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Strip Size on Raid 0

B

bulldawg1979

Member
I've tried to follow several threads on Raid where others have asked advice on stripe size. So far, I haven't found a response to the question, so I hope this thread will get some answers.

I've got two 74G WD Raptors I want to put in a Raid 0 array. I'll use a 120G WD for backups. I hope to do some video editing. Can anyone, especially video editors, give me advice from your experience on the best stripe size? How about partition sizes for the storage drive.

While you're at it, I would love input on my power supply. Here's my setup:
AMD 64 3500+
MSI NEO2 Platinum
2X512 Corsair Value Select
ATI AIW 9800 Pro
2X 74G WD Raptors
1X 120G WD Serial ATA
1X Dual Layer DVD RW
1X DVD/CDRW combo
2X 120mm fans

I have a Thermaltake Purepower 420W power supply that I bought on sale. Will it be enough power for this system?

Thanks!
 
In general a larger the stripe size is best for massive files like Video so go with that and smaller stripe size is best for performance...

Lil Diddy
 
Quote>>>>>>In general a larger the stripe size is best for massive files like Video so go with that and smaller stripe size is best for performance...

this is correct and know that vidoe files are HUGE. MPEG-2 (depending on settings) take up large ammounts of space(coupla gigs an hour roughly DivX about a 800mb per hour roughly). THe only thing is it is generally better to use and manipulate your files on a seperate drive than your OS drive. I can guess you want your OS on the striped drives but to tell you the truth you won't see much of a gain from this. My video editing set up is a Raptor for the main os drive, 2 raptors for my manipulating and work in progress area. I then have a 200gb USB hard drive for storage and back up. If it were me I'd put my OS on the 120gb in a 40 gb partiton with all my programs, use the rest of the drive for extra crap ( I always have about 40GB of music, files, setup exe's) then use the raptors for a video editing raid array. How much editing are you planning on doing. When adding and manipulating cuts from several large ones this helps alot. If you are jst peicing togethor family vids you aren't going to need to fancy of a setup. Note that in this setup you don't have a whole drive for just back up. but if you have all those drives then I am sure you have a DVDRW for archiving.

just my 2cent
 
I thought the OS and applications were supposed to go on the Raid 0 array? If I put them on the slower HD, it seems like most of the time I would be missing out on the advantages of the Raptors/Raid speed and performance. Video editing is not a profession, but rather an occasional preoccupation (i.e., archiving family video and digital photos).

As far as stripe size, would around 64K be a good choice, if I plan on doing occasional editing. I guess I'm looking for the "happy medium."
 


If you have a Maximum PC archive they did some benchmarks a year or two ago, 256k offers the best balance and performance for a RAID0 array. Do not go any Smaller than 64k Stripe.
 
Decent advice...

Generally smaller stripes feel more snappy, but add a lot of overhead for large files.

A 64k stripe would be alright for a desktop user who insists on a striped set. I would go 128k if I were you though.
 
I did several benches with different stripes/cluster sizes. 32K cluster with a 32K stripe will give the highest throughput in my experience.

Drives must be formatted (IN RAID) with 32K clusters VS The default cluster size of a winXP install is 4K. Then setup a 32K stripe. You will notice a definite improvement.
 
Originally posted by: Googer
Originally posted by: LED
In general a larger the stripe size is best for massive files like Video so go with that and smaller stripe size is best for performance...

Lil Diddy
Click to expand...

Bad Advice.
Click to expand...

Don't see how as it's best to stripe the System best to suit ones needs because no specific stripe size can give the best performance overall as it depends on what is being done with iot and/or how it's used.

My Multimedia Puter has a 1024K stripe size where the standard one does 32K (use to be 16K)..
 
Originally posted by: ribbon13
Yes, always match or double the cluster size to the stripe.
Click to expand...

Agreed, go at least 128 but no larger than 256, 64 is the smallest you want to go because any thing smaller or larger for general use just hurts performance.

I think tomshardware.com may have done a test on this. 256 Provided the best results.
 
The best stripe size to choose is whatever your RAID card defaults to as the default size is almost invariably the size they were optimized for. There is no blanket right answer for this reason, since different cards will perform differently in relation to each other as you change the stripe size.

General rule of thumb, decrease the size of the stripe size for higher transfer rates. Increase the stripe size for better positional performance (more responsive system).
 
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