RAID vs Stand Alone drive

[Grinja]

Hi All,
Moving over to Vista 64 in a week or so and am considering two options:
(I currently have a 200gb WD and BARRACUDA 250gb hard drive)

Option 1- Purchase addtional Barrucuda 250gb and setup RAID.
Option 2- Puchase a larger hard drive.

Is RAID performance on a desktop any good?

Thanks.

 

[JackMDS]

Is RAID worth it? Yes if you do something specific that can benefit from it.

Otherwise, its value is mainly making you "Socially Cool" among the Geeks (which might be important too).

 

[Jiggz]

There's a lot of controversy on this topic and mostly the skeptics are ahead because based on benchmark scores, RAID 0 do not add any performance gain and actually degrades performance. However, the pro-RAID 0 supporters based performance from actual usage. So I'll say experiment first and be the judge of your own! Don't be surprised if the skeptics brands you as irrational for trying so. It's your system and it's your usage so experiment and make the call.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

raid 0 = minimal real world increase. From first hand experience

 

[Jiggz]

Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
raid 0 = minimal real world increase. From first hand experience

With your RAPTOR reference point of view, you are most absolutely correct!

 

[LOUISSSSS]

^^ whatchu mean with my raptor regerence POV?

 

[Jiggz]

Uhh? regerence ???

What I'm saying is that if you use SCSI 10K or 15K RPM or RAPTOR 10K RPM hdd, you will not see performance gain with RAID 0, unless you frequently transfer humongous files. but even then it's still a matter of personal opinion.

 

[DSF]

Originally posted by: Jiggz
There's a lot of controversy on this topic and mostly the skeptics are ahead because based on benchmark scores, RAID 0 do not add any performance gain and actually degrades performance. However, the pro-RAID 0 supporters based performance from actual usage. So I'll say experiment first and be the judge of your own! Don't be surprised if the skeptics brands you as irrational for trying so. It's your system and it's your usage so experiment and make the call.

You seem to say this in every thread on the subject.

What I read is, "Controlled testing reveals little, if any, difference in performance. However, it makes me feel good, so I like RAID."

That's hardly a strong recommendation.

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
raid 0 = minimal real world increase. From first hand experience

http://i125.photobucket.com/al...aigomorla/IMG_0727.jpg

i dunno, 4 raptors feel hella quick to me compared to my other systems. :T

Originally posted by: Jiggz

Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
raid 0 = minimal real world increase. From first hand experience

With your RAPTOR reference point of view, you are most absolutely correct!

what about mine? :T

 

[Jiggz]

Originally posted by: DSF

Originally posted by: Jiggz
There's a lot of controversy on this topic and mostly the skeptics are ahead because based on benchmark scores, RAID 0 do not add any performance gain and actually degrades performance. However, the pro-RAID 0 supporters based performance from actual usage. So I'll say experiment first and be the judge of your own! Don't be surprised if the skeptics brands you as irrational for trying so. It's your system and it's your usage so experiment and make the call.

You seem to say this in every thread on the subject.

What I read is, "Controlled testing reveals little, if any, difference in performance. However, it makes me feel good, so I like RAID."

That's hardly a strong recommendation.

I know. It's like walking on broken glasses when discussing RAID 0 in this forum. So I have to make sure it's not misconstrued as a recommendation but rather just kinda self experience and making your personal choice whether to adopt or not. I've been on RAID 0 since when IBM Deathstar 10GB hdd were the median size hdd. Of course, now I am on 2 WD 250GB and still love it!

 

[Jiggz]

Originally posted by: aigomorla

Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
raid 0 = minimal real world increase. From first hand experience

http://i125.photobucket.com/al...aigomorla/IMG_0727.jpg

i dunno, 4 raptors feel hella quick to me compared to my other systems. :T

Originally posted by: Jiggz

Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
raid 0 = minimal real world increase. From first hand experience

With your RAPTOR reference point of view, you are most absolutely correct!

what about mine? :T

Well, you're is like having 4 Kings and a Joker when the opponent is holding up 4 Aces!

 

[RanDum72]

I think its worth it if you have something that benefits from it, mainly higher sustained throughput speeds. Video editing is one. Server duties is one.
Theoretically, I've heard this a lot, that RAID 0 doubles your chances of failure. But since affordable RAID 0 came out, I've been using it and I've had more failures with single drives than I have RAID 0 arrays. So theory and practice doesn't jive all the time. Maybe the drives doesn't have to work as hard because there's two of them?
"Real world" performance increases? Does it make your system 'snappier'? According to my subjective observations, yes it does, at least with the on board RAID that Intel, Nvidia, offers with their chipsets. Add-on boards may require more work since you have to play around with stripe-sizes and stuff. And it will decrease performance if the options you choose don't match your system, drives. But the on-board ones usually give a nice boost in speed. CPU cycles? most on-board RAID 0 uses 2-5% on average. But sustained throughput is definitely higher with RAID 0 than single drives alone. A simple HDtach test or other benchies will show this.