hard drives & raid - benchmark and compare!

[Liquidfire]

 

http://img117.imageshack.us/img117/268/scr...fbenches2gu.jpg

 

a couple quick questions about the array....i think its pretty self explanatory i may have left a few things out tho so feel free to ask away.

 

2xsata II barricuda 320Gig perpindicular drives Raid 0 16/4

 

 

if i turn read caching off up till about the 16 test the read takes about a 50% decrease in MB/s

but the burst rate goes thru the roof. :drool:

 

im a bit confused as to what i should be going for

[Liquidfire]

the link oppsed to the picture that is shown will show full size and be able to read it

[cerupcat]

Here's my first attempt at RAID ever.

 

2 x Hitachi SATAII 160gb in RAID 0

 

To be honest, I don't know much about what all these graphs means. Especially from the ATTO one.

 

Here's the pictures:

 

 

 

The second drive above is a WD IDE 160gb (not RAID). It's the top one that counts hah.

 

From looking at other's benchmarks, it seems my drives are doing well?

[red930]

@cerupcat

 

You need to pay attention to the settings in ATTO.

[red930]

Here's the easiest way to test Stripe/Cluster performance on your rig.

 

Build your OS on a single drive.

 

Build the RAID-0 array and set the Stripe to your first test size. Use Disk Management to format the array with the first test cluster size and start benchmarking. Once you're done testing with those settings, format the drive with the next cluster size. Do this until you've exhausted the available cluster sizes.

 

Break the array and build it with the next test Stripe size. Continue your testing with different cluster sizes.

 

Once you've found your Stripe/Cluster performance sweet spot, break the array one last time.

 

Remove the single boot drive, build the array with the Stripe/Cluster you choose and install the OS.

 

This is the only way to get the optimum Stripe/Cluster for your particular rig.

 

Be aware that, in general, a two drive RAID-0 array has a sweet spot of 1/4 stripe to cluster ratio. A stripe size of 16K likes clusters at 4K.

[sixpack_li]

Hi all!

 

I'm doing benchmarks at the moment...

What applications do you find work better with RAID 0 arrays as opposed to single drives?

For me its just file copying and of course benchmarks.

 

What functions are you using your RAID arrays for?

[acurax]

EDIT: Ok, so I decided to ditch my 2-year-old Raptor for the Seagate RAID array. I ended up slipstreaming the RAID drivers onto a WinXP unattended install disc and all is good so far... I've never done the slipstream thing before, and it's pretty sweet. I just XP installed, and in Device Manager I checked out the driver of my Nvidia Stripe disk and it says its dated 7/1/2001 from Microsoft...is this supposed to be like that?

 

Also, am I supposed to install the nvidia SW drivers? Will these change the above issue?

[Guest Milkshake]

I just setup 2 x 80GB Hitachi RAID 0 and I was wondering do the Hitachis come with SATAII enabled? If not, how do I enable them?

 

Here are my results:

 

 

[red930]

I just setup 2 x 80GB Hitachi RAID 0 and I was wondering do the Hitachis come with SATAII enabled? If not, how do I enable them?

You need to download the Hitachi Disk Tools application to enable SATA 3Gbps performance.

[Liquidfire]

Can anyone answer my question from about 1/2 page up?

 

What is better my increased read speeds on test ~1-5 with read caching on

 

or my burst rate of almost 400 with read caching off?

 

my pics are up there too

 

what does read caching do? ive looked it up a bunch and havent found tons of info on what it does.

 

Thanks again folks

[Guest Milkshake]

After enabling SATAII:

 

 

[Sorrento]

Nice boost...

 

I don't like the way HD Tach measures bandwith... but it can show the Burst Speed, and there was a nice increase in performance with SATA2 enabled.

 

Did you also enabled Spread Spectrum?