3 X Raptor 150 on Intels Matrix Raid 0

[Pete]

Originally Posted by dominick32
Ideally you will want to create a Raid 0 slice with 25GB or less of data. Your second slice can either be Raid 0, or Raid 1 for mirroring.

With 25GB or less of data on the primary boot slic, you will force the system to read from the fastest portion of the platter and have great random access times and sustained transfer rates.

When first configuring your system in the bios you are going to first:

1. Enter the bios and enable Raid as your primary boot device.
2. Enable the Matrix Boot Rom
3. Upon the next system restart, press "Control + i" to enter the Matrix boot rom.
4. You will configure your array by first pressing "Create Array"
5. Select the Configuration (Raid 0, Raid 1, Raid 5)
6. Select the amount of drives to use in this array.
7. Select the Capacity to use for the first Raid 0 slice. Example: 20GB
8. Select the stripe size.
9. Press Create Array

It will now let you know that you can not use the matrix without using all capacity on the drives so you are going to click "Create Array" again.

10. Now, you will go ahead and use the rest of your drives capacity to make the Raid 0 or Raid 1 by using the procedure I just noted.

After that, everything is fine. You can disable the boot rom if you prefer, I leave it active by default. Now, you simply boot from CDRom, install your operating system and make sure you have a Raid/AHCI driver floppy disk created for the operating system. When you enter windows you are going to want to install the latest Intel Matrix drivers and configuration utility.

11. Go into advanced options in the Windows Matrix Configuration Utility and enable write back caching on both the Raid 0 slice and Raid 0/1 slice.

CALL IT DAY
Cheers.

Belive thats what ya need to do but.

What strip should i set?

20 or 25GB for windows RAID0?

What should i really set the rest of the drives up as? I only use my OS and app (Photoshop, games, etc on the RAID0 drivers)

I really want the best speed i can get for booting into windows and stuff loading

[C-N]

Here's my 4 x 80GB Hitachi Deskstars in RAID0 with a 25GB C / 1st slice & the remaining 280GB's partitioned D & E in the second slice. The cluster size is default XP & the strip size is 64kb with write back cache enabled.

I have played with 4,16,32 & 64kb stripe sizes as well as 2,3 & 4 drives & each time the random access is the same for all configurations on the sliced array.

I have also run HD Tune, HD Tach & ATTO & the average read & burst speed increase increase linear with every extra disk whilst the random access on the 1st slice stays the same.

I have un-rared a 200mb file on the 1st & 2nd slice & cant measure any performance gain time wise, windows still boots to the desktop in 30 seconds so for me I cant really tell/feel any improvement over a normal array disk partitioned up although it is clear the access time has improved considerably.

Slicing definitely improves benches but I think you will be hard pushed to feel a difference using a sliced array rig.

CN

[Polizei]

Pete, thats exactly what I did, except my slice size was the entire disk size.

I would say more than 20 or 25GB... I thought I wouldnt need much but after installing Photoshop, Battlefield 2 + expansions and a bunch of other programs, Ive bloated to 29GB including a full XP install. I would say 30GB atleast, to be safe.

[Pete]

Pete, thats exactly what I did, except my slice size was the entire disk size.

I would say more than 20 or 25GB... I thought I wouldnt need much but after installing Photoshop, Battlefield 2 + expansions and a bunch of other programs, Ive bloated to 29GB including a full XP install. I would say 30GB atleast, to be safe.

Ah 20/25GB is fine for me.Clocked XP using 7GB last so i think 25GB be safe bet.

Might give it a go tormrow some time when my spear CPU arrives

Just what do i set the left over as...

36 x 4 = 144 - 25 = 119

25 as RAID 0 and my XP boot slice and apps etc

119 as Raid what???

[Polizei]

0 or 1 or 5 or whatever you want.

What I want to know is, would making that other slice (the non-RAID 0 slice) a RAID1 or RAID5 slice slow down the RAID0?

[Pete]

0 or 1 or 5 or whatever you want.

What I want to know is, would making that other slice (the non-RAID 0 slice) a RAID1 or RAID5 slice slow down the RAID0?

Thats what making me wander too but with RAID1 wiriting and reading all the time i am wanderinf if thats going to make the RAID0 a bit more faster

[One_Hertz]

I'll bring this back from the dead.

After seeing so many benchmarks showing standard RAID0 to be of next to no benefit for gaming, I wonder if this is any different.

If anyone is considering switching their array over from standard to matrix, could you do some timed benchmarks of game level loading before and after? I think it would answer some questions for a lot of people and be of good benefit to the community.

gj for bringing this up, WAY too many people aren't aware of this.

[Polizei]

Thats what making me wander too but with RAID1 wiriting and reading all the time i am wanderinf if thats going to make the RAID0 a bit more faster

If anything, I think it would be slower. The read/write heads would be used for reading things other than whats on the RAID 0 array, which is where you want the speed.

[Pete]

So maybe set both to RAID0 then

[Machinus]

Is there a setup guide for MATRIX?

[Pete]

Is there a setup guide for MATRIX?

Yes

Originally Posted by dominick32
Ideally you will want to create a Raid 0 slice with 25GB or less of data. Your second slice can either be Raid 0, or Raid 1 for mirroring.

With 25GB or less of data on the primary boot slic, you will force the system to read from the fastest portion of the platter and have great random access times and sustained transfer rates.

When first configuring your system in the bios you are going to first:

1. Enter the bios and enable Raid as your primary boot device.
2. Enable the Matrix Boot Rom
3. Upon the next system restart, press "Control + i" to enter the Matrix boot rom.
4. You will configure your array by first pressing "Create Array"
5. Select the Configuration (Raid 0, Raid 1, Raid 5)
6. Select the amount of drives to use in this array.
7. Select the Capacity to use for the first Raid 0 slice. Example: 20GB
8. Select the stripe size.
9. Press Create Array

It will now let you know that you can not use the matrix without using all capacity on the drives so you are going to click "Create Array" again.

10. Now, you will go ahead and use the rest of your drives capacity to make the Raid 0 or Raid 1 by using the procedure I just noted.

After that, everything is fine. You can disable the boot rom if you prefer, I leave it active by default. Now, you simply boot from CDRom, install your operating system and make sure you have a Raid/AHCI driver floppy disk created for the operating system. When you enter windows you are going to want to install the latest Intel Matrix drivers and configuration utility.

11. Go into advanced options in the Windows Matrix Configuration Utility and enable write back caching on both the Raid 0 slice and Raid 0/1 slice.

CALL IT DAY
Cheers.

[koc]

Here's my 4 x 80GB Hitachi Deskstars in RAID0 with a 25GB C / 1st slice & the remaining 280GB's partitioned D & E in the second slice. The cluster size is default XP & the strip size is 64kb with write back cache enabled.

I have played with 4,16,32 & 64kb stripe sizes as well as 2,3 & 4 drives & each time the random access is the same for all configurations on the sliced array.

I have also run HD Tune, HD Tach & ATTO & the average read & burst speed increase increase linear with every extra disk whilst the random access on the 1st slice stays the same.

I have un-rared a 200mb file on the 1st & 2nd slice & cant measure any performance gain time wise, windows still boots to the desktop in 30 seconds so for me I cant really tell/feel any improvement over a normal array disk partitioned up although it is clear the access time has improved considerably.

Slicing definitely improves benches but I think you will be hard pushed to feel a difference using a sliced array rig.

CN

Wow , your array outperform my 3 x raptors with areca card

[C-N]

Wow , your array outperform my 3 x raptors with areca card

Its pretty close but don't forget this performance is only on the 1st slice (25GB C my array reverts back to std 12ms 200mb/s on the 2nd slice, your Areca/Raptor array should be nice & constant across the board.

The only real benefit hear for me is cost, I have comparable RAID performance on my boot/os slice utilising on-board RAID & 4 cheep drives (£80 for all 4) where as your setup probably cost £500 +

CN

[Pete]

So for this boot slice is it worth me even slecting all 4 drivers and making that secition of the lsice 25GB?

[Talonman]

Care to spoon feed a newbie?

First time building a system from scratch, and super weak on the BIOS and initial install stuff.

So I have 2 Raptor 150's I want to run in Raid 0 for OS and Games.

I also want to run Vista Ultimate and my 4GB of ram.

My Maximus SE is in the INTEL club, so running Matrix raid is an option for me.

Can you give me a direct link to the file I need to have on my flash drive to set this up.

When installing this with Vista Ultimate, are my install steps different?

Would I want to make the boot partition bigger than 25GB due to Vista, and still use a 64k stripe size?
The remaining portion of my 2 150's will be ran in RAID 0.

Thanks for any help.

[koc]

Its pretty close but don't forget this performance is only on the 1st slice (25GB C my array reverts back to std 12ms 200mb/s on the 2nd slice, your Areca/Raptor array should be nice & constant across the board.

OK. noob question , if you leave the total size of the 4 hard drives , can you get the same read speed ?

[Talonman]

So this is just on your chip, and requires no software to download, just activate your Matrix boot rom on the Maximus?

[kiwi]

Nice find there Improvement not only in hdtach but other appz too

This is 2x150 raptors with write cache enabled. Access time down from ~8.5ms to ~6.1ms. Average read up from 160

[Brahmzy]

Care to spoon feed a newbie?

First time building a system from scratch, and super weak on the BIOS and initial install stuff.

So I have 2 Raptor 150's I want to run in Raid 0 for OS and Games.

I also want to run Vista Ultimate and my 4GB of ram.

My Maximus SE is in the INTEL club, so running Matrix raid is an option for me.

Can you give me a direct link to the file I need to have on my flash drive to set this up.

When installing this with Vista Ultimate, are my install steps different?

Would I want to make the boot partition bigger than 25GB due to Vista, and still use a 64k stripe size?
The remaining portion of my 2 150's will be ran in RAID 0.

Thanks for any help.

Go with a 32k stripe size and if you're using Vista Ultimate, make it at least 40GB. SP1 for Vista is rumored at requiring 12GB of free space on the OS drive!

I made a 35GB partition and I'm going to have to rebuild when SP1 comes.

I'm going 45 GB next time. Fing ridiculous if you ask me.

[Pete]

4 36GB's all used to makw 1 25GB slice and the leftover

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...ete/HDTACH.jpg

[bobson]

hi guys,

So I too am building my new system myself ([url=http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=165933]click[/url) and what I wanted to know is how much difference does RAID0 make ingame ic a normal WD Raptor? And could someone exactly explain How you create that Raid0 array(and if its really so much faster? a +-50 GB slice)

thank you so much

[TheSamurai]

here are my thoughts and theories from what i've read and gathered...

2x 150Gb Raptors in which i'd like to do dual boot with XP64 and Vista64

1st slice (RAID-0) = 25 GB (XP64)
2nd slice (RAID-0) = 50 GB (Vista64) not positive about the size on this one
3rd slice (RAID-0) = whatever is left over

with the 3rd slice, i don't see a point in running anything other then RAID-0 due to the fact that if you lose a drive you can't just swap it out and continue along... running a redundant RAID would be pointless. ofcourse, though, i'll be running a 500Gb drive for storage and backups.

what are your thoguhts on this? flaws? am i incorrect in my assumptions?

[TimoneX]

here are my thoughts and theories from what i've read and gathered...

2x 150Gb Raptors in which i'd like to do dual boot with XP64 and Vista64

1st slice (RAID-0) = 25 GB (XP64)
2nd slice (RAID-0) = 50 GB (Vista64) not positive about the size on this one
3rd slice (RAID-0) = whatever is left over

with the 3rd slice, i don't see a point in running anything other then RAID-0 due to the fact that if you lose a drive you can't just swap it out and continue along... running a redundant RAID would be pointless. ofcourse, though, i'll be running a 500Gb drive for storage and backups.

what are your thoguhts on this? flaws? am i incorrect in my assumptions?

Sounds good and very similar to how I setup my drives. I always put a very minimalist XP32 install on the single backup drive to launch Norton Ghost from to do backups of the OSs on the array that will not run the backup programs I like...(XP64 & Ghost). Works like a charm for me!

[Talonman]

Go with a 32k stripe size and if you're using Vista Ultimate, make it at least 40GB. SP1 for Vista is rumored at requiring 12GB of free space on the OS drive!

I made a 35GB partition and I'm going to have to rebuild when SP1 comes.

I'm going 45 GB next time. Fing ridiculous if you ask me.

Thanks for the reply..

[TheSamurai]

just wondering if you guys could take a look at my thread... running into a few issues. thanks!

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=166604