2 or 3 hds in raid 0

[andyisc00l]

I have 2 options:

2-250gb hard drives in raid0 -- $180

3-160gb hard drives in raid0 -- $225

5 year warranty on the 160s and 3 year warranty on the 250s

Now I don't want to have a drive fail 6 months down the line and have to start allllll over..not fun..I don't mind it though but I'd much rather avoid

is it worth the extra $40 to get 3 hds in raid0 as opposed to 2, how much quicker?

[andyisc00l]

wow come on...

or a last option...

4 samsung spin point-160gb hard drives in raid0 $240
3 year warranty on the spin points but only 8mb cache..

what do you guys think!?

[ripken204]

the more the faster

[andyisc00l]

Well yea but how much faster, 4 vs 2...is it worth $60 and the pain of having twice the chance to have a driver failure and having to start over?

[[XC] Lead Head]

you could get 3 drives and put them in Raid 5. 2 drives are stripped while 1 backs everything up

[andyisc00l]

Maybe I'll just say screw it and get 4..650gb of space and some realllly awesome performance who cares if I lose my data :-p..

its mainly just :banana::banana::banana::banana:, movies and video games anyways

hey..got a couple questions...

4-Samsung Spinpoint P HD160JJ
4-Hitachi desktar Deskstar T7K250
4-Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600JS
4-Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 SATA NCQ 3Gb/s ST3160812AS
4-Western Digital Caviar RE WD1600YD

all are 160gb..which four should I get..
RE has a 16mb cache, don't know if that'll make a big difference..and it has..
RAID-specific time-limited error recovery improves compatibility with RAID adapters, and prevents drive fallout caused by the extended hard drive error-recovery processes common to desktop hard drives. 1 million hours MTBF meets enterprise-class reliability standards, backed by an industry-leading five-year warranty. 5-year is rally awesome as well..maybe I'll just try the REs unless someone objects..

if it scales like the raptors I might have to do this..
http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content.asp?id=raptor150raid&page=5

0o0 and I just figured out RE stands for "raid edition"..how interesting..3 of em in raid0 costs $225..

[ripken204]

well what exactly do u need all of this speed for? maybe you should consider getting 2x74gig 16mb raptors in raid0, then a large hdd for whatever else. b/c the redundency for 4 drives in raid0 is pretty bad, my way u can put all of ur games/programs on the raptors and backup whatever(music,movies,etc) on the other drive.

[[XC] Angstrom]

I thought RAID0 didn't do anything for non-server real-world apps.

[Serra]

Another vote for RAID 5.

Hard drives are by far and away the most common point of failure... and 4 of them starts pushing things to me. I'd go RAID 5 and possibly get a PCI-E RAID card, as the card can do all the processing for you and good models even have on-board RAM. Despite having long warranties, hard drive companies (as a generality, there are exceptions) are pretty notorious for taking a LOOOOONG time to deal with warranty issues and of course that's not taking into account the fact that you lose your data, your time, and statistically you're unlikely to ever use the warranty that you do have (most people don't bother).


I thought RAID0 didn't do anything for non-server real-world apps.

RAID 0 gives you faster disk reads/writes. It helps any disk-intensive application... though realistically most desktops don't do *that* much that they would require it.

[ripken204]

EquilibriumX-ur hdd setup is exactly what i was recommending, 2 raptors in raid0 and another large hdd :)

so either that or raid5 i guess

[[XC] Angstrom]

EquilibriumX-ur hdd setup is exactly what i was recommending, 2 raptors in raid0 and another large hdd :)

so either that or raid5 i guess

Yeah, I keep all my music and other data on the 200GB disk and OS/Apps/Games on the array. However, I can't measure the difference between single Raptor and striped Raptors at all, I just don't notice it.

What I do notice is higher CPU utilization with RAID0, that's just because onboard RAID sucks. You'll need to shell out 100-300 bucks for a raid controller to avoid these problems.

RAID0 helps where I/O is needed, video/audio editing, the memory intensive stuff. No improvement in gaming. Apparently RAID0 also decreases read speed for small files since access time is higher than single drives.

[andyisc00l]

$320 for 2 raptors + $100 for 250 gb hard drive...ahahha :'( ... 3-160gb hard drives will be fine, especially for ffdshow :-)

[ripken204]

.... their rabates are gone today. the raptor was like 120$

[BlackX]

more than 2 HDDs in RAID0 are completely useless. Performance increase over 2 HDDs is up to 5% and in some cases they work even worse. 3 or more HDDs in RAID0 is just waste of power and case space. my suggestion is to get two 400MB or 300MB 7200.9 16MB cache barracudas and connect them to RAID0. You will have great performance and enough disk space for reasonable price.

[andyisc00l]

more than 2 HDDs in RAID0 are completely useless. Performance increase over 2 HDDs is up to 5% and in some cases they work even worse. 3 or more HDDs in RAID0 is just waste of power and case space. my suggestion is to get two 400MB or 300MB 7200.9 16MB cache barracudas and connect them to RAID0. You will have great performance and enough disk space for reasonable price.

what on earth are you talking about? did you just guess that? lol..performance in raid only gets larger with more hard drives, the more the better..

http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content.asp?id=raptor150raid&page=5

please note the "sustained transfer rate" ... 1X 77.9 ...2X 156.2 ... 3X 226.7 ... 4X 303.8

[Delirious]

For gaming the performance of raid is barely felt, except when loading maps/levels on some games.

This is a really good site: http://www.storagereview.com/ read it before u rush into anything.

You would be better off getting a better video card if u want a boost in game performance.

[Serra]

The thing to keep in mind with RAID 0 is that it's only helpful (really) when manipulating larger files or doing disk intensive work... if you aren't using your hard drive much, you won't get much benefit anyway. Think of it mostly as paying more for a faster Windows boot time, with some added help when moving huge files around.

[ripken204]

thats why u need the low access time of a good raptor :)

[Delirious]

If u do alot of cad/photoshop work its great. i do a good bit of disc intensive work, and its nice and smooth. but i wont be spending the kind of the money i recently spent on raid again. Raid card cost me more than the hdds did.

[BlackX]

what on earth are you talking about? did you just guess that? lol..performance in raid only gets larger with more hard drives, the more the better..

http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content.asp?id=raptor150raid&page=5

please note the "sustained transfer rate" ... 1X 77.9 ...2X 156.2 ... 3X 226.7 ... 4X 303.8

Take a look at most tests obviuos difference is only between 1x and 2x raptors. When it goes more than 2x the performance increase is just ~10%. In other words u wont notice a change from 2x to 3x HDDs. If u want really fast boot then go for i-ram.

[Delirious]

The performance of raid isnt just for boot times, its just a matter of the average home user wont feel the difference between a single 10k sata drive and 2 drives in raid 0.

The performance difference between 2 and 4 drives in raid 0 is more than 10% for me it was nearly double the performance.

[BlackX]

The performance of raid isnt just for boot times, its just a matter of the average home user wont feel the difference between a single 10k sata drive and 2 drives in raid 0.

The performance difference between 2 and 4 drives in raid 0 is more than 10% for me it was nearly double the performance.

Which performance do u mean?

[andyisc00l]

Sustained transfer increases each time don't you see that? 77 then 156, then 226, then 303, with each drive you add on, you add on more speed...the difference from 2 to 4 is double the speed...with ffdshow, it will be a blessing..

[ripken204]

he's talking about normal use tho. the normal person doesnt use ffdshow every day.

[andyisc00l]

I think I'm gonna look in to 3-caviar RE 160gb...anyone think theres a better drive out there? I'm looking for silence and they say the caviars are pretty quiet...this is a raid edition too, 5 year warranty :-)..I think its the most expensive 160gb :-/ oh well...anyone object?

[andyisc00l]

he's talking about normal use tho. the normal person doesnt use ffdshow every day.

the normal person also buys 2-$160 raptors with only 150gb, and puts them in raid as well, lol, I think thats funny

[BlackX]

the normal person also buys 2-$160 raptors with only 150gb, and puts them in raid as well, lol, I think thats funny

These 2 raptors are way faster than urs 4 7200rpm 160GB HDDs :stick:

[andyisc00l]

These 2 raptors are way faster than urs 4 7200rpm 160GB HDDs :stick:

its like buying DDR2-1000 ram when you know that ddr2-800 ram is just as good..you pay twice the price for similar speeds..
actually this is far more extreme..you pay hundreds more with about a 1/5 the drive space..

and for the record, 4 regular sata drives in raid are WAY faster then 2 raptor drives in raid..depending on what it is of course tho..I think the raptors will still be loading games and what not faster, but i wouldn't say "way faster"..its just faster...

http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content.asp?id=caviarre&page=7

at one point its 10 seconds faster, (30% faster), another the caviars are faster by a second (10% faster), then in far cry the raptors are 5 seconds faster again (20% faster)..nothing to drop your jaw at. (game load times)


if you look from article to article, you'll notice that 2 raptors in raid (150gb) that cost $320 will perform near 2-160gb drives in raid (320gb) that cost $160..so for half the cost you get over twice the storage and a little bit less performance..its outrageous that people buy these raptors I think its a marketing gimic..although they are faster, you don't see everyone hopping on board to buy ddr2-1066 ram..

actually I just noticed if you look at the article..2 Maxtor DiamondMax 10 300GB hard drives in raid0 are "faster" then the raptors..I thought that was funny..but they are loud:'( like the raptors, I think I'll just stick with the caviars, I hateee how loud my raptor is, although pretty quick

[BlackX]

its like buying DDR2-1000 ram when you know that ddr2-800 ram is just as good..you pay twice the price for similar speeds..
actually this is far more extreme..you pay hundreds more with about a 1/5 the drive space..

and for the record, 4 regular sata drives in raid are WAY faster then 2 raptor drives in raid..depending on what it is of course tho..I think the raptors will still be loading games and what not faster, but i wouldn't say "way faster"..its just faster...

http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content.asp?id=caviarre&page=7

at one point its 10 seconds faster, (30% faster), another the caviars are faster by a second (10% faster), then in far cry the raptors are 5 seconds faster again (20% faster)..nothing to drop your jaw at. (game load times)


if you look from article to article, you'll notice that 2 raptors in raid (150gb) that cost $320 will perform near 2-160gb drives in raid (320gb) that cost $160..so for half the cost you get over twice the storage and a little bit less performance..its outrageous that people buy these raptors I think its a marketing gimic..although they are faster, you don't see everyone hopping on board to buy ddr2-1066 ram..

actually I just noticed if you look at the article..2 Maxtor DiamondMax 10 300GB hard drives in raid0 are "faster" then the raptors..I thought that was funny..but they are loud:'( like the raptors, I think I'll just stick with the caviars, I hateee how loud my raptor is, although pretty quick

Yeah seems like things have changed. Im going for 3x Barracudas 7200.10 320GB 16MB SATA2

[vengance_01]

This is what I would recomend. Two WD 250GB 16meg cache SATA 3 for raid-0 and then 1 74GB Raptor for OS/games etc... Two fast HDs, cheap, and a good amount of storage. Best buy has the 74GB raptor on sale, plus there 10-12% printable coupons online which should bring around 120-130$ after taxes:)

[Vric]

3 HD in Raid 5 (if your motherboard offer it)

Performance + redundancy.

[Delirious]

3 HD in Raid 5 (if your motherboard offer it)

Performance + redundancy.

performance of raid 5 is poor compared to raid 0 especially with only 3 drives.

Just get a spare hdd and back up to that.

[Vric]

performance of raid 5 is poor compared to raid 0 especially with only 3 drives.

Just get a spare hdd and back up to that.
Performance is better than a single drive..

If you want speed and reliability, get 4 drive. 2x Raid0+1

Or with 3 drive, make a Raid0 of 2 drive, partition the drive in half and Mirror one partition to the 3rd drive. Save your important stuff to the mirrored partition and you have both of best world.

[nn_step]

how about three drives Raid5