What's the best RAID with these drives

[hcforde]

My Raid Dilemma
This is the equipment I now have available to set up a RAID to run 1 program 24/6 from Sunday to Friday.
I have a dual channel U320 Adaptec 2200s/64 card
6 Fujitsu MAS3184NC 320U Hdds
2 Seagate ST318406LW 160U Hdds
1 Seagate ST318452LW 160U Hdd


The my dilemma is how to optimally use the drives. I see two major setups available
1. Put the OS and the program on one set of raided drives – 4 or 5 - MAS3184NC 320U Hdds—Which would be better 1.)stripe and mirror or 2.)RAID 5
a. Use a partition for the OS and another partition for the program
b. Do not use any partitions


2. Put the OS and the program on a different set of raided drives
a. Raid the OS on the 2 Seagate ST318406LW 160U Channel A/stripe & mirror – Raid 4 Fujitsu’s MAS3184NC 320U for the program Channel B/stripe & mirror.

b. Raid the OS on the 2 Seagate ST318406LW 160U Channel A/stripe & mirror – Raid 4-5 Fujitsu’s MAS3184NC 320U for the program Channel B/using RAID 5

c. Use only the 1 Seagate ST318452LW 160U Hdd for the OS Channel A – Raid 4 Fujitsu’s MAS3184NC 320U for the program Channel B/stripe & mirror.



I plan on only using 4-5 Fujitsu’s and having a spare or 2 if one should go down

The Raid card has 64MB cache runs at 66Mhz the Fujitsu’s are rated at 114MB/sec max. The Seagate ST318452LW’s are rated at about 80MB/sec max.

In this setup I am looking for both performance and security. I would think that once it is set up maintainence would be next to non-existant.

What do you say is the best way to go?

Thanks

 

[michaelahess]

Throw the OS on 2 seagates in a mirror.

Put Programs and Data on the 6 (or 5 with hot spare) fujitsu's as a RAID5.

Put your swap and temp crap on the other seagate.

Put the OS on channel A and the data on channel B, and I'd leave the swap on A so the programs can run/save on one channel and swap to the second. OS access will be minimal in this case so having the windows swap on the same channel won't make much difference.

 

[PCcashCow]

Throw the OS on 2 seagates in a mirror.

Put Programs and Data on the 6 (or 5 with hot spare) fujitsu's as a RAID5.

Put your swap and temp crap on the other seagate.

Put the OS on channel A and the data on channel B, and I'd leave the swap on A so the programs can run/save on one channel and swap to the second. OS access will be minimal in this case so having the windows swap on the same channel won't make much difference.

Nice, great advice. Now your only snag is not having a mobo with the pci-x interface. You get on that bus speed and your hardware will be able to perform full ponys.

 

[michaelahess]

I would assume with that much money in HD's and controller the OP would have a pci-x board. Tell me you do hcforde!

 

[hcforde]

Thanks guys for the reply's. and YEP, got the PCI-X slots covered!!!

I purchased the new ASUS P5WDG2-WS PRO motherboard. 2 PCI-Express, 2 PCI-X, 2 PCI. What you see below is my gaming rig. This is my workstation for currency trading.

This is what it has:
2 video cards in the PCI-EXpress slots, (2-2port 2D Nvidia Quadro NVS 285 cards)
1 Video card in the PCI-x slot, (4 video port Matrox card @ 66Mhz)
1 Adaptec 2200s/64 in the other PCI-X slot,
6 monitors (capable of running 8 if I decide I need 2 more monitors)
2 Gig ram
Water Cooling
E6400 OC'd from 2.13 to 3.20
Antec P180 case w/Antec 550W He PSU

All 3 of the different PCI busses are independent/isolated from each other so maximum throughput can be acheived.

Most of the time the system will be just sitting there showing the data on the screens. periodically I need to change from one bank of screens to another that is why the raid is needed. On my old 2.8Mhz P4 system the change would take 45 seconds. On this system without RAID it is down to about 6 seconds now. My goal is about 2 seconds.


Your suggestion, as I see it, is as follows
1. No partitions on the RAID drives
2. Mirrored OS and swap on Channel A, the data and programs on B.

My only question is then, What about putting the swap on the same drive as the OS? As I remember without RAID that was not the best thing to do if you did not have to, but will it make a difference under RAID considering that the controller has 64MB Cache and the use of this machine is very narrow ?

BTW I am cheap when I can be. All these drives are 18GB, the Fujitsu's are 15,000RPM and the Seagaters are 10,000RPM.


This board is unadvertised as, but is Crossfire compliant. SOOOO, If I decide to get the just released ASUS 4 slot PCI-Express board and want to buy a PCI-E RAID controller I can use this MB in my game rig. (NOT GONNA HAPPEN SOON)

THANKS AGAIN

 

[PCcashCow]

1 Video card in the PCI-x slot, (4 video port Matrox card @ 66Mhz)
1 Adaptec 2200s/64 in the other PCI-X slot,

Just one note, those PCI-X slots are shared, I would only dedicate them to your Controller card.

 

[hcforde]

But I think I will still be better off sharing the bandwidth than using PCI slots we will see. I currently have two diff types of Matrox video cards I will be testing. Both are 66Mhz
1. 2 port P650 MDDAP64F
2. 4 port G450MMS Quad-B

They are both PCI/32bit form factor. Which reminds me PCI 2.3 specs calls for 66Mhz operation but I could not find any board manufacturer that implements it. That would be the answer to the problem.

My next quest is to get a 4 port PCI-Express card but like I said I am cheap so finding one at a price I am willing to pay is difficult.

Thanks for the concern.