RAID Question. HELP

[Binarydigit313]

I got 2 Western Digital 80GB 8mb cache HD's "WD800JB". I got a HightPoint Raid on my mobo and im gonna setup a RAID 0 config, but im not sure what the best stripping size would be for those drives.. The stripe sizes are 4K, 8K, 16K, 32K, 64K. Which would be the best for those drives?? I want the best performance I can get. Im new to RAID so trying to learn. I want a equal speed on my writes and reads because I do alot of both.. Any suggestions??

Oh and does it matter if i got both Drives on different IDE Channels?? The Raid can handle 4 drives (2 IDE channels). So i got 1 on each.

Thanks

 

[Binarydigit313]

By the way i got a "HighPoint HPT370 Raid Controller"

 

[Zepper]

I believe that if you look at the raid instructions in your manual (might be on CD that came with mobo) you will find that to do RAID, the drives have to be on separate channels: 1 and 1 or 2 and 2 only. Most tests I've seen find the optimum stripe to be 64k.
.bh.

 

[KenGr]

Your drives should each be a master on separate cables. Sounds like you got it right.

Stripe size is kind of a black art. Can you determine what size files you are reading and writing? Think about this - If your files are smaller than the stripe size, they won't be broken up and RAID performance will be essentially the same as regular IDE. Also if your files are significantly smaller than your drive and system cache and it is efficient (good read ahead prediction) RAID won't make much difference.

Anyway, if you can figure out the typical file size you want to speed up, make your stripes as large as possible but smaller than the median file size. That way you will get the most efficient use of cache but be able to simultaneously read stripes. Most people are using at least 16K and the big file users would use 64K in your case. (Your on board controller is crippled - full products allow 256 or 512k stripes.)

 

[Binarydigit313]

Alrite.., I read on lots of sites that 16k was the best for top performance. I know about the sizes and what to put for bigger files. Just not sure which to pick. I load some big files at times 800 megs,alomst daily. I play games, burn, decode divx, move crap around i download which is over 1gb daily. So you think 32k be the best stripe size?? All i can say is i beat the crap out of my computer everyday. its like a stress test every day =)

 

[jonmullen]

Originally posted by: Binarydigit313
All i can say is i beat the crap out of my computer everyday. its like a stress test every day =)

Don't we all.