Prostock62 Posted June 30, 2005 Posted June 30, 2005 Hi ExRoadie,i was looking at the Hitachi 11 drives.I always liked the Hitachi,that was the first kind of drive i purchased on my first build.I just bought this samsung and its not a bad drive.I realy hate to put it on the burner for now,would like to put it to some use.My results for a stock drive in HD Tach isnt to bad.Well just putting some ideas together for now.Thanks for the feedback. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
oliveryochest Posted July 1, 2005 Posted July 1, 2005 i would also go with 2 hitachi 80G Sata II drives. you can always use your samsung as a little storage drive. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostock62 Posted July 1, 2005 Posted July 1, 2005 i would also go with 2 hitachi 80G Sata II drives. you can always use your samsung as a little storage drive. Thats just what iam going to do.Thanks all for the advice.Now to read up on setting up a raid config,never atempted that befour. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
red930 Posted July 1, 2005 Posted July 1, 2005 See AG's RAID tutorial... http://www.angrygames.com/nf4raid-1.htm Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostock62 Posted July 1, 2005 Posted July 1, 2005 Thanks for the link ExRoadie. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostock62 Posted July 2, 2005 Posted July 2, 2005 See AG's RAID tutorial...http://www.angrygames.com/nf4raid-1.htm Is there a tutorial for the NF3250? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wenotwal Posted July 6, 2005 Posted July 6, 2005 I have always understood that a 4K cluster size is the default size in NTFS. ExRoadie says that a 4:1 strpie/cluster ratio is the ideal for XP, and I have no reason to doubt that. My question is, does Windows use the ratio by default or does it always set a 4K cluster by default? If I set a 64 stripe, for example, does Windows format with 16K or 4K? I don't have a problem with using windows on a PATA drive to format my raid array and set the cluster size. But, will windows do it for me at 4:1? And, is there someway to check or somewhere to look to see what the cluster size is? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundx98 Posted July 6, 2005 Posted July 6, 2005 windows will always use 4K NOT any ratio. Once you have Windoze setup on PATA use the controlpanel/administrative tools/computer management/storage to set up partitions and cluster size on the RAID Array. Set stripe size when creating the array of course. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sorrento Posted July 7, 2005 Posted July 7, 2005 4X is for all arrays, or for ones that have 4 HDD's in them? I mean, 128/32, 64/16 or 32/8 or 16/4. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
red930 Posted July 7, 2005 Posted July 7, 2005 NTFS defaults to a 4K cluster on larger partitions. See here... http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documen...kc_fil_lxty.asp The optimum stripe width in NTFS is four times the cluster size. A 4K cluster with a 16K stripe width gives you the best chance to keep the clusters spread across the two drives in the RAID-0 array. When you have a stripe larger than four times the cluster size you add overhead to the system to keep track of the clusters. If you choose a smaller stripe like twice the cluster size you run the possibility of both clusters ending up on the same drive defeating the purpose of the two drive array. This is why the stripe width scales with the cluster size. You can "pre" format your partition with a different cluster/stripe size before installing the OS. There are several "gotchas" that you need to be aware of and are covered in this thread. Larger clusters will give you better performance on large files such as media files and game/level loads. The drawback to large clusters is the amount of wasted space for small files. Since a cluster is the smallest unit of storage on a drive a whole 16K cluster will be used to store a 1K file. This wasted space is called drive "slack". When you look at the properties of a file in Windows XP you will see the "size" and the "size on disk". The difference between the two is the "slack". Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sorrento Posted July 7, 2005 Posted July 7, 2005 The optimum stripe width in NTFS is four times the cluster size. A 4K cluster with a 16K stripe width gives you the best chance to keep the clusters spread across the two drives in the RAID-0 array. What about arrays with 4 HDD's... is it the same thing: Stripe = 4 x Cluster ? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
red930 Posted July 7, 2005 Posted July 7, 2005 I haven't tested an array with more than two drives so I have no personal experience or benchmarks. From what I understand about NTFS and RAID-0 arrays, the 4 to 1 ratio would hold true regardless of the number of drives in the array. I don't have any hard data to back this up so I might be wrong. What about arrays with 4 HDD's... is it the same thing: Stripe = 4 x Cluster ? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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