Raid 0 2 disk Stripe size

[scwam]

I've been reading many different viewpoints and can not come to weather I should use 32 or 16k Stripe size. I have 2 250g Diamondmax 10 16mb cache drives in Raid0. I was using 64k stripe before but recent read that 32 or 16 is better. My partitions are as follows:
C: 13g Windows Xp-64
D: 10g Windows Xp-pro
E: 60g Games
F: 20g Apps
G: 80g Downloads
H: 80g Videos A
I: 80g Videos B
J: 60g Video C
H: 40g MP3's
I: 10g Misc
J: 10g Backup

I'm questionable weather I should put Downloads near the begginning of the partition like above or at the far end as the majority of my computer is being used for this while on. I figure less head movement during the long hours its on. However, I'm not even sure that there will be even any head movement needed back to the system drive while Winmx and other download programs are running.

The stripe size is currently at 32k. But I'm wondering if I should go as low as 16k before installing all my programs and making this permanent. I hear such a wide swing of suggestions that I became more indifferent on what to do. I'm wondering if my cluster size exceeds my stripe size if there will be a problem too. Ie (video partionns will be 64k cluster over the 32k stripe). Could someone give me some definate do's and don'ts with my above setup about Stripe size and possibly cluster size?

 

[scwam]

Well, I was using 64k stripe size before. But I've read more and more that 16 and 32 stripe is ideal overall. Would I be better off "overall" staying with 64k stripe or given the MP3's and duel-boot systems, applications and games partitions, would I be best choosing 32 or 16k stripe. My videos range from 30mb to 1g on the other partitions. Just wondering what's "optimal" stripe for my setup. Also, what cluster size should I set for games? I guessed 64k since there are large textures.

 

[Guest]

you sure wouldnt wanna loose that pr0n!!!!!

Asus P4P800DX, P4C 2.6ghz@3.25ghz, 2X512 OCZ PC4000 3-4-4-8, MSI 6800Ultra stock, 2X30gig Raid0

 

[fishmahn]

Stripe size should be keyed to the type of files - smaller stripe sizes for smaller files, larger for larger files. MP3's & movies are large, so larger stripes are better. Word processing documents are small, so smaller stripes are better for that. Games are probably variable, but I would guesstimate they tend to large - but each game is different so that's not a hard and fast rule. Operating system files are relatively small, but I doubt there will be much if any boot performance difference between 16k, 32k or 64k simply because of the wide variety of file sizes there... some work better a 16, some at 64.

IMO, there's not a lot of difference in performance with any stripe size for a home-use computer (server usage is different, stripe size can have a large impact there).

Mike.

<font color=blue>Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside the dog its too dark to read.
-- Groucho Marx</font color=blue>

 

[RichPLS]

Smaller stripe size also means that tranfer takes more processing power, and this is why large files would transfer less than optimum. I usually used a 64k stripe, but suspect a 128k stripe would be a better ballance, since small files do not need to be RAIDed for speed, since they tranfer fast anyway.
Larger files are what takes time, and a larger stripe helps larger files on RAID0

<pre><font color=red>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
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So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

 

[emogoch]

May seem ignorant, but how does the strip-size make a difference to the chance of dataloss?

 

[RichPLS]

RAID 0 by nature increases the risk of data loss verses just a single drive.

<pre><font color=red>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
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[fishmahn]

It doesn't - well, maybe some 0.000000001% change in case of a power loss in the middle of writing, but that's a chance that's taken regardless of stripe size...

Mike.

<font color=blue>Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside the dog its too dark to read.
-- Groucho Marx</font color=blue>

 

[scwam]

Thanks for everyones inpute. I think I'll stick with the 32k stripe and clusters as follows (my max stripe/cluster size is 64k):

duel boot OS's - 4k (default)
Games = 64k
Apps = 8k
All video partitions (including porn partition )= 64k
Downloads = 32k
MP3's = 64k

Any opinion on putting my downloads closer to the OS to reduce head movement during long days of downloading? Or Is there not even any head movement back to OS partition at all (since the download app would be loaded in memory)?

 

[emogoch]

My bad, re-read what you said...

Kind of sad that it makes more sense when I'm drunk than sober :O