Raid 0 Question

[inertiat]

I'm going to be using this setup for video editing and encoding:

1x HDD for OS and program files

3x HDDs in RAID 0 for documents

My question is, if I have my video editing apps on the single HDD (Premiere Pro and After Effects) and work on files which are on the RAID array and encode videos onto the RAID array, will I see a drop in performance because the program itself is on the single drive?

Also, what stripe and clustersize should I use for this kind of work? I'll be using the onboard RAID on my Asus P5N-D

Thanks

 

[Idontcare]

Why not raid-0 all four drives and the create two partitions, one for OS and another for data?

 

[inertiat]

Would that decrease performance seeing as the RAID would have to be dealing with lots of little OS processes as well as a long media encoding process?

 

[Billb2]

Or 2 x 2-drive arrays. OS and programs on one and data and pagefile on the other.

Then there's solid state drives...........

 

[Blain]

4 drives in RAID 5.
That way you've got a shot at data survival.

 

[Nothinman]

will I see a drop in performance because the program itself is on the single drive?

No, the programs will be run from memory. They might not startup quite as fast as if they were on the RAID0 array but they'll run just fine once they're paged into memory.

 

[inertiat]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

will I see a drop in performance because the program itself is on the single drive?

No, the programs will be run from memory. They might not startup quite as fast as if they were on the RAID0 array but they'll run just fine once they're paged into memory.

Thanks for the answer

 

[sgrinavi]

Originally posted by: Idontcare
Why not raid-0 all four drives and the create two partitions, one for OS and another for data?

+1

 

[inertiat]

Originally posted by: sgrinavi

Originally posted by: Idontcare
Why not raid-0 all four drives and the create two partitions, one for OS and another for data?

+1

Sounds an idea, but if I do that will the fact that I have 2 partitions slow it down? Would it be faster for me to have 2 RAIDs of 2 drives - one for OS and one for data - as opposed to one large RAID partitioned?

 

[Blain]

"raid-0 all four drives and the create two partitions, one for OS and another for data?"

"I do that will the fact that I have 2 partitions slow it down?"

Yes... But it leaves both partitions vulnerable should a single drive fail on you.
4 drives in a RAID 0 array is great for speed, but horrible for data security. :roll:

Again I go back to my original suggestion of 4 drives in a RAID 5 array.
You'd get speed and some redundancy should one of the drives fail.
A more redundant plan for the 4 drives would be RAID 6. But you'd need to pony up for a good controller to get that level of performance and redundancy.

 

[inertiat]

Hmmm decisions decisions. I'm not really fussed about RAID 5 or 0+1 because I'm getting a large external backup drive with daily auto backup, plus I have another drive to back up that drive so I'm covered in that area. I'm just going for raw speed. But I need to choose if I want a load of speed for the video creation and none for the OS and programs or to distribute it equally. Does RAID make a whole load of difference with OS speed? I'm going for the new 7200.12 Braccudas and they have pretty poor random access speeds but really good average write speeds (which is why I'm getting them for video encoding) so I probably won't see a huge difference if I use RAID for the OS.

 

[RebateMonger]

If speed is of absolute importance over everything else, and if you have good backups, then I'd either use RAID 0 or RAID 10. RAID 0 is the cheapest and RAID 10 gives you speed plus good reliability, at the cost of twice as many hard drives and a more advanced RAID controller.

I don't use RAID 5 for anything anymore, because of the slow writes, slow rebuilds, and because I've seen way too much data lost on RAID 5 arrays.

 

[inertiat]

Cheers, RAID 10 isn't an option for me, I only have 4 SATA ports (I'll learn my lesson next time I buy a new motherboard) plus its freaking expensive. Raw power is basically it The 500Gb 7200.12s are all on one platter; would I be right in assuming the 1Tb drives are on 2 platters? If so how does that affect performance, 2x1Tb vs 2x500Gb?