Raid 0 OS disks?

spoodie · Post by **spoodie** » January 9th, 2006, 1:38

I'm thinking about getting a couple of small SATA disks for running my OS on, 80GB looks like the smallest readily available and that's ample. My MB supports serial ata-150 and I'm wondering how much the access speed is effected by the cache, 2 and 8MB seem to be the 2 sizes available on dabs. Also they need to be quiet, any recommendations on HDs and ideas about the cache?

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » January 9th, 2006, 1:57

2mb cache is _bad_ 8 and 16 are standard these days.

you may also want to look at the performance of a single raptor compared to most other HDDs, it'll probably be better alone than most cheaper drives are in RAID0.

remember also that most, if not all onboard RAID solutions are not true hardware RAID, so won't be as fast as a dedicated card, and will be to a level, cpu limited.

also remember than RAID0 is pretty volatile, so you'd do best to look at only running your OS, Paging file and greedy games on there (move my documents to a reliable drive)

it really comes down to how much money you're willing to spend on something that'll increase performance slightly

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » January 9th, 2006, 7:38

it's probably worth remembering that the new raptors will push the price of the smaller ones down

spoodie · Post by **spoodie** » January 9th, 2006, 12:30

I actually meant RAID 1 as I wanted extra resiliancy on the OS partition rather than extra speed. And you're right, the MB RAID is "software" so I'm not willing to trust it. Which would mean buying a PCI RAID card if I want to continue down this road which starts to raise the cost too much for it to be worth while, considering how reliable modern disks are.

Oh well that kept me amused for an hour. Thanks anyway. Now on to thinking about my next gadget purchase.

Post by **FatherJack** » January 9th, 2006, 13:30

A RAID 0+1 capable controller would have given you both, not that it matters now.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » January 9th, 2006, 14:04

and are pretty cheap, you might pick up a decent hardware one for under 30 quid odd now.

Lateralus · Post by **Lateralus** » January 9th, 2006, 14:17

Ok, now I'm curious. What is RAID, and why would one want it?

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » January 9th, 2006, 14:24

RAID is a set of methods allowing better performance or reliability from standard drives. (Wiki)

Often at a gaming/home use level people will use it in different ways.

RAID 0 is fast (it splits data across 2 drives)
RAID 1 is safe (mirrors the contents of a drive totally)

Post by **FatherJack** » January 9th, 2006, 15:03

and RAID 0+1 gives you both as it's a mirror (RAID1, resiliency) across two sets of stripes (RAID0, performance) - although you might need to spend a bit more to get a controller that supports it.

Post by **ProfHawking** » January 9th, 2006, 16:23

RAID5 is another one not to be forgotten
lets you have up to 8 drives and use 1 of the drives space as a roatating parity across all the disks. The idea is that if any ONE of the 8 drives goes, you dont loose your data. Its a lot of eggs in a padded basket tho, as if more than one drive goes at once you loose the data from all 8.

*and breathe*

spoodie · Post by **spoodie** » January 9th, 2006, 16:54

Maybe I will get a RAID card and 2 couple of fast, small HDs later in the year when I have some disposable income to throw around. Or, as I have declared 2006 the year of the future, some company will finally sort out a affordable and reliable solid state storage device that I can buy.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » January 9th, 2006, 16:57

spoodie wrote:Maybe I will get a RAID card and 2 couple of fast, small HDs later in the year when I have some disposable income to throw around. Or, as I have declared 2006 the year of the future, some company will finally sort out a affordable and reliable solid state storage device that I can buy.

PENDRIVERAID0

Woo Elephant Yeah · Post by **Woo Elephant Yeah** » January 9th, 2006, 17:02

I want to buy a large external USB2 HDD, and just back everything up on there.

So if my machine borks, I don;t lose everything, and if the HD in the external case borks, then I can just replace it, as the chances of both going at once are extremely small.

Which brings me onto my next question.

Is it cheaper to buy an all in one solution with external USB HDD's, or would it make sense to buy an external USB Casing, and buy the HDD separately to go into it?

I quite like the idea of being able to open up and replace the disk in the external drive if it goes wrong, or can you do this with all in one products anyway???

How many badgers does it take to fill a ninjas underpants?

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » January 9th, 2006, 17:03

Yes, to all your questions.

Woo Elephant Yeah · Post by **Woo Elephant Yeah** » January 9th, 2006, 17:08

Dr. kitteny berk wrote:Yes, to all your questions.

You are a chocolate teapot

AICMFP

spoodie · Post by **spoodie** » January 9th, 2006, 17:14

Dr. kitteny berk wrote:PENDRIVERAID0

Hmmm, that gives me an idea but I dont think I'll worry about RAID.

Woo Elephant Yeah wrote:Is it cheaper to buy an all in one solution with external USB HDD's, or would it make sense to buy an external USB Casing, and buy the HDD separately to go into it?

I quite like the idea of being able to open up and replace the disk in the external drive if it goes wrong, or can you do this with all in one products anyway???

I bought an external HD for my Mac a couple of years back and it was cheaper (and easier) to buy the whole thing rather than the enclosure and HD seperately, I imagine the same is true now. And if the external were to break by that time it would be cheaper to by a whole new all-in-one than try to replace the external HD within the enclosure.

Post by **FatherJack** » January 9th, 2006, 17:18

Woo Elephant Yeah wrote:s it cheaper to buy an all in one solution with external USB HDD's, or would it make sense to buy an external USB Casing, and buy the HDD separately to go into it?

Your average USB/FW external disk will contain two or more actual, standard drives anyway, but I don't know what gubbins they use between the USB/FW connector and the connectors on the disk to make it detectable/drivable as "External disk".

Post by **FatherJack** » January 9th, 2006, 17:25

ProfHawking wrote:RAID5 is another one not to be forgotten

Indeed, although I wasn't sure how viable it was with SATA drives and the controllers that drive them.

Personally I favour an Adaptec Ultra320 SCSI RAID controller with and external SCSI cage ripped out of an HP server fitted with six 15,000rpm 146GB drives in a RAID5 configuration. Well, I would if I could ever be arsed to get the power hooked up to the cage (it's integrated with the SCSI port).

Stuk · Post by **Stuk** » January 9th, 2006, 23:01

FatherJack wrote:Indeed, although I wasn't sure how viable it was with SATA drives and the controllers that drive them.

Personally I favour an Adaptec Ultra320 SCSI RAID controller with and external SCSI cage ripped out of an HP server fitted with six 15,000rpm 146GB drives in a RAID5 configuration. Well, I would if I could ever be arsed to get the power hooked up to the cage (it's integrated with the SCSI port).

....Yes.