RAID

[Paul Incitti]

Has anyone tired using a cpu with 2 hard drives? Does Raid 1 work any faster then 1 hard drive?

[Ron Branch @ Verisurf]

RAID does work better, but it really comes down to the hard drives. I have several computers with dual hard drives. the one that is the best is the one with 2 15k raptor drives. It is non raid, but you would never know it. I would look to a solid state before looking at a raid set-up. Use a 120 gig solid state with a 2 TB back-up and you should be good for years.

 

HTH

[jeff]

I thought this was an online gaming question

 

Yes, RAID is faster than a single HDD.

Also as Ron said, look into a Solid State Drive, those things are way faster than any conventional platter type drive.

[Toonz]

Is RAID faster than a single drive? The short answer is YES.

 

I run two RAID's (4 physical drives) one is RAID 0 and the other is RAID 1. The RAID 0 is the primary drive and the RAID 1 is a cloned backup drive. I clone it using Acronis.

 

The RAID 0 is slightly faster than RAID 1 because it uses the striping technology, but it is also less reliable in the long run, because if one drive has a read failure the data (unreadable) becomes useless. In RAID 1 if one drive is unreadble it will be completed by reading the data from the other drive.

 

As Ron stated above RPM speed of a drive will also make a difference when it comes to access speed. The amount of onboard cache makes a difference too.

[The_Evil_Machinist]

Oh boy I hope you guys running raid drives have a raid card instead of using the motherboards raid function.

 

Motherboard RAID = Software based raid. Not true raid 0 speeds and will break very easy

 

RAID card = Hardware controller for raid drives. Stability + true raid 0 speeds.

 

Only raid 0 SCSI server drives or SSD's. Anything else is a placebo.

 

Raid 1 = best economical backup solution.

 

Raid 5 = God tier workstation raid setup but needs 4 drives and a hardware controller.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

quote:

---

Raid 5 = God tier workstation raid setup but needs 4 drives and a hardware controller and some serious $$$.

---

Fissed.

[bogusmill]

I use the motherboard RAID 0 array and have no problem. Seperate RAID cards are very expensive and software RAID is not very good. Solid state drives are good as long as you have Windows7. There is no TRIM compatibility on Vista and XP. Without it the drive will slow a bunch in the first few weeks. What's crazy fast is SSD in RAID 0 array. SSD's are so reliable RAID 1 or 5 or 10 is unthinkable.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

quote:

---

There is no TRIM compatibility on Vista and XP.

---

This is contrary to what Kingston tech support told me (I happen to run a SSD with XP)

[The_Evil_Machinist]

quote:

---

I use the motherboard RAID 0 array and have no problem. Seperate RAID cards are very expensive and software RAID is not very good.

---

I hope you back all your data up everyday. Software raid + raid 0 = Guaranteed trouble.

 

Really, all OS's have trim support but windows 7, windows server 2008 R2 and linux 2.6.33 have native support. All other times you can just send the commands manually a couple times a day or just write a small script to deploy the trim program. Thats what I did for my macbook pro when I put a intel x25-M in it.

[Ron Branch @ Verisurf]

Evil you like Sever 2008 R2? We have 2003 R2 and well I am finding major problems with our server. It was only set-up with a 20 gig C drive and partitioned off to the point that I have a second drive that is a TB, but I can not get programs to install and run correctly unless they install to the C drive. Guess what it is full so it looks like I am going to have to put a new hard drive in the server and re partition it off correctly. Our Company anti Virus was only expired 3 years ago. Our server is so full of bug I am surprised it has not walked out of the building. I was in the process of doing everything like getting our Virus software up to date. Getting the Back-up Exec working again. Which BTW has not worked since 2008 and looks like I got a long weekend coming up doing all of this and was thinking might not hut to look at Server 2008. What do you know and from a purely windows point of View should I update or stay with server 2003??

 

Thanks for any help or response.

[Rob @ Target Machine]

If you're running a Dell with the ICH8 onboard raid controller (Matrix), you might want to look at an SSD with its own garbage collection like OCZ.

 

A rep from Dell has informed me that the ICH7/8/9 series SATA controllers can't pass the trim command to the drive no matter what OS you're running.

 

I'm looking at a Z-drive for X-mas, but I really don't think they are worth the dough.

 

Maybe just a 256Gig OCZ ssd will be enough to make my boss jealous enough to go get a real computer. LOL

 

Any comments? Evil?

[The_Evil_Machinist]

quote:

---

Evil you like Sever 2008 R2?

---

Imagine windows 7 with a server sticker on it. Thats what its like. Is there anyway you could use BSD or Linux?

 

 

quote:

---

you might want to look at an SSD with its own garbage collection like OCZ.

---

All good SSD's have built in garbage collection and don't require any instruction sets to be sent to the drive to invoke it. Garbage collection is not a drive saver, its more of a necessary to run the SSD. If you're looking at getting a SSD, only and I mean ONLY buy Intel. Three year no questions asked warranty.

 

quote:

---

A rep from Dell has informed me that the ICH7/8/9 series SATA controllers can't pass the trim command to the drive no matter what OS you're running

---

First lesson of computers:

 

When a dell rep tells you something, disregard and go to the manufacturers website to find out. The Intel controllers all support trim.

[Rob @ Target Machine]

quote:

---

When a dell rep tells you something, disregard

---

Thanks Evil.

 

X25-E or X25-M?

Is the SLC drive worth it?

[Steve Hattori]

+1 on the Intel SSD's- mine is nearly 3 yrs old and still goes like hell...

 

SLC is better, but maybe not worth the price diff...

[Ron Branch @ Verisurf]

Thanks Evil. I really like Windows 7 so I will really like Sever 2008 then thanks.

[Mic]

quote:

---

Raid 5 = God tier workstation raid setup but needs 4 drives and a hardware controller

---

It's possible run RAID 5 with 3 HDD's.

[The_Evil_Machinist]

yes but at 4 the parity algorithm is balanced and you then can hot swap a drive when it fails.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

To me RAID 5 without parity in the array is not quite useless, but, certainly borders it. I mean, hot swappable, mirroring, etc... is kind of the point right?

[The_Evil_Machinist]

yep.

[bogusmill]

quote:

---

I hope you back all your data up everyday. Software raid + raid 0 = Guaranteed trouble.

---

I don't know where your getting this from. I agree software RAID stinks, I've never used it. I've built many machines using Asus or Gigabyte motherboards which have RAID built into the chipset & had no problems with RAID. It only needs to be configured in the BIOS, maybe have a hardware driver installed. But you dont use software RAID on these boards. Software RAID is meant to be used on a lower end board with 2 HD's. It is loaded after the OS and so Windows is running non-RAIDED & everything else is.

 

If it's important I back it up on a NAS server unit. If a RAID 0 drive fails you lose your data however if a single drive fails you lose your data too. HD's don't fail very often & I'll take a chance on a 2 drive array but not a 4 or 6.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

With a 4 or 6 drive RAID 5 Array, if configured properly, even if you loose 2 of 4 drives, or 4 of 6 Drives, you STILL can revive it with relative ease. No service disruption and minimal performance hit (at least in my experience)while it's rebuilding the array...) either. For the added cost, data redundancy, RAID 5 is still my favorite.

[crazy^millman]

James I have becomed quite educated through this whole process and Raid 5 is great and cool to know SSD support raid 5 as well. It would be some serious money, but I think my next box will have 4 SSD and be raid 5. That thing should scream. I see Win 7 firing up in 2 seconds if that. Mastercam will be in the time it takes to click the icon. Put that together with 64 bit and dual I7 processors and if it does not levitate the house I might just get upset.

[The_Evil_Machinist]

quote:

---

I've built many machines using Asus or Gigabyte motherboards which have RAID built into the chipset

---

Thats software based raid. Motherboards don't have true raid built in and it's done through the bios.

 

quote:

---

cool to know SSD support raid 5 as well. It would be some serious money, but I think my next box will have 4 SSD and be raid 5

---

Then you'll bottleneck your northbridge. Pointless to do that.

 

quote:

---

dual I7 processors

---

Read up on QPI paths. i7 = single socket Xeon = dual socket.

[jeff]

quote:

---

James I have becomed quite educated through this whole process and Raid 5 is great and cool to know SSD support raid 5 as well. It would be some serious money, but I think my next box will have 4 SSD and be raid 5. That thing should scream. I see Win 7 firing up in 2 seconds if that. Mastercam will be in the time it takes to click the icon. Put that together with 64 bit and dual I7 processors and if it does not levitate the house I might just get upset

---

Don't forget to put a couple of THESE inside that new computer!!

[crazy^millman]

OR just buy this one:

WOWOWOWOW