Upgrading my HDD from ATA133 to SATAII.

[Drizzy]

Just as an FYI - my motherboard is an DFI lanparty Ultra-D.
*edit* sorry forgot this info is in my sig...

I use my computer for a lot of multi-tasking. I often have photoshop, illustrator, indesign and a few other programs all running at once. I am really getting tired of delay and load times when switching back n forth between programs. Sometimes I can be working on huge files and my system really bogs down... I am in the process of upgrading to 2gigs of ram and purchasing an Opty 170 for the dual core. I also want to upgrade my HDD from an ATA 133 - here are my questions:

1. How much increase in speed should I see going from ATA133 to SATAII - considering what I do with my computer?
2. For the purposes that I use my computer for - would a RAID 0 setup increase my load times and multitasking speeds?
I know RAID 0 doesnt have redundancy which leads me to question 3.
3. Is it possible to have 2 SATAII HDD in a RAID 0 config and use my current ATA133 HDD as secondary drive on which I can do regular backups?
4. Anyone familiar with my motherboard's (Ultra-D) RAID controller and know if it is sufficient for my needs?
5. Finally - if #3 is possible, is there any software out there that would perform a regular system backup to my secondary drive for me on a determined schedule?

Thank you all for the wealth of knowledge!

 

[ch33zw1z]

If you're gonna make the move, gotta do it right. The DFI lanparty Ultra-D has 4 SATAII ports, here is the description from DFI's website:

# Four Serial ATA ports
# SATA speed up to 3Gb/s
# RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 0+1
# NVIDIA RAID allows RAID arrays spanning across Serial ATA and Parallel ATA

In you're scenario, I would run RAID1 on 2x 250+(sounds like you do lots of graphical backup...250 may not be enough) SATAII's for data backup and redundancy. I would run two smaller (80's) SATAII drives as RAID0 for the speed you're looking for.

Now, the DFI Lanparty Ultra-D give you lots of options. You can use two IDE drives for RAID1, and leave the SATAII ports open for any supported RAID config.(4x SATAII 80's in RAID0+1 )

I would ditch IDE altogether if that's an option, it's just slow comparitively.

 

[tallman45]

1) You will see no difference just from going from a single ATA133 to SATA 150/300, you are not at the max throughput on either interface

2) Keep your OS and Apps on just your ATA133 drive, then build a RAID 0 for all of ypur Photoshop RAW images, they are giant and what is causing your delay in loading times

3)Yes
4)Yes
5)Many

The 2GB will solve most of your problems, Photoshop loads very large files into memory to work with. You should also make sure your Photoshop Scratch file is NOT on the same physical drive that your Page Data File resides on.

Do not put your OS on the Raid 0, it will actually slow down access times. Raid 0 arrays are for very large files that get striped (split) across 2 or more drives, not small files such as an OS

Check this forum, they will help with specifics on Photoshop

DPreview

 

[Drizzy]

Thank you for the replies. So having your OS on a Raid 0 setup isnt a good idea? Thanks for the info on the scratch file... I'll have to read up more on that because I only have 1 HDD so I'm sure they are on the same physical drive right now. Any suggestions for software that will regularly backup my Raid 0 setup onto my IDE HDD? thanks

 

[Drizzy]

For image design would I be ok just going with a fast large SATAII drive as an upgrade from my IDE133? Is a raid going to be significantly faster? Any other good options? - I cant do RAID5 with my mobo and I will have 3 HDD after purchasing 2 SATAII to go into a RAID config - RAID 0 worries me without the redundancy. Is RAID 1 going to be much faster than a regular fast HDD for my purposes? I can do RAID 0+1 but from what I can tell I'd need 6 HDD which isnt an option. I dont mind missing out on the storage in RAID 1 if that is worth it... thanks!

 

[themisfit610]

Having an OS on a RAID is a great idea provided that you set the stripe size accordingly (small).

The stripe size proportionally represents the average file size on the drive, so lots of little files, small stripe size. less large files, large stripe size.

This is a CRUCIAL setting when doing RAID. Not sure if most software or motherboard RAIDs let you set this, but a decent hardware controller should.

Do not under estimate the importance of hardware RAID. RAID5 is especially slow on software, due to the parity calculations.

Still, the difference is most apparent when working with large files like uncompressed HD video. I would suggest any old drive for your OS as it's not such a big deal, and a large RAID0 array for your RAW image work. Burn them to DVD-R for backup, or maybe add 2 drives and make it RAID 0+1 for speed and redundancy.

RAID 1 is slower than a single drive. Remember this.

 

[Drizzy]

Sorry to keep asking questions - never done a raid setup before but I would love increased speed in opening, editing, and saving my work.

If you had a budget of $100 would you get 2 small 80GB HDD and put them in a RAID0 setup or just get one large fast hard drive like a seagate 7200.10 with 16mb of cache? This would have my OS, and my work saved on it... I dont mind buying a backup program and backing up my Raid setup every day to another internal HDD (slower IDE one)...
Also, keep in mind that my major use is for video editing and stuff. Thanks!