The ULTAMITE RAID Article!

[Pacinamac23]

If you have any interest in raid at all you should really read this article. I gotta say. It is one of the most in-depth articles I have ever read. Great job mathew. I think all of us here in the AT community really apreciate it.

 

[dreben]

Good article. Very comprehensive.

 

[Adul]

how could I miss this. Reading it now.

 

[Matthew Witheiler]

It is great to hear that you guys enjoy the article so much. I have been working on this for longer than I can remember and it is nice to see that my work paid off. We thought that this review would be perfect to pair up with the launch of the new site and it looks like we were right.

Thanks for the kind words.

 

[Pacinamac23]

I really hope people take the time to read it. And it may take a little time.

But it is worth it. A top class AT article, like what I have come to expect from AT.

 

[Generalen]

I have to check this article later see U all guys

 

[Apex]

<< If you have any interest in raid at all you should really read this article. I gotta say. It is one of the most in-depth articles I have ever read. Great job mathew. I think all of us here in the AT community really apreciate it. >>



ARGH. Thought you were talking about SCSI raid when with a title like &quot;ULTIMATE&quot; RAID article.

Great article anyway though.

 

[SUOrangeman]

Hopefully, they will get their hand on an Escalade card sometime soon.

-SUO

 

[snow]

Article is so misleading it makes me ill. His conclusions are laughable. Simplistic and incorrect.

 

[pulpp]

greta article, thanks

 

[MichaelD]

Hey Snow,

I'm NOT being sarcastic...very serious in fact. You say &quot;conclusions are incorrect and laughable.&quot; OK, educate me. I'm not doubting you know your stuff...but this guy DOES work for AT...considered by many to be &quot;gospel&quot;. I'm going to be setting up an IDE RAID 0 array soon. What do think my best stripe size should be? I'll be running/I have in my system:

Win98SE (please don't suggest W2K...won't do it..I've had minimal (very probs w/98, I'm happy w/it)
2 40gig 7200rpm HD drives
512mb PC133 ram
1100Mhz TBird
Abit KT7R (using the onboard Highpoint raid controller)

I mostly game and burn CD's. I want to give raid a try. If i don't like it, I'll reformat and use the second drive for storage...I'll burn most of my CD collection to it or whatever. Thanks for your time.

 

[Linux23]

very good read, will finish it when i get home tonight. good job Matt!

 

[Pariah]

&quot;You say &quot;conclusions are incorrect and laughable.&quot; OK, educate me.&quot;

I'm not sure what snow means exactly, but I'll say this. I would put very little stock in the card recommendations that are given at the end. The article did not benchmark the 3Ware 6000 series, the 7000 series, the Adaptec 2400A, or the new Promise TX series, which means at best the top seven performing ATA RAID cards didn't make the review.

&quot;What do think my best stripe size should be?&quot;

I wouldn't lose too much sleep over this. 64KB is a safe size, as it is a middle of the road choice. The stripe sizes will not make dramatic speed differences in everyday use, and unless you have the exact same usage patterns all the time, you will rarely be at the optimal setting no matter what you choose anyway.

&quot;I mostly game and burn CD's.&quot;

You will see little in the way of performance gain at all with these activities. Don't even bother with RAID.

 

[DaHitman]

WOULD IT HAVE KILLED THEM TO CHECK FOR LINUX COMPATABILITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I mean its not like these type of cards ARE MOST LIKELY TO BE USED IN SERVERS!!!! DUH!!

Very Sad.... very poor effort on anandtech's part if you ask me..

 

[Informant X]

Geez guys relax for gods sake! I can understand what Pariah is saying but dahitman and snow freaking chill out. If you have a problem with the article get off your @$$es and make your own.

 

[MichaelD]

Pariah and all you great folks,

Thank you for the replies and your info; I appreciate your time. Actually, I appreciate everyone, period. We all know something that someone else doesn't. If I can take one minute of my day to help someone who has been pondering/struggling with a problem for hours, then I feel really good about life in general. (Grabs a warm-fuzzy now)

I've no personal experience w/RAID in any of it's forms (gee, what gave that away...my dumbass questions?) but I really want to try it out for myself. I know some may find this pitiful, but I've already benchmarked my current HD perfomance, using SANDRA and HDTach, and really am looking forward to seeing how the RAID 0 compares. With CDR's as cheap as they are, I image every couple of weeks, so I'm not worried anymore about a RAID array crash. Screw it...load that backup and life is good. I originally got my Raid mobo w/the intent of &quot;maybe someday I'll use it&quot; Well, suddenly, &quot;someday&quot; is today! Or sometime later this week when I get my new case. I love computing in general. It's a hobby as well as a necessity for me. Most of my primary job is done online (LAN/WAN) and I can't really screw around too much with my job rig, but at home, it's a different story.

I've read the benchmarks, the real world ratings and the personal opinions. It comes down to a 50%/50% split between &quot;don't waste your time&quot; and &quot;check it out, it may be good for you.&quot; So, I'm gonna check it out. If I don't like it, I'll still have 85GB of storage space. You guys rock. See you in the forums!