3 hard drives in raid 0 ?

[califmike2003]

Question about raid 0 , im running 2 samsung spinpoints f1s 320 gb, i know you need 2 drives to run raid 0. My question is if i want to add more hard drives to my raid 0 configuration , can i add 1 more drive for a total of 3 drives, or do i have to go with 4 ? do they have to be even number of drives 2,4,6 etc ?, and what are the pros and cons of adding more than 2 hard drives in a raid 0 ? thanks for all your help guys.

 

[br3nd064]

You can add a 3rd drive, but you won't see much difference. I'd set the 3rd drive up as a backup instead.

 

[Hovaucf]

Raid 0 requires 2+ drives and any number after that so 3, 6, or 9 drives will work.

Max sequential throughput performance for RAID 0 is the media rate of your drive x n (number of drives), max IOPs is IOPs per disk x n (number of drives), so what brendon said is incorrect as the performance will be about 33% better.

Make sure all the drives are the same model, have the same FW, and you have cache enabled for best possible performance.

 

[sdrac]

Well, I'll split the difference between the last two posters.
I think you'll see some gain, but I doubt it will be a 33% gain - how much will depend on your controller, your system and your usage patterns to name a few.

On the down side, with each added disk you increase your odds of having a failure - and thus knocking out your Raid0 array. As with anything, make sure you make backups periodically so you don't lose any important data if you do have a failure.

 

[t85us]

that 3rd drive will boost your copy performace for sure . raid 0 = splitting the files into blocks and copy them onto separate hdd-s simultaneously. great thing for sure, but sometimes bad things can happen.....

 

[califmike2003]

I have a gigabyte ep45-ds3r, its using the intel raid ich10r controller. How do i enable cahce ??? where do i do that ?.

 

[Hovaucf]

You can enable disk cache it should be enabled automatically. The chance of failure of HDD these days are not as high as some people boast.

If you're using R0 you dont have to worry about the controller as there is no parity, and little work needed to be done by your cpu.

 

[sdrac]

I'd agree that HD's tend to be pretty reliable these days - but having said that, the fact remains that you are increasing your odds of a failure by running in a RAID0 config (doesn't stop me from doing it myself - but people should be aware of it and take the appropriate precautions).

As for the benefits of doing R0 - that certainly does depend on the controller and system setup. I'm trying to find a link to an Anand article that showed R0 on mobo controllers perf not worth it - barley better doing R0 with two new Raptors then with a single Raptor for almost all applications. Their conclusion was for that type of setup, its not worth the extra risk.

If you use discrete controllers, things change. Here's an article that shows some of the ranges in performance depending on the controller: http://www.maximumpc.com/article/raid_controllers_compared?page=0%2C0

 

[chookman]

By the way, you wont just be able to add the 3rd disk without re-creating the whole array on that controller. So if you do an another one, youll have to backup all your data wipe the array and start from scratch.

 

[califmike2003]

Hey great article on the raid controller cards, seems like there alot better than the onboard intel ich10r controller.

I know i have to wipe out and reformat my drives when i add the 3rd drive, thats ok because i dont have alot of stuff on them now, been playing with memory, hard drives etc, my other 2 samsung f1s come tomorrow so i will try 4 drives check the performance and try 3 drives and check performance, and go from there, but i think a raid controller card is in my near future for sure, thanks for all your great information and advice guys.

 

[califmike2003]

Well i have been running 4 samsung spinpoints f1s 320gb in raid 0 , and im very happy with the performance, outstanding hd tune scores. I would recomend these drives to anybody, there very fast, great seek times, and the quietest drives i have ever heard.