Raid 0 / 1 / or 5? for Gaming?

[grapz]

Which function is best for gaming?

and is it noticeable ?

 

[TheMaster]

Get yourself a raptor, unless you're doing video editing. Raid only helps in large file transfers.

Raid 0 is what most people want for a gaming system. It boosts performance, but isn't as reliable because you don't have a backup drive.

If you look at the reviews there's not that big of a difference, and raid usually looses to a single raptor.

 

[CompTIA_Rep]

Raid 0 makes windows and games LOAD faster, but not beter FPS.
If you want perfomance raid 0 is the cheapest.

 

[grapz]

are there any disadvantages in using raid 0

 

[TheMaster]

one drive fails, you loose everything.

 

[sithscout80]

Yes, if one drive fails, you lose all your data.

 

[sithscout80]

Since RAID 0 only helps games when loading, which is a read function, couldn't you implement a RAID 1, which is normal speed write function but increased read function speed? This would allow for better loading times while also providing redundency, at the loss of storage space though.

 

[clue69less]

Which function is best for gaming?

and is it noticeable ?

I'm not sure if CPU magazine has the article online, but the paper rag had a decent RAID 0/1/5/10 comparison a couple of months ago. The advice you already received here is sound. RAID 0 and 10 will significantly increase your read/write times. But if this is a game-specific box, you don't really need RAID - maybe RAID1 if you want more security.

 

[CompTIA_Rep]

NO there is no increase in speed for raid 1. You are thinking of a raid 1+0, or raid 5. That is where you have a raid 1 mirrored for data protection, but you need 5 drives..

just buy a WD rapter and save your self trouble.

 

[sithscout80]

There is no speed increase on RAID 1 during write operations because the write is being done to both drives, but for read operations it can do the same concept as RAID 0, because it is the same data. Each hard drive reads a chunk and the controller puts it together in the right sequence. There is only a speed increase on read operations so loading times would be better.

Level 1 -- Mirroring and Duplexing: Provides disk mirroring. Level 1 provides twice the read transaction rate of single disks and the same write transaction rate as single disks.

What is RAID? - Webopedia

 

[clue69less]

NO there is no increase in speed for raid 1. You are thinking of a raid 1+0, or raid 5. That is where you have a raid 1 mirrored for data protection, but you need 5 drives..

RAID5 isn't really the fast option. Overall, 0 or 10 are the ways to go if speed is a big factor.

 

[CompTIA_Rep]

well raid 1 isnt the fast option either, which was sorta my point.

 

[clue69less]

well raid 1 isnt the fast option either, which was sorta my point.

Yes, I understood your post. But I'm just pointing out that 5, which you proposed, is not the best speed solution either.

 

[chuckshissle]

Yeah, I got raid 0 on mine.

 

[yourmothersanastronaut]

I've got a Raptor - sweet 10K RPM deliciousness.

Raid would be nice as well. Maybe someday I'll buy a second Raptor and stripe them, but I've had no speed issues with a single drive.

 

[DaveUK]

This has been discussed sooo much.

Buy a Raptor (74 or 150gb to suit your budget and amount of software, whatever gets you hard) to install your OS and applications on. Buy a second, slower, larger hard drive to use as a storage drive for larger files.

That way Windows and your games will benefit from the load times associated with the Raptor (equal to or surpassing 2x7200RPM drives in RAID 0), and you will have the better $-per-megabyte of a standard harddrive to store your MP3/Video/Disc Images etc on.

I'd recommend a 74gb raptor and a 250gb Seagate Spinpoint 10 (or whatever) as a good starting point. Don't bother with RAID.

 

[asdasd123123]

I'm running two raided 36gb as my "C:" drive, where I place my games and apps, and absolutely no data I need to save.

Although I send a full daily drive image to my 320gb drive, in case something craps out on me. Gotta love Acronis True Image, 15 mins a day is all it needs to keep my reinstall fast and painless..

Wouldn't trade it for anything slower.
Really helps all the little things, like opening apps, games etc, makes the entire system feel more speedy.

You can have a brutal cpu, but if your harddrive can't send the cpu data fast enough you never really get to feel that cpu working.

 

[CompTIA_Rep]

Havent you heard of the "sad mac" or the "mac bomb". If i want to deal with a crash, i want my blue screen.

 

[asdasd123123]

I come prepared..

 

[emogoch]

There is no speed increase on RAID 1 during write operations because the write is being done to both drives, but for read operations it can do the same concept as RAID 0, because it is the same data. Each hard drive reads a chunk and the controller puts it together in the right sequence. There is only a speed increase on read operations so loading times would be better.

Level 1 -- Mirroring and Duplexing: Provides disk mirroring. Level 1 provides twice the read transaction rate of single disks and the same write transaction rate as single disks.

What is RAID? - Webopedia

The reason that you don't typically get a read performance increase from a RAID 1 array is that the RAID controller logic doesn't bother spending the time to processe the stripping that needs to be done to get it to work. This is typically found in the low end chipset-RAID market (nForce, Intel etc.). When you start getting dedicated RAID controllers, then you'll see performance increases in a RAID 1 array.

 

[Madwand]

The first thing to do is to separate the OS and the application/data drive. This will give you a performance improvement just by itself as there will be two drives that can be used simultaneously, and less seeking needed for accessing different parts of the drives.

This is also a great idea if you're doing RAID -- keep the OS drive simple and non-RAID'd. Then, when you're reconfiguring RAID / etc., you don't lose your OS or have it in the way.

Another variation on the same idea is to partition your OS drive into two parts -- a small 10-20 GB partition for the OS itself, and the rest into a secondary storage / backup part. Don't use the second partition often, as that will slow down you performance as compared to accessing the second physical drive, but in this way, you can get a fast affordable OS drive and use the extra space for backups.

 

[burn-e86]

get RAID 0+1 uses 4 HDD but provides the best of both worlds

 

[theaxemaster]

get RAID 0+1 uses 4 HDD but provides the best of both worlds

And at 4 times the price!

Get a good raid controller (or check if your onboard one for raid 0 does stripe + duplex) and two drives and do raid 0. That's the cheapest and easiest way to get redundancy and performance.

If you don't care about the redundancy, then just get a 10k drive for OS + apps.

 

[yourmothersanastronaut]

Get a good raid controller (or check if your onboard one for raid 0 does stripe + duplex) and two drives and do raid 0. That's the cheapest and easiest way to get redundancy and performance.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. The controller doesn't matter - RAID 0 DOES NOT PROVIDE REDUNDANCY!

 

[CompTIA_Rep]

LOL. I have never heard that it does myself.