Does Anyone Recommend Raid 0?

[malmsteenisgod]

After doing a lot of reading about Raid 0, I've found that a lot of people dislike it. I was planning on getting another 500gb Seagate 7200.11 to put in Raid 0 but now I'm not too sure I want to. A few of the concerns I have are

 

-That the added performance of Raid 0 in applications and games is minimal

-One hard drive failure ruins your day

-Added cost of a second drive that I could put towards a better graphics card instead

 

I'm not too worried about the hard drive failure though, as I back almost everything up. But, how about the performance difference, and is it worth the extra $65 I'm about to spend for more storage and speed?

[nVidia_Freak]

You won't be spending money for more storage, you'll be spending money for speed. If you're not happy with the time your games take to load you would benefit. Games like Half-Life, where the map is loaded when you reach a checkpoint would benefit the most from this. If you're not happy with your current times, give it shot. If not, stick with what you've got and put the money toward something else.

[tanka12345]

I think you'd be better off getting a better graphics card and just stay with one HDD. I have a Seagate 80GB IDE Harddrive in my PC, which is 5 years old, and it's never had any problems.

[robAP]

raid-0 really is where you'll notice a faster read speed....over the course of a large bunch of files or a VERY large single file transfer. for short periods of time you'll notice the difference if your loading up game maps. I've been first out several times in battlefield series games because of this but it's really not THAT much of an advantage overall, and certainly not enough of one to justify spending the money on it. Moving or accessing like many gigs of photos at a time or something similar is where you might find a use but overall really, it's not worth the money. go with raid-5 if your looking for mostly foolproof information backup. and that costs a whole lot more money. I would go with a graphics card instead. you'll be happy you did.

 

there's nothing wrong with it. it's just not worth the money unless you have an application where you will really see the speed or safety benefit.

[WhenKittensATK]

I had Raid 0 for maybe a year almost now, if not more. It has never failed on me or got corrupted. It improved some loading screens for my games and transfering big files.

 

EDIT: Get a better graphics card. It will be a better upgrade.

Edited December 16, 2008 by Krazyxazn

[IVIYTH0S]

i had two raptor 150's in a raid 0 but the one got funky, luckily there wasn't anything important before I wiped them and the array seemed to be ok until I sold them off. I much prefer one drive now because the speed benefit's weren't worth the money (though it was nice having 300 gigs instead of just 150) but I'd say just keep your 500gb which is a decent drive itself. Harddrives are so good now a days that one is all you will need.

 

I'd also keep your 4850, do you really need anymore power then that?

[malmsteenisgod]

Thanks everyone for the helpful comments. I decided to take that hard drive out of my shopping cart. I'm so indecisive with purchases.

 

I'd also keep your 4850, do you really need anymore power then that?

 

Yes

 

Don't get me wrong, I love the 4850, and mine overclocks really well, but I don't like sitting through slow downs in Crysis. I almost bought the XFX GTX 260 Black edition because it's on sale on Newegg for $250 after MIR, plus you get Far Cry 2 for free. I think I should post this in the deals section of the forums.

 

Well, I would get a second 4850, but crossfire sucks in Crysis, so I'm going to steer clear of that for now.

[IVIYTH0S]

Thanks everyone for the helpful comments. I decided to take that hard drive out of my shopping cart. I'm so indecisive with purchases.

 

 

 

Yes

 

Don't get me wrong, I love the 4850, and mine overclocks really well, but I don't like sitting through slow downs in Crysis. I almost bought the XFX GTX 260 Black edition because it's on sale on Newegg for $250 after MIR, plus you get Far Cry 2 for free. I think I should post this in the deals section of the forums.

 

Well, I would get a second 4850, but crossfire sucks in Crysis, so I'm going to steer clear of that for now.

haven't you beaten crysis yet, is one game really worth $250 (though i long for a black edition 260 myself). I'll sell you my 4870 for 185 if you want

[WhenKittensATK]

Throw away all Crytek games and your issues with gaming performance will be gone

[ir_cow]

been running different raid0s for years now, never had it fail on me. than again i do switch my drives every year just about. what i really like about raid0 is that even if the drive is 100% full it still runs like an empty drive. the read and write speeds are 20-50% faster and it stays that way even when full.

 

 

P.s the only game worth a new video card is Call of duty games and well even with a crappy card you can get 100fps.

[HarryTaco]

I use Raid-0. Have used it for several years now. One Hard Drive, two, or three,,, tell me if you have one hard drive and it fails arent you really in the same boat? You think using two HDs is going to increase your chances of failure exponentially? Blah, the sky is falling. My Rigs are for gaming and audio endeavors, Raid-O serves me well and I will continue to use Raid-O for years to come. Get yourself an extra drive and do Raid-0 +1 if you want data back up. I use an old HD from previous years for my music back-up and just sock it away in a drawer for that Rainy day when the Sky really does fall if ever.

Edited December 16, 2008 by Kwok

[Nemo]

I use Raid-0. Have used it for several years now. One Hard Drive, two, or three,,, tell me if you have one hard drive and it fails arent you really in the same boat? You think using two HDs is going to increase your chances of failure exponentially? Blah, the sky is falling. My Rigs are for gaming and audio endeavors, Raid-O serves me well and I will continue to use Raid-O for years to come. Get yourself an extra drive and do Raid-0 +1 if you want data back up. I use an old HD from previous years for my music back-up and just sock it away in a drawer for that Rainy day when the Sky really does fall if ever.

No, it increases linearly - not exponentially. You have twice the chance of losing your data due to a hard drive failure in RAID0 as in a single drive setup.