pretty soon, people will be saying "SLI offers no real world benefit, its a waste of money". Essentially SLI is like raiding 2 video cards eh?

Anyway, theres my 2 cents. Do the RAID, youll like it. UT2004 maps load in no time flat. windows boots faster, dvd's rip faster. But no real world performance to be had I guess.

 

[Greenman]

I have two 36 gig Raptors in a raid 0, I don't think it was worth the money I spent. But, they are quick, and if you have the drives already why not try it?