Well, I must say I am happy with my results but we have hit a new conclusion and discovery with Intels Matrix Raid 0. We all assumed that with increasing the capacity by adding more drives, while at the same time keeping a SMALL boot slice in Raid 0, the matrix would continue to decrease access time and increase sustained read. For the Raptors I went from an 8.5ms access time in single drive configuration to a 6.2ms Matrix Raid 0 access time. We all though by adding another drive we would theoretically continue to decrease access time. This assumption is false. My access time remained exactly the same and for this benchmark, even increased .1ms.
My older Raid 0 Matrix benchmarks had my 2 X Raptor 150's HDTached at:
175.5 Sustained Read and 6.2ms access time.
My newer Raid 0 Matrix benchmarks of 3 X Raptor 150's are HDTached at:
260 Sustained Read and 6.3ms access time.
So, that equates to an increase of 85 MB/s transfer and a mild increase (not decrease) of .1 ms access time. I must say, I am happy but I truly believed like everyone else that access time would drop below 6.0.
Also, anyone new to Matrix Raid I would highly recommend reading Bings thread here:http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=467848
To anyone interested in Matrix raid, I recently answered a Private Message question that another OCForums member asked me. Here was my response:
THE MATRIX
Its called Matrix Raid and its quite awesome actually. It lets you physically create slices (not partitions) out of your drives which forces the system to read/write from the fastest portion of the platters. In a sense faking creation of a physical drive smaller than it actually is. You really have to try it out for yourself to actually look and decipher the difference between a slice and a partition. A slice would not allow the outer portions past the drives max capacity to be read in HDTach or other benchmarks where as a partition would still technically include the entire hard disks capacitys.
In my case, I am using 3X 150 gig Raptor X's with a total capacity of 450 GB in Raid 0. I will be setting up my rig with 2 slices, which tells the system they are 2 seperate HDD's.
Slice #1 = 20 GB Total (6.6 GB's each drive) Raid 0
Slice #2 = 430 GB Total (143.3 GB's each drive) Raid 0
Since Slice #1 is only using the first 6.6GB's of each drive to create a 20GB boot drive, each platter gives you incredible sustained read/write transfer rates and should theoretically drop random access time significantly for me with the speedy Raptors. (Please note: Random Access time stock is 8.5ms on the Raptors) It puts the old NVRaid AMD Raid Controller to shame.
As far as real world performance, the gain is very noticeable. With the introduction of Matrix raid and HDD slicing it is even more apparent.
Slice #2 implements the rest of the 430GB Capacity into a humongous Raid 0 disk with a very good STR and access time, but no where near as fast as the first boot slice. I will be using the 2nd 430GB slice for data/software/music/etc.
Our super speedy Slice#1 will be used for windows xp boot, benchmarking, gaming, and heavily accessed main applications.
Its the seek time that I am really after, not so much the STR. A seek of 6.3ms is very quick and definitely the first thing you notice with the raptor raid setup. First you start out with a single Raptor 150 with an average seek between 8.1 and 8.5. Putting that into a 2,3, or 4 drive matrix config cuts the seek time down completely by 2ms. That is very substantial. Heck anything at or below 9.5ms is noticeably faster than the 11,12,13,14 ms HDD's. But, your setup is killer. Especially for the pricetag and cutting down the seek to 9.5ms is a definite noticeable difference in performance. I have almost come to the conclusion that when using Raptors, unless you are after video editing or server level I/O's, a 2 X 150 Raptor setup may be the best config in the high end price/performance category versus more of them. It seems that anything after 2 drives actually may increase the seek time, when our theorys think otherwise. I am a gamer and benchmarker so I am fully after dropping seek time. Those STR's dont really mean that much to me although its nice to have close to 300 MB/s on 3 drives. I would think a 3 or 4 drive Raptor Matrix setup would be absolutely killer for a hardcore video editor. For a hardcore gamer, 2 drives is looking like the hot ticket.Originally Posted by deathman20
I may even downgrade to 2 drives again because I was hoping for a sub 6ms seek time. And I dont think purchasing another 150 will help my config, or my wallet. lol
Yes, but..... lolWahoo quotedHehe
Well isn't it suppose to increase times when you add raid just due to the controllers latencey and communicating back and forth?
And the but is the cool part. With the Matrix and the ability to continue slicing down drives it should decrease, at least by theory. Example:
Single Raptor(non raid) - 1 Drive, 150GB single drive partition = 8.1 to 8.5ms
2 X Raptor 150 - 2 Drives, 10GB each drive, 1 slice = 6.2ms
3 X Raptor 150 - 3 Drives, 6.6GB each drive, 1 slice = 6.3ms
Our theory was that once we actually reach the third drive and continuously decrease the used capacity of each drive that the readable portion of each platter would shrink, and continue to decrease access time because the drive would have less of a distance to tinker on the platter. As you can see in a 2 drive configuration, that theory holds true. But it looks as though after 2 drives on the matrix, we have something else impacting seek times as you stated such as controller, and latency, or perhaps the actual lowest physical seek time on the disk. If that makes any sense. Technically by looking at that data you would think that 6.6GB readable portion per drive would seek better than 10GB per drive on the platter. Maybe anything 10GB and under produces exactly the same results? I will need to do some more research. I was truly hoping to prove myself wrong and get those killer sub 6ms seek times.
Cheers. :beer:
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