Suggestions for RAID array

P

PV5150

New member
Lo Lads

Just wanting to get some ideas off you if I may? I just bought 2 x WD 80GB HDD's that I want to make into a RAID 0 array to increase access times.

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I know they aren't Raptors, my budget atm can't stretch that far. I'll be using my 200GB Seagate SATA as the storage drive. I'm looking at making a 128K stripe for multimedia etc (the default size under the ICH8R southbridge), can anyone make a valid arguement for making the stripe size smaller? Intel suggests a 128KB stripe size; NVIDIA prefers 32KB; and SiS and VIA default to 64KB. I trust that each company has a firm enough grasp of the unique performance

characteristics of its RAID controller to recommend the best stripe size for its chipsets :D ; because I really don't want to have to defragment everyday on a smaller stripe, just for the pleasure of having an increase in speed.

One other thing, does anyone know if the ASUS P5B Deluxe BIOS 0614 supports using a flash drive virtually to install the RAID drivers. As the new rig is for the best part legacy free, I'd like to keep the stiffy drive out if I can? My only other alternative is using Nlite to create a slipstreamed WinXP Pro CD

All comments welcome, tia
 
I was always under the impression that smaller stripe sizes are best for games and general windows performance whereas larger stripe sizes are better for photo/video editing applications that deal with larger files. Personally i'd go for 64k as its middle ground and shouldnt cause you too much fraggin.

As for raid drivers i've never seen the ability to install from a flash disk - i always nlite. Its a PITA, but it works :)
 
Cool mate, thanks for the swift response. I always thought that when installing RAID drivers with F6, it was floppy or Nlite option only. But I've done some research and it appears on some later versions of ASUS BIOS' there is a provision for installing via USB flash virtually... Wasn't sure, just asking if peeps had heard of this. I'm going the Nlite route anyways :)
 
All depends on what the user is using the drives for. Samee same theory as cluster sizes.

For games, mp3s, photos and similar "smaller" files, 32/64k is adequate.

I`d hazard a guess that a manu selling a 200g drive would semi think your using larger files and point at 128 for that reason.

Raptors quite frankly are a waste of money, given the sizes they`re sold at, they`re "bling". The majority of peoples who use them are gamers, general users, purely coz they aint big enough for some1 doing *cough* movie work. I`d like to see a screenie of a Raptor reaching it`s designed m/s whilst playing a game or copying mp3 files - mp3 files don`t simpley give a drive enough of a chance to go higher than 3/4 - 10/15 meg a second.

I use DirectoryOpus, which gives u a gui during file copying that displays how fast your drives are going, I copied 60g of mp3s last week and I don`t recall the speed going over 9/10m a second, that was on ata133, over 10 lan and onto an s1. Overall time and averages were displayed, but they`re calculations - not exacts.

EDIT: According to the manual, aslong as the legacy USB thingy is set to Enabled or Auto, u may have gotten away with using the flash thingy. Might be worth popping it in to check for the future. Sexeh board btw.
 
First screenie with RAID array. Not too bad I suppose, the access speed is definitely better than the regular SATA :)

get.php
 
Wow, reading this made me feel like a nub. What exactly is this 'stripe'? and whats it do/for?
 
RAID 0 = "stripe" means that the data is striped across the two drives (I think PV chose 64k). This means that the data access and retrieval is very fast and the drive logically assumes the same size as the two drives combined.

RAID 1 = "mirroring" means that the drives mirror the data, like backing up each other. This is slower but more secure since the data is on both drives. should one fail: the other should be able to run flawlessly with no interruption.

There are other combinations as well of course :)
 
Kemp - I`d`ve expected a little faster, figuring that a single drive, S2, would be in the region of ~250 on it`s own.

Slightly confuzed over comparisons, I know a single drive S1 will get a 120-130 on HD Tach.

PV are your drives jumpered (or not jumpered) for 1.5 or 3 speed ?

(bear with me, might be having a brain fart)
 
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