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Independent drives VS. RAID 0

S

slowpogo

Member
I'm giving someone some advice about building a new system, and I'm curious which setup would give the best performance overall:


Seagate 7200.9 80GB SATA2 as OS/boot drive + 7200.10 Seagate 250GB SATA2 for apps/storage

or

2 x Seagate 7200.9 160GB SATA2 in RAID 0, for all data

thanks!

 
RAID0 is nice, but one of the bottlenecks of a system is being able to write multiple sources of data to hard disc storage. I always like having at least 2 drives available for this reason. Whether I'm reading from one drive and writing to another reading/writing from both drives... With one RAID0 setup you?re still going to only have one source to read from/write to.

I started out with 1 drive, then added a RAID0 array (3 drives total), and later upgraded the single drive to a second RAID0...

I think the best bet might be the two separate drives...although it?s almost a toss up. Learning experiences are to be had with both if you've never had them before, and both offer advantages/disadvantages.

Perhaps go with 3 drives if possible? 2 x 80GB in RAID0, and one 160GB...
 
Thanks a lot for the advice. I thought of some other options (cost is a definite factor):

37GB Raptor for OS/boot + 250GB Seagate for apps/storage (~$200)

or

37GB Raptor + RAID 0 array (2x80GB) (also around $200)



160GB should be plenty for apps and storage, which makes the RAID idea sound OK..however with a single drive 250GB could be gotten for roughly the same price. (If you're wondering about the size discrepancy)
 
I don't like Raptors (especially the smaller ones, because larger density drives have really caught up in terms of speed) - and the price consideration, unless he really couldn't find use of the space I just don't think the price/performance is worth it for Raptors given how much space you have to sacrifice. I know that I wouldn't go that route on a budget, I believe you really have to be rolling in it to spend the premium for Raptors...

I know that for $200 he could have separate 2 x 80GB RAID0 setups which I would find ideal (I'm actually running two RAID0 setups), and I think its probably one of the better setups for an average enthusiast outside of a riskier 3 or 4 drive RAID0 setup (with another drive or drives in the system as well, but then you're most likely talking more than 4 drives which can lead to some minor problems we don't have to get into) - that is to say its one of the more ideal setups until we get some better redundancy solutions on the consumer level (decent onboard RAID5)
 
Actually one of the best drives for RAID-0 is the Hitachi 7K80 SATA 300 at ~$50. each shipped. Check my review of it here: http://www.techimo.com/reviews/ be sure to follow the links in my review for impressive info. Two of those in raid O will kill any single Raptor (even the latest SCSI 15k drives) for quick booting and program loading. The forte of RAID-0 is sequential reads/writes, single drives do better at random access.

If you do choose to use RAID-0, keeping verified backups is MANDATORY! One glitch can make two drives worth of data inaccessable. So you will need another drive for an external backup.

.bh.
 
I haven't read much about Hitachi hard drives. How do they do with heat and noise? Seagate and Samsung 80GB drives are noted for their quietness and cool operation...does the performance really differ significantly between those three drives?
 
These are always interesting topics. My practice is a somewhat unique one. I have 4 Seagate 120 GB drives, 2 SATA and 2 PATA. Here's how I use them. The two SATA drives are in a RAID 1 array - that provides a mirrored backup. That array is only for DATA - no programs or software.

I use one PATA drive as my main drive for OS and programs - and a second PATA drive as a total clone of the first. I the backup PATA, or reserve drive, is not connected power wise unless I wish to clone the active drive to it. I do that after major changes and upgrades or new programs.

After cloning, I then switch the drives by changing the power connection. This lets me rotate those drives - usually every ten days to two weeks.

This has worked for me for several years. My next system will have 4 SATA drives in two RAID 1 arrays, and that will give me a good redundancy base. One for data and the other for OS and programs.

I have used Hitachi drives quite a bit, and never had a problem with them. But now, I prefer Seagates.
 
All I can say is check the thread and review that I linked from my review. It looks like those that should know are mightily impressed. And the 8MB cache (unusual in a budget drive) keeps even the random access times in the ballpark.

.bh.
 
I have to say, in the 15+ years I've been computing with PCs, I've NEVER experienced a hard drive failure of any kind. I guess I've just been lucky, since so many here place an emphasis on backup and redundancy.
 
I've actually never gotten a HDD failure before either. I'm wondering if RAID 0 is actually worth it. I rarely ever have situations where I have enough file transfers to actually make me wait a significant amount of time for the system. Of course I still get them every once in awhile, but I'm just not sure if it's enough to warrant doubling the chance of losing all my data, or my system going down for an extended period of time.
 
Now that HDDs are so cheap and external enclosures ditto, there's really no reason not to have a current backup. After all, how long would it take you to get your Windwoes configuration back to where it is right now from a catastrophic HDD failure? How much is your time worth? How much is your data worth? Hmmm....

.bh.
 
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