RAID0 requires very little CPU calculations; so do I really need a hardware card?

[MichaelD]

Hi all,

I miss my RAID. My current system is the first one in awhile that doesn't have an onboard RAID controller, ala Highpoint or Promise.

Been looking at PCI RAID cards. Specifically the Highpoint RocketRAID 404 and the 3Ware Escalade 7000. The HP is a software card and teh Promise is a dedicated hardware card.

I know that for RAID 1 (mirroring) the 3Ware would just kill the Highpoint b/c the 3Ware actually has it's own RISC processor onboard.

I have read that RAID 0 uses close to no CPU utilization at all, so a real hardware card isn't necessary.

I know that if I was looking at a 6-drive stripe or something that a hardware solution would be a necessity, but what about for a two-drive stripe?

The "real" card isn't that much more than the "fake" one.

Opinions?

 

[MichaelD]

Bumpage.

 

[CurtCold]

Get teh real card if doesn't cost much more. Then if you decide to implement Raid1 you'll have better performance, or if you get a mobo later with onboard raid, you'll be able to sell it off for more $$$

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: CurtCold
Get teh real card if doesn't cost much more. Then if you decide to implement Raid1 you'll have better performance, or if you get a mobo later with onboard raid, you'll be able to sell it off for more $$$

Hey, good point. I didn't think of the "down the road" part. Thanks.

 

[MichaelD]

Final bump before I order....still undecided.

One card costs about 33% more, has resale value, but is limited to two drives...but performs better.
The other is about 33% less than the other...has almost no resale value and can double as an 8-drive IDE controller.

Decisions, decisions.....dang.....which to choose?

 

[Dug]

Are you planning on doing RAID0?

If so I would invest in a faster drive (Raptor 5yr warranty) instead of two slower drives. For now you will realize a definate performance increase. Both because of the seek times and the transfer rate. Not to mention your decrease in chances for hd failure.
And you could use your old drive for backup.

Go to storagereview and click on the database and pick what pertains to you. See how far the raptor is above everything else.
I'll bet that it still beats a couple of WD's in raid0 becuse of the seek times.


And then down the road you can RAID0 the Raptors

 

[MichaelD]

Thanks Dug. The Raptor is a little of out my price range right now...I just got a raincheck on a second WD SE 80GB drive...$70 for another one of these!!!!! I already own one of them.

I am planning on a RAID0 stripe. Not worried about crashes...havent' had that happen yet and I have backups of everything.

The Raptor has about a 6ms seek-time, right? That's about 3ms faster than than WD SE drives...not really worth the extra $$$ IMO.

Thanks though, Dug.

 

[GnomeCop]

its 5.2ms seek time, but who's counting right?

 

[XBoxLPU]

but only 36gb, one drive is ~$150

while you could buy 2 X 80gb drives for ~$200 and total space of 160gb

Depends on what you need

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: XBoxLPU
but only 36gb, one drive is ~$150

while you could buy 2 X 80gb drives for ~$200 and total space of 160gb

Depends on what you need

Yep, that's my point. (just being semi-practical here) I already own one SE WD drive...thge other is "only" $70...put them in a RAID0 stripe and wheeeee!

 

[WobbleWobble]

My Asus A7V133 using the built in Promise RAID controller (lite to full hacked) uses little CPU cycles compared to single drives. Using the drives by themselves gives me 12% CPU utilization whereas 2xHDD RAID-0 gives me 16% CPU utilization. So I'm going to say no, you don't need a "real" hardware RAID card. I don't think the performance justifies the cost.

 

[mchammer187]

raid 0 is great until you lose a drive

2x as much data

it happened to me

good thing it was only pron

i guess that would be a bad thing too

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: mchammer187
raid 0 is great until you lose a drive

2x as much data

it happened to me

good thing it was only pron

i guess that would be a bad thing too

You're correct; however in the 4+ years I was running a RAID0 stripe, I never had a drive fail. I do keep backups...mostly on other drives on my server, but stuff like pictures or important docs are burned onto CD.

The Stripe is where it's at...got the blazing FSB, the good video card....too bad it takes waaaaay to long to actually get the game LOADED. Fixing that shortly.

 

[BentValve]

Mike, so have you decided on the Highpoint or Promise raid yet?
IC you got in on the 80gb WD SE drive deal @ BB ..I did too and I would not mind
trying out raid 0 ....if only the Highpoint was closer to $49 or something like that
I would be more willing to give it a go.

 

[BentValve]

I wonder how this one would be for Raid 0?
Highpoint Rocketraid 100

 

[BentValve]

Or how about this one? Only $20 at Newegg.

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: BentValve
Mike, so have you decided on the Highpoint or Promise raid yet?
IC you got in on the 80gb WD SE drive deal @ BB ..I did too and I would not mind
trying out raid 0 ....if only the Highpoint was closer to $49 or something like that
I would be more willing to give it a go.

You mean the 3Ware or the HP? *EDIT* I see above I said "Promise"; mistake...I knew it was 3Ware...dunno why I put Promise...my bad.

No, haven't decided yet. But I'm leaning towards the 3Ware; if for nothing else, resale value.

AFA the two cards you linked to:

1. I don't go with off-brands..it may be a decent card, but with off-brands it's hard to get support sometimes

2. With ATA133 drives becoming the norm these days, I think it's smarter to get a card that is ATA133 compliant. I am aware that today's drives don't come close to even 100mbps transfer, but TWO ATA133 drives striped may get darn close to that. My older Maxtor ATA100 drives used to regularly get mid-80mbps readings. Cheap insurance to get the latest card out there for just a few dollars more.

 

[BentValve]

I am going the cheapo route since I am using raid 0. I am going to either pick up one of THESE
on Ebay or a lowend HighPoint based card.

 

[sharkeeper]

Hardware does indeed help even with RAID0. I'm speaking from experience with high end SCSI RAID HBA that cost thousands of dollars.

Windows XP was the first to allow fast formatting of raw logical disks! This is a blessing in disguise as long formatting 100 GB NTFS can take some time. However, I've noticed on these machines with SCSI RAID HBA, normal or quick takes the same time. Windows 2000 and NT do not have this option, yet formatting 100GB NTFS in setup takes seconds! Trying that with a Promise Fasttrak 2000TX and the format went very slowly. I'm sure it's a caching function of the HBA, but it's quite noticeable.

When XOR is used for RAID5, there's no comparison. Parity processing on non SCSI HBA is at least a generation behind current SCSI HBA XOR tech to save cost obviously.

IF your goal is to stream at the highest rate, you don't care about redundancy, then by all means go for one of these $30 solutions. I'd pick Promise over Highpoint though. Highpoint may be faster, but I've seen them have hardware problems that cause corruption as of late and cannot recommend them any more. This is especially true of the controllers built on the mainboard.

Try a Silicon Image controller. These things are blisteringly fast. They make parallel as well as serial ATA controllers and are dirt cheap. I haven't tried them under stress, but initial experience did not unearth any obvious issues.

-DAK-

 

[BentValve]

$19 shipped , I think I will get this one.

 

[AtomicAlien]

I was looking at the 3Ware 7000-2 yesterday, it's benchmarks are much more impressive than any software RAID card...even though it's $145 or so.

 

[MichaelD]

Thanks guys.

shuttleteam, great post!

Are you saying that for strictly RAID0 that one of the cheaper cards is a better idea than the 3Ware 7000-2?

Why is this? All my RAID experiences have been w/onboard solutions...all Highpoint too.

 

[BentValve]

One thing that makes me wonder is that I cannot find one review on the 3Ware 7000-2...I would
have to see some benches or something before plunking down >$100 for one of these.

 

[Dug]

Do not, I repeat, do not get a piece of hardware with idea of resale value.
You may have trouble getting rid of it when you want to because so many people will believe they need serial.
I would get the cheapest one I could.

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: Dug
Do not, I repeat, do not get a piece of hardware with idea of resale value.
You may have trouble getting rid of it when you want to because so many people will believe they need serial.
I would get the cheapest one I could.

You know, if it weren't for the fact that the Raptor drives are $150 apiece for only 36GB, I'd get go serial...but I already have so many IDE drives, you know?