[ghettogeddy]

i have 3 x 320gig SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD322HJ
here is my hd tune ( the window is stretched between both my displays so you can see it better


my main question is what are the best raid settings to use to get the best speeds out of these drives
oh and i bought the 3rd just to help with performance
so i can use it any way

 

[jimibgood]

Raid0

 

[ghettogeddy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jimibgood Raid0

its hard to answer a question with words that are in the question. i know raid 0 is the best for performance. but i need to know the best settings for a raid 0 setup.

 

[ComGuards]

What do you mean by "best settings"...?

You can short-stroke the drives for better performance. You can upgrade your controller for better performance. You can also change the stripe size for better performance. You can also change the cluster size when you format the partitions for better performance, depending. There's no single magic rule for setting up RAID-0 since it varies on system usage. i.e. If you work with large files, certain settings work better than others. Likewise if you're working with smaller files.

 

[ghettogeddy]

well thats what im getting at is 64kb better then 128 or vise versa, short stroking really make that much of a differance, cause i can use ultimate defrage to consolidate info to the outer most part of a platter, thats all the short stroking does is put the info to the outer parts of the drive correct

 

[ComGuards]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ghettogeddy well thats what im getting at is 64kb better then 128 or vise versa, short stroking really make that much of a differance, cause i can use ultimate defrage to consolidate info to the outer most part of a platter, thats all the short stroking does is put the info to the outer parts of the drive correct

Like I said, it depends on your usage.

Real-world performance, with 3x HDD in RAID-0, I really don't think you're going to notice tremendous differences in performance with varying settings. 128KB stripe sizes are fine for general use. For example, selecting the right cluster size when you format will also make a slight difference. Smaller cluster sizes saves a bit of space, but slows down a bit 'cause more clusters have to be read for each file. Larger files are read a bit faster because fewer clusters are involved, but you can potentially end up with more wasted space.

If you're into benchmarking just for fun... then you're really just going to have to do it by trial-and-error. Seriously, I doubt anybody here has the *exact same* usage habits as you (we're all individual in our computer uses, yes?)

I personally don't short-stroke my HDDs because I'm not that critical about HDD speed. I have 4x 500GB WD Blacks in RAID-0 and it's fast enough for what I do, and I really don't care about trying to squeeze another oh, 5MB/sec out of my array (just as an example).

If you're a performance nut ('cuse the language), you should just invest in a couple of Intel SSDs in RAID-0 for absolute maximum performance.

 

[ghettogeddy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ComGuards Like I said, it depends on your usage. Real-world performance, with 3x HDD in RAID-0, I really don't think you're going to notice tremendous differences in performance with varying settings. 128KB stripe sizes are fine for general use. For example, selecting the right cluster size when you format will also make a slight difference. Smaller cluster sizes saves a bit of space, but slows down a bit 'cause more clusters have to be read for each file. Larger files are read a bit faster because fewer clusters are involved, but you can potentially end up with more wasted space. If you're into benchmarking just for fun... then you're really just going to have to do it by trial-and-error. Seriously, I doubt anybody here has the *exact same* usage habits as you (we're all individual in our computer uses, yes?) I personally don't short-stroke my HDDs because I'm not that critical about HDD speed. I have 4x 500GB WD Blacks in RAID-0 and it's fast enough for what I do, and I really don't care about trying to squeeze another oh, 5MB/sec out of my array (just as an example). If you're a performance nut ('cuse the language), you should just invest in a couple of Intel SSDs in RAID-0 for absolute maximum performance.

well im not looking to squeeze the fastest speed more of trying to get the average closer to the max i guess
ill have to take a look at my raid setup when i restar to see my exact tune
i did it kinda fast this time around

 

[ghettogeddy]

any one want to answer this one
i ahve 3x320 in raid 0 now
will my on board controller handle a 2x2x320