Seagate 7200.8 RAID-0 or 7200.11

[Obsoleet]

Which would be faster in my rig for gaming load times? Using my 7200.8 (2x200gb) drives in RAID 0 or my single 1TB 7200.11?

 

[aatf510]

Originally posted by: Obsoleet
Which would be faster in my rig for gaming load times? Using my 7200.8 (2x200gb) drives in RAID 0 or my single 1TB 7200.11?

RAID 0 usually doesn't give you any real-world benefits unless you transfer large files (1GB+ files) within the same RAID 0 array all the time.

For real-world performance benefit and the snappier/quick response feeling you want drives that has the lowest seek time possible.

Therefore, it's best to use SSD as boot drives. However, since SSD isn't affordable to the general public, your next best choice is a modern raptor drive. If that's still too $ for you, then you should consider the fastest 7200rpm out there which is the WD Black series.

 

[yh125d]

Originally posted by: Obsoleet
Which would be faster in my rig for gaming load times? Using my 7200.8 (2x200gb) drives in RAID 0 or my single 1TB 7200.11?

Download HDtune to find out

 

[Obsoleet]

The 7200.11 beat the raid array. I didn't run HDtune a long time but generally the RAID had a hard time hitting 100MB/sec transfer rate, and had lower lows. The TB drive hit 110MB tranfer and didn't dip as low, or as often having a higher average by a long shot.

Overall their read highs/lows weren't that different, but the average was by far in favor of the 7200.11.

This is the result I assumed would happen as the 7200.11 is a lot newer platform than the 7200.8, and even RAID0 (even in a synthetic benchmark, which should help it out the most rather than real-world), the 8MB cache per drive and older design can't keep up with the newer drives. So we're formatting and putting everything on the TB, with the other drives either going to be RAID1 or simply extra drives for linux and playing around.

As far as SSD drives and Raptors. Raptors are too loud for my taste. SSDs I only want the Intel ones and don't care enough at this point to pay $500 for it, even though I'm one of those guys with no family and a large salary (which means I can pretty much buy whatever I want). Since I have Asus's Express Gate on my motherboard for quick email checks and instant messaging, I have little interest in SSDs for the time being.

 

[Denithor]

Originally posted by: Obsoleet
The 7200.11 beat the raid array. I didn't run HDtune a long time but generally the RAID had a hard time hitting 100MB/sec transfer rate, and had lower lows. The TB drive hit 110MB tranfer and didn't dip as low, or as often having a higher average by a long shot.

Overall their read highs/lows weren't that different, but the average was by far in favor of the 7200.11.

This is the result I assumed would happen as the 7200.11 is a lot newer platform than the 7200.8, and even RAID0 (even in a synthetic benchmark, which should help it out the most rather than real-world), the 8MB cache per drive and older design can't keep up with the newer drives. So we're formatting and putting everything on the TB, with the other drives either going to be RAID1 or simply extra drives for linux and playing around.

Nifty, thanks for providing those details. I kind of suspected that's what you would see, glad to have it confirmed.

As far as SSD drives and Raptors. Raptors are too loud for my taste. SSDs I only want the Intel ones and don't care enough at this point to pay $500 for it, even though I'm one of those guys with no family and a large salary (which means I can pretty much buy whatever I want). Since I have Asus's Express Gate on my motherboard for quick email checks and instant messaging, I have little interest in SSDs for the time being.

Ain't that the truth? Even with lots of disposable income I'm in the same boat, $500 for an 80GB drive is just insane. Now, when those new Toshiba 512GB drives with a new (hopefully fixed) controller come out...