[atbat16]

hi, im new to these forums, and i am just finished on upgrading my computer from a 3200+ amd athlon to a dual core 3800+ 64 along with a 7800 gt gpu, [play lots of games, hl2,quake4,AA,BF2]. i have a gig of ram in my comp right now and i have been told by friends that my next performance upgrade would be to get dual sata hdd's and raid them, i currently have a 200 gig WD, and a 120 seagate, both ide.

my question is, if i did buy say 2, 80 gig drives and raided them, would i see any significant performance upgrade in my gaming persuit? any input would be greatly received, thank you.

 

[Ste]

You wouldn't really see any extra performance in games, but the maps would load quicker. In general though, having raid will speed up your system quite nicely (loading times, boot up etc).

 

[atbat16]

ok, so i cannot expect a huge difference in gaming performance, but overall system performance.

now can someone explain to me the benefits of raid O and raid I or any other options i have when considering to raid 2 sata hdds?

 

[markuk3]

The difference is a bout 6% overall Raid 0 is two sata drives the same raided together to make 1 physical drive .If one fails you lose everything.Raid 1 is two sata drive the same raided together but this time you use both drives at the same time loading the same data onto the drives hence if one fails you still have the other as backup .Safer but without the added speed of raid 0 . Better to have two ssmaller drives in raid 0 and have a 200gb hdd for back up of all important sofware and data ..hope this helps

 

[Namrac]

RAID 0 improves speed, but is not as secure (stripes the data across both drives) RAID 1 is much more secure, but not as fast. (Mirrors all data onto both drives)

 

[atbat16]

thanks for the help

 

[GatorLCA]

RAID 0 runs the smae risk as a single drive...if a single drive gets messed up you have to reformat it likewise with a RAID-0. RAID-1 runs the same as a single drive becasue essentially it is a single drive but backing up what is on that drive to the other (hence Mirroring) if your comp goes does you reload the mirror and you dont lose anything.

RAID 1 is pointless unless you have some really valueable information on your comptuer and dont back anything up because it basically does it for you. RAID0 is the best for performance but you'll see a minute increase in overall performance but not as much as if you upgraded your RAM or CPU.

If you dont like to make friends with the hourglass then go RAID0 but with a good CPU and RAM you really wont have to wait all that long.

My IDE RAIDed HDDs arent the fastest thing in the world but it will still load Photoshop CS in 9 sec, right on par with SATA-II load up times, an maps load pretty fast.

If your Mobo has an IDE RAID controller then Stripe those HDDs and you'll get a performance boost and put the money into getting some good 2x1GB RAM sticks

PS...fill out your system specs so we know what you are working with

 

[Goldenpi]

RAID 0 actually does give a good performance improvement under the right circumstances. Your access-time isn't improved at all, but sustained transfer rate goes up. A lot. So in general, programs that access hundreds of small files (OS loading, etc) will not perform noticeably better. But programs that access a long, continuous stream of data (multimedia work, loading levels in some games) will get a substantial improvement. If you do a lot of video editing, or just moving, you can benefit from RAID 0.

Assuming you defragment, of course, otherwise the access-time becomes a performance limit no matter what your sustained transfer rate is.