Raid 0 Raptors to Single HDD = POOR Performance!

onza

Diamond Member
Sep 21, 2000
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reviews.ragingazn.com
Current setup:
Biostar 6100PM-M2
4gigs ram
raptor 36gig x 2 in raid 0

Okay so this setup is Ear piercing loud - has this real high pitch noise that the HDD's emit and it's driving me abs batshit crazy.

So I got a deal off FS/FT on a few hdd's.

Figured I take one of the hdd's and Acronis Clone the raid drive onto the 400gig hitachi deskstar HDS724040KLSA80 and here's when the FUN comes in... Unhook all the raid drives and fire up the Hitachi as a stand alone drive and SLOWWWWWW ....

I run HDtach and the hitachi drive is xfering at 5mb/s huh? I run HDtach on the Raptor raid and it's running 70mb/s on average speed. Okay so something is wrong with this drive..

So I did tons of different configurations with the Hitachi HDD:
1. New Sata cable - NOPE
2. Windows is set to DMA
3. Bios couldnt find a setting for DMA
4. Power cord is the white molex vs the sata power.
5. Currently running scandisk about 10% done so I'll update once I know this result. (but could this be the problem? if the HDD is bad = slow speeds?)

Another note - I have an exact drive and it was xfering at 40mb/s on HDtach. So what could cause this difference?

What are your guys thoughts? Any other tests or programs to run let me know

Thanks!

Here's a picture of the SMART Info
http://picasaweb.google.com/andrewchoe/Misc#5410448746135034866
 

0roo0roo

No Lifer
Sep 21, 2002
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only way to know...slap that thing in another pc and see how fast it runs.
 

onza

Diamond Member
Sep 21, 2000
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reviews.ragingazn.com
Problem solved. After 10+hours I finally figured it out. It was a simple... power issue I guess.

The power plug I was using the WHOLE time was a line that was shared with the video card. I just moved the HDD to a whole new PSU power line and attached and my speeds went from 5-15MB/s to 45-60MB/s. Which I find is TOTALLY acceptable.
 

WaitingForNehalem

Platinum Member
Aug 24, 2008
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That PSU is 7 years old and can't output 465W anymore. Also PSU's have changed significantly since then. It needs to be replaced.
 

JackMDS

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 25, 1999
29,548
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I think that in most Cases RAID time is Gone on peer-to-peer regular system

Enthusiasts need to feel Special and that is one of their way to feel special, and they would not let go of the RAID.

In any case the HDS724040KLSA80 usually does on its own about 60MB/sec.

I use the same drive and it yields about 60Mb/sec. through Gioga Network.

I.e. you problem ain't RAID vs. None RAID per-se.