Raptors, RAID, set up and configuration questions.

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Mysterae

Gawd
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Sep 11, 2005
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A mixture of these questions I'm about to ask have been posted already, but not altogether to arrive at the ideal setup for me. So I have to ask...

Here's the remit:
- I have enough physical space for 2 SATA1 hard drives,
- the PC is used primarily for games performance, but will also be used for video capture (vid camera), editing, then finally burning to DVD,
- 2Gb of RAM will be installed,

I've read about the WD Raptor 74Gb being the dogs bollocks, but 74Gb is a bit measly when it comes to todays storage. Using 2 Raptors is a bit expensive for the storage obtained, although I'm unlikely to max out +140Gb though as my music is on a separate server.

At the moment I use RAID 0 and like the performance from it, but I read conflicting reports about the Raptors in RAID 0, as in it's not worth it. Then the topic of the week is where do you store your OS, apps, games, pagefile and captured video files if you use separate drives.

So:

1. Is 2x Raptor Raid 0 worth it from a performance pov? I know the risks and backup often!
2. Would partitioning the above cause any performance loss?
3. Would 1 Raptor and another hd of greater size, non RAID be better?
4. From reading the threads, I'd put the OS and apps on one drive, and the pagefile, games and captured video file on the other drive, sound ok?
5. Is the orientation of the hard drives important? I'm hoping to install them vertically; the connectors of one facing down, the other's up. Get me?

Thanks in advance.
 
i used to have my 2 raptors in raid...sure it seemed faster...but my raid card...drivers always gettin corrupt somehow...conflicts with my audigy 2

as now i have 1 raptor, and it seems to be about just as fast, but benchmarks say burst speed is about...20mbs faster, and sustained is also about 20mb faster....

i just use it as 1 big drive and install all my junk onto it...ive considered puttin my spare raptor back in my b0x and loading games n junk on the 2nd drive. but im tryin to sell the raptor to a buddy, so i dont wanna put it back in my system now...

some ppl like the duo of raptor / bigass storage drive, but me personally keep everything on my server, so i dont need a spare storage drive(even though i keep an 80gb in my system for temp downloads and junk..and my documents sits on that drive as well )

vertical install shouldnt be a problem.
 
Thank for that.

The RAID is was thinking of using is onboard. If the Raptors are fast enough on their own, then there isn't much point in using the RAID with the risks involved. I'm like you and keep anything not accessed frequently or large items on a separate machine (music server).

Here's what I think I will do:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Raptor 1 : [ OS ] [ captured video files ]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Raptor 2 : [ Games ] [ applications ] [ pagefile ]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm trying to think what two things are accessed at the same time, and put them on separate drives, but without 3 drives it's difficult. Anyone think it should be done differently?
 
A single WD740GD will deliver 80% + of the performance of 2x WD740GD in RAID-0 for half the price. Additionally, in your situation, the drive bay that would have been taken by a second WD740GD can instead be filled by a large 7200RPM drive. The dollars and drive bay that would have gone to a second WD740GD can instead buy you a 300-400GB 7200RPM to store your content creation work. Also, if you get a drive with high density (Samsung SP P120, Hitachi T7K250, Barracuda 7200.8), you will actually get faster linear transfer performance than a Raptor.

Obviously, I really like a hybrid of a Raptor and large 7200RPM for your situation.
 
Thanks Doug, I appreciate your advice.

It was a moment of madness after indecisiveness that made me think to go 2 raptors. Normally I wouldn't because of the cost per gig, but it enticed me with it's speed. 20% extra in RAID 0 is good, but I think I will take your advice and use a larger secondary drive.

Looking around the two suppliers where I'm ordering my kit from only has the Barracuda 7200.8 300 and 400Gb in stock, not the other two. After reading your sticky (again!) I'm leaning towards the WD Caviar SE 400KD - it's a bit more expensive than the other two and the raptor, but hell it gives over 5 times the storage and a 16Mb cache. So I'm sold.

Thanks Doug, you've made me spend more money :D

Now, how would you suggest I utilise these drives? No RAID (decided), OS on the raptor, content creation on the 400KD - where to place games, apps and pagefile? Will it even matter?!
 
They will be close. Here's a comparison. The WD740GD is still the best gamer drive of the lot, but the WD4000KD has an edge in loading applications that actually get work done :p Note that the P120 comes really close to eclipsing the Raptor's transfer rates.

Really, they are both great drives. I would split applications and files that are accessed simultaneously between the two drives where possible. With 2GB of RAM, your page file placement will have little impact on overall responsiveness, although Microsoft's official "best practice" is to have it on a physical disk that is separate from the OS boot/system volume.
 
Thanks Doug, all my questions answered.

Another benefit of the WD4000KD is it's silent idle noise, although the WD740GD would drown out a screaming child by the look of it, it's going to be the loudest component in my system.
 
Well, it's not _totally_ silent :p SR just didn't enter the noise value in the database. Check here for some commentary on the noise of the WD4000xx drives.
 
DougLite said:
Well, it's not _totally_ silent :p SR just didn't enter the noise value in the database. Check here for some commentary on the noise of the WD4000xx drives.
Click to expand...

Right, :D got to be careful when taking review results as part of the buying decision, luckily the noise wasn't a deciding factor! Interesting that the Raid Edition is cautioned when running in a non RAID enviroment. The drive available to me is the SE, which I imagine is slightly different, just looking for data on it now.
 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WD Raptor 74 GB : [ OS ] [ Applications ]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maxtor 300 GB : [ Pagefile ] [ Games ] [ Data ]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is my setup. I find this setup to work very well, and is very speedy. The Maxtor I have has NCQ and 16MB Buffer, so speed wise it's not bad as well. I just dont think with 2 raptors in a raid your going to get the extra speed to make it worth it. I would just go with a nice speedy large storage drive as a second drive.
 
I have 3 raptors. Each is a different revision. They are very fast and very good for multi tasking (I alwys run them with full TCQ enabled). The problem I have is that since I don't have any matching sets, they seem to drop out of the array a lot. I only run raid 1 myself and it's plenty fast.

the biggest thing about the raptors that people don't talk much about is that they are the king for multi tasking and accessing lots of smaller files. They have very fast seek times coupled with the TCQ makes them great at certain things.
 
I bit the bullet and a WD740GD and a WD4000KD are on there way to me now. I'll be setting it up the same as you Zardoz, seems like the most logical thing to do!

3 Raptors sdadept? No doubt that's fast if a little noisey!
 
Mysterae said:
I bit the bullet and a WD740GD and a WD4000KD are on there way to me now. I'll be setting it up the same as you Zardoz, seems like the most logical thing to do!

3 Raptors sdadept? No doubt that's fast if a little noisey!
Click to expand...


Man, that IMO is going to be nice... I hope it's works like you want it to....
 
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