Does anyone use Raid0?

[Hitman]

Ok this question is for anyone who is currently running with a Raid0 setup, it's also to anyone who has used a pc in this configuration before... how easy was it to setup and is the speed increase worth the effort?


Edit: Oops, can this be moved to the Hardware section please.

[TopSecretBoy]

I have used a Raid 0 setup before (On a friends computer). I just bought two Maxtor 80 gig 7200 8 meg cache hard drives for 120 dollars total that I am going to put in a raid 0 as soon as I get the rest of my computer. In game, you won't notice much of a differance..... loading times however, is where it's at. Loading times will be SIGNIFICANTLY reduced.

[Hitman]

Hmm I was thinking about doing it since I ordered a new harddrive also, the only thing i'm worried about it the risk of loosing everything if one goes down.

[TopSecretBoy]

Yeah, there's always that risk. But there's always danger living on the edge of the computer world. :D

[Chimera[NL]]

Originally posted by TopSecretBoy
Yeah, there's always that risk. But there's always danger living on the edge of the computer world. :D

Hahaha!

[Rhenna]

If the drive in single-drive setup fails, then you've lost everything as well. You're not doubling the risk by having two drives in a RAID 0 array, but statistically there undoubtedly is a slightly higher risk of losing data. If you're playing games and collecting air-brushed females, then the risk is no big deal. If you're doing the company payroll, however, it might not be such a hot idea. In either case, the smart individual backs-up what is important. (Can't lose those JPEGs! ;) )

I'm using RAID 0 on two of my rigs currently; the more successful one has been where I have a 20Gb drive on the primary IDE controller for the OS, and two identical 40Gb drives on the RAID controller for this and that. That way my "swap file" use is independent of whatever is taking place on the array drives. (All three are 7200rpm, ATA-100 disks) I've experimented with different stripe sizes and the 16K choice works best for this PC, as well as using somewhat larger partitions than I would normally be comfortable with. Three drives turnin' can be a bit noisy, and some cooling was definitely in order, so, add another fan to the mix, as well. (Rhenna does not like flaming-hot hard drives.)

Is it all worth it? Well, compared to CPU, GPU, and memory advances, disk access times are definitely what has been lagging behind, so any improvement there is worthwhile. There have been those who claim that the drives with the 8Mb caches work alone about as well as two drives in a RAID 0 array with 2Mb caches, however. I have no opinion on that claim. The hassle and expense of buying additional drives and cables, properly installing these, (physically and OS-wise), and powering and cooling this hardware, might be more trouble than some people can tolerate.

[TopSecretBoy]

I was thinking about getting a couple of hard drive fan coolers for the twin 80's I just bought.

[Hitman]

Think i'll just go with the 8mb cache hd and call that a day.. Thanks for the info.

[matt]

it depends largely on your stripe size and what you are going to use it for.

i did it for a little while with 2 identical 20gig maxtor drives and had mixed results. some things were faster and some were slower.