I want to use this raid thing and I have two Maxtor hd that are exactly the same as I heard this is a must for raid? So what is the best thing about raid and how does it work. Also does one of the drives have the OS on one or should the OS be on a different drive that is not on the raid?
Isaac did a swell job answering this question in an earlier thread... http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8110
IBM are currently the only HDD manufacturer who sell HDDs that are optimised for RAID, seeing as they basically invented the idea themselves. If you are looking at RAID0, which splits the data between the two discs to create an increase in disc speed, then frankly it isn't worthwhile with your maxtors - because as I said above they are not optimised for it, and you'll see very little increase in performance. RAID0 is also typically unreliable, because if one disk breaks then the data on the other disc is completely useless... This is best used with SCSI discs RAID1 is when you mirror the drives, basically for reliability. If one disc breaks, then you add another and re-build the array. IDE or SCSI drives are both fine using RAID1 RAID0+1 is both of the above, and you'll need four drives minimum. Bottom line is this - If you want reilability, then go RAID1 If you want speed, then go SCSI with RAID0 - because IDE IBMs are terrible for reliability, and Maxtor/Seagate/Western Digital don't benefit at all from RAID0 at all.
Well... ask yourself - 'do I need RAID?' what do you typically use your PC for? I forgot to say that RAID0 and RAID1 (if you use two discs) will limit you to the capacity of the size of just one of the discs... Example - You use 2x IBM GXP120 60gb in RAID0, or RAID1 your total disc space is limited to 60gb
anything and everything games, benchmarks, seti and graphics and the internet and downloads. Could I just use the har drives not in raid and just have a massive amount of storage?? Also I have a 2 year old Deskstar hd will the new ata133 maxtor's perform better and quieter as this one gives me a headache it is so load!!
Well from what you have just said, it seems to me you wouldn't benefit from RAID. You wouldn't benefit from RAID0 because none of the things you mentioned are so disc intensive that you would benefit, and nothing there is 'valuable' enough to require RAID1 You'd be best to run the drives independently
You havnt really wasted any money, you will have 120gb of space and maybe a tiny performance increment. .icecube
Can i say use the OS on one and run games on the other would that enable better performance if they are independent?
Yes, running the OS on one drive, and games off another will give you a improvement, but a very slight one
When I set up a maxtor RAID 0 array I noticed a quite large increase in performance. I didn't do any benchmarks though, just my opinion from using the system for a day.
Rich, are you sure you have that correct? If you have 2 x 60 GB drives in RAID 0 you will get 120GB total. If you have 2 x 60 GB drives in RAID 1 (Mirror) you will get 60GB Total. You need 4 Hard drives to have RAID 0+1, so in your example you would have 4 x 60GB for a total of 120GB If you have 1 x 60 GB and 1 x 40 GB Drives in RAID 0, you will only have 80GB total. If you have 1 x 60 GB and 1 x 40 GB drives in RAID 1 you will only have 40GB total. The big thing here is that you should always use the same drives and capacities for RAID arrays. RAID 0 certainly has a performance benefit, however you have to decide if it's worth the troble for you. You should never store anything of value, long term on the RAID array. It major use is designed for HD intensive applications such as Audio incoding and Video Editing. I don't know why Rich has stated that you will not see a benefit from using your Maxtors in a RAID 0, even if they are not optimized for it. The data that I have seen clearly shows there is an improment by using RAID 0 over a single drive. I know that reading the disk sometimes may see no benefit, however writing is always faster than with a single drive. I run 2 Maxtors D740X 40GB drives in a RAID 0 Stripe and I certainly notice the Harddrives pulse for very quick and short durations rather than grind incessantly away as with one single drive. Here is a review of the Maxtor D740X in a RAID 0 Array The table on page 3 clearly shows the benefits of the Maxtors in RAID 0.
we need benchmarks to sort this out...... people with RAID0, non IBM, like to bench there HDD's? .icecube
Review of the Maxtor D740X in a RAID 0 Stripe Rich, sometimes my fingers move faster than my brain as well, and I'n not an exceptional typist
