raid0 vs raid1 in read speed

[Fayd]

okay, so this culminates most of my threads about what i'm going to do with my computer's storage scheme.

i've decided to go with a single 150 gig raptor as my OS/swap drive. (i might go 74 gig, but they're near enough the same price, why?) and 2x500 gig WD AAKS drives (they seem to do better performance than the 500 gig samsung spinpoints. everything seems to do better performance than the seagate 7200.11's....)

for the programs/documents drive, i was wondering which i should go with.

2x500gig in raid0, or raid1?

my main criteria here is read speed. i know sequential write speed will be much faster in raid0, but i dont know if raid1 will do sequential read speed as fast as raid0 or not.

my storage controller chip is the ICH9R.

 

[Sheninat0r]

Well, if you store any important info on it then I'd say RAID 1 simply because of redundancy... having one drive fail and all your docs gone sucks arse.

Back on topic, RAID 0 would have faster reads as it reads from both disks at once, instead of RAID 1 where both disks read the same thing at once.

 

[jonmcc33]

Why would you put a pair of 500GB hard drives in RAID 0? That's 1TB of data that you are severely risking losing...

 

[Fayd]

Originally posted by: jonmcc33
Why would you put a pair of 500GB hard drives in RAID 0? That's 1TB of data that you are severely risking losing...

none of my data is irrecoverable. it's mostly a gaming machine, first and foremost. any data that i REALLY dont want to risk, well.... another machine in my house has 2x750 gig drives in raid1. i can always take like 50 gig on that machine and call it my backup spot.

I dont think i'll actually use 1 tb, or even 500gig.

even with all my progs installed on this array, i'm only using 180 gigs.


I'm prob gonna keep one of the 160 gig disks from this machine and use it as a scratch disk for fraps. i dont want that tieing up I/O on any disk when i'm playing games.

 

[cozumel]

If your RAID controller can do 0+1 or 1+0 array then you would have a striped plus mirrored array giving security and speed. 4 HDDs would be required (maybe 4x250GB?).

 

[LOUISSSSS]

raid 0 = minimal real world speed increase for the normal user

 

[Blain]

Problem solved...
OS - 150GB Raptor (MTBF 1.2 million hours) @ 5 year warranty
Storage - 2 x 500GB WD RE2 in RAID 0 (MTBF 1.2 million hours) @ 5 year warranty
Since... "I dont think i'll actually use 1 tb, or even 500gig"
Backup - 500GB WD AAKS (MTBF 1 million hours) @ 3 year warranty

 

[0roo0roo]

dude...mtbf means sh*t.

 

[Roguestar]

Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
raid 0 = minimal real world speed increase for the normal user

Hey, that's my line!

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
dude...mtbf means sh*t.

Wrong

"<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/perf/qual/specMTBF-c.html">To be interpreted properly, the MTBF figure is intended to be used in conjunction with the useful service life of the drive, the typical amount of time before the drive enters the period where failures due to component wear-out increase.

The key point to remember when looking at any MTBF figure is that it is meant to be an average, based on testing done on many hard disks over a smaller period of time.

Overall, MTBF is what I consider a "reasonably interesting" reliability statistic--not something totally useless, but definitely something to be taken with a grain of salt.</a>"

 

[LOUISSSSS]

Originally posted by: Roguestar

Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
raid 0 = minimal real world speed increase for the normal user

Hey, that's my line!

lets share!!

 

[jonmcc33]

Originally posted by: Blain

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
dude...mtbf means sh*t.

Wrong

"<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/perf/qual/specMTBF-c.html">To be interpreted properly, the MTBF figure is intended to be used in conjunction with the useful service life of the drive, the typical amount of time before the drive enters the period where failures due to component wear-out increase.

The key point to remember when looking at any MTBF figure is that it is meant to be an average, based on testing done on many hard disks over a smaller period of time.

Overall, MTBF is what I consider a "reasonably interesting" reliability statistic--not something totally useless, but definitely something to be taken with a grain of salt.</a>"

That's not a guarantee at all. One of those hard drives could indeed die and you're tossing out all the data stored on it. If anything put them in RAID 1 or just have them as two separate volumes.

 

[Blain]

Nobody is offering a "guarantee" with MTBF. It's just one aspect of drive reliability to consider.

My solution is still by far the best... :laugh:

Originally posted by: Blain
OS - 150GB Raptor (MTBF 1.2 million hours) @ 5 year warranty
Storage - 2 x 500GB WD RE2 in RAID 0 (MTBF 1.2 million hours) @ 5 year warranty
Since... "I dont think i'll actually use 1 tb, or even 500gig"
Backup - 500GB WD AAKS (MTBF 1 million hours) @ 3 year warranty

 

[Madwand1]

Originally posted by: Fayd
for the programs/documents drive, i was wondering which i should go with.

2x500gig in raid0, or raid1?

my main criteria here is read speed. i know sequential write speed will be much faster in raid0, but i dont know if raid1 will do sequential read speed as fast as raid0 or not.

my storage controller chip is the ICH9R.

Even the best RAID 1 will be slower than RAID 0 for simple sequential access, and most RAID 1 implementations don't do anything to improve read performance over single drives for simple desktop-type sequential access. AFAIK, Intel's RAID 1 is among these and will also not show any performance advantage over single drives in desktop type of access.

However, that's theory, and the best way to determine such things for yourself is to set up the configuration and try some performance tests with your applications of interest. This is much easier at the onset and when you have the OS on a separate drive.

For redundant configurations such as RAID 1, this is also a good time to learn about behavior and recovery during failure -- testing by removing a drive, changing connectors, etc..