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hard drives & raid - benchmark and compare!


Angry_Games

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Hello,

 

I want to upgrade to a RAID with redundancy. (It seems odd saying that, but that is what 0 causes :P )

 

1. Should I go with 3.0 Gb/sec drives?

2. If I go with 3.0 Gb/sec drives I cannot use the SIL 3114 controller correct?

3. Ignoring the 3.0 Gb/sec questions what RAID do you think is best, 1+0 or 5?

4. I'd like 500 GB storage. What hard drives do you recommend?

5. Is there anyway to add the RAID drivers to the Windows XP setup disks, because I do not have a floppy drive?

 

I'm sure I'll think of more. Thanks.

:confused:

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The different OSes do not need to be aware of the striping. Since it is a different filesystem (aka, resier or whatever) windows doesn't know or care if it is striped or not. It merely knows there is a partition there that it cannot read.

Software RAID is in the Partition level. In this case I'm talking about 4 total partitions, lets call them A - D.

A and B make up the windows Raid 0.

C and D make up the linux partition.

The first drive has it's MBR windows, which will include a dual boot choice of the second drives MBR (linux). The first drive (windows) would have windows installed on a non-striped partition. The second would have it's /boot on a non striped partition. In this fashion I have the respective operating systems properly booting, and mounting independant RAID arrays. I load all my games and other time sensitive files onto that.

I plan to get a 3 drive array of 80 GB hatachi SATA2 drives for my disk. I will have a 3 x 20 partition to install BF2, and other games to increase load time. Also, anything I want to share over gigabit. I want seperate "arrays" for each OS.

I will conversely have a 3 x 8 gb Raid partition to install most of gentoo, mainly everything but the basic boot partition.

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Primaris

 

 

welcomeani.gif

To DFI-Street.

 

 

1. Yes SATA 3GB You will never saturate the IO

 

2. Yes

 

3. Depends? Speed RAID 0 or Redundancy RAID 1 (need 2 drives) or RAID 5 (need 3 drives)

 

4. In my opinion WD SE16 500GB

 

5. Search forum for “slipstream”

 

Do us a favor and fix the font on your signature it is to small. Thanks.

 

 

º¿º

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...

 

3. Depends? Speed RAID 0 or Redundancy RAID 1 (need 2 drives) or RAID 5 (need 3 drives)

 

Well RAID 0 and 1 are out in my mind. 0 no redundancy and 1 has no performance benefits. And, since the SIL controller cannot do 3Gb/sec I guess RAID 5 is out.

 

...

 

5. Search form for “slipstream”...

 

º¿º

 

Actually I looked at some slipstream sites after reading the RAID guide by angrygamer (?) but didn't see a way to add drivers. But I found this page; http://www.maximumpc.com/2005/01/how_to_slipstre.html which as instruction on how to do it. So thanks for making me look again.

 

Thanks.

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Guest Kobalt
Hello,

 

I want to upgrade to a RAID with redundancy. (It seems odd saying that, but that is what 0 causes :P )

 

1. Should I go with 3.0 Gb/sec drives?

 

I'm sure I'll think of more. Thanks.

:confused:

You do know that you will not really see any real speed increase over 1.5.

In fact, you will barely see any speed increase from ATA-133.

I rather get a 1.5 10K RPM drive than a 3 7.2K RPM drive.

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Primaris

 

What is your PSU?

 

What is the manufacturer, model, watts and amps?

 

If it is in your signature I can not tell.

 

Line 2

- ASPIRE ATX-AS520W BLACK ATX 520W Power Supply - Retail

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You do know that you will not really see any real speed increase over 1.5.

In fact, you will barely see any speed increase from ATA-133.

I rather get a 1.5 10K RPM drive than a 3 7.2K RPM drive.

 

Nope, I can't say I know what you are talking about.

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Yep! I missed your PSU. Thanks.

 

 

My opinion and as much as you may hate to here this, your power supply may give you problems in the future. I say may, if you find yourself with strange problems all of a sudden look at your PSU.

 

Power requirement for DFI motherboards are very high and a good quality PSU will make the world of difference in stability and overclocking.

 

When you think you’re get a 520W PSU you may in fact be getting one that puts out 350W at 5amps. Yes it can be that bad!

 

This is why people stress the importance of quality PSU. The links I listed below have those recommended PSU’s and they have been tested with DFI motherboards by DFI tech’s.

 

In my opinion if that rig was mine I would upgrade that PSU ASAP.

 

Check these link out:

 

Recommended! - NF4 Ultra/SLI Mobos:PowerSupplies

 

PSU Brands to Avoid

 

Minimum requirements is a 24-pin 480w power supply (PSU)

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I appreciate your concern but, it has been running fine for 11 months now. Be assured if I do start to have problems I will look to the PSU.

 

I hope this thread stays on topic :D

 

edit: I don't know how much this matters:

16501055372.jpg

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Yea, that is why I was wondering if I should go with 3Gb/sec drives. If I won't see any performance gain with 3Gb/sec drives over 1.5Gb/sec drives I can just use the on board SIL 3114 controller and RAID 5.

 

If I go with 3 Gb/second drives I guess I will have to go with RAID 0+1 or get an external controller. (kind of crazy since the board already has two controllers, huh?)

 

Maybe I need to learn what RAID is faster: 5 or 0+1? Then I can at least have a foundation to build a decision upon. Maybe?

 

edit: Oh I just reread your post. According to my manual the Nvidia controller doesn't do RAID 5 or does it?

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