Raid 0

[-0MEGA-] · 12-22-2007, 05:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SirKenin

No, there isn't... and no, you don't. You might on a synthetic benchmark, but I guarantee you you won't in the real world.

On loading games, Windows and the like, you will not see a gain because the files are too small. There are certain games where the level files are huge... And you might see a fraction of a second difference.

Hmmm... these files do look small:

As for failures, granted it is much more likely, however the chance of drives failing is pretty slim (although the chance increases the more drives you have). Now unless you have extremely important information then theres no reason to have redundant backups in place. A simple backup drive is more then enough.

SirKenin · 12-22-2007, 05:21 PM

For a home desktop, the best thing you could ever do for yourself is forget that some moron even invented "RAID0"... If *anything* you're looking for RAID0+1. You *have* to have redundancy when you're using striping, or you're asking for trouble... and seeing as how most people on this board insist on advocating Caviars, despite the fact that on a weekly basis every drive I repair is a Caviar that's toasted it's MFT... You have to prepare for the inevitable.

If your data is important to you, and you're not one to backup daily... do NOT use RAID 0. You'll regret it, I promise. Get a file server, a RAID 5 array and a gigabit LAN.. Or worst case scenario, if the money situation prohibits that, a RAID 1 array... And dump all your important stuffs on there.

You'd be much better off investing in a Raptor (and do *not* enable NCQ, as that actually hampers performance in a single user configuration).

SirKenin · 12-22-2007, 05:23 PM

Like I said, there are *certain* games where the level files are huge... COD is one of them (probably at least partially due to the fact that EA sux0rz at teh game coding thing.. lol).

**Cromewell** · 12-22-2007, 05:29 PM

Quote:

On loading games, Windows and the like, you will not see a gain because the files are too small.

Most new games do load faster, and anything sequential will be faster as well. Granted, random access has no improvement.

You're right, the most noticable area of improvement is in synthetic benchmarking.

Is it something for an office machine? Of course not. But to say no load times get even a little faster is silly. I can't post up a fancy graph to say the loading time for BF2 or something is faster because as far as I know there is no accurate way to test that.

SirKenin · 12-22-2007, 05:34 PM

That's the point. Get a stopwatch. The gain is *so* little, if any, that you won't accurately be able to measure the difference. And for what? Are you a masochist? hehe.

It's not something for a home desktop at all. It's not something where data integrity is critical. If you don't mind losing everything for that extra second here and there, yeah, ok... Fine. Personally, though, it's not worth it for me as my time is worth more than that. I'll sacrifice a second here and there for reliability, or I'll spend the money on the RAID 5. For me, failures are not an option. Not for myself, not for my clients.

I'm the kind of person that will spend an extra thousand dollars, just so I don't have to screw with something later. Rogers totally pissed me off not long ago. I went to Telus and dropped almost $2000, just so I could get away from them. I do not have the time for failures, for down times, for broken promises, for mistakes. These things are not an option. I am willing to pay good money to avoid them.

About 3 weeks ago I had a rather disturbing reality check while standing in line at Walmart. It suddenly occured to me, out of the blue, that my time was worth $2 a minute. When that hits you, you'll totally rethink how you do things. It was one of those paradigm shifts that has totally, permanently altered the way I think.

Figure $2 a minute times the number of hours you have to rebuild. That's how much that extra second here and there will cost you. Well, me anyways.

And thus my stance for saying "there's no place for RAID 0 on a home desktop".

[-0MEGA-] · 12-22-2007, 06:02 PM

I currently have a 500GB external drive which I use for my backup. I use SyncToy to synchronize all of the data in the "Users" folder, as well as saved games, which I do at least once a day.

BTW, I'm using Seagate drives. I've had very bad experiences with WD's portable hard drives in the past.

SirKenin · 12-22-2007, 06:18 PM

It's very good that you do a regular backup. That's awesome. At least you have a "plan b". Most people don't do that (one of the biggest reasons why I'm called in to homes... To save them from disasters because they haven't done backups).

**Cromewell** · 12-22-2007, 08:19 PM

Quote:

And thus my stance for saying "there's no place for RAID 0 on a home desktop".

I agree completely but some people think they really extra few seconds of play time it will get them and to them it's worth having to rebuild completely more often due to the increased failure rate. Of course, just because the failure rate is increased that's just on average, it may not fail more often or in the entire time you use it.

[-0MEGA-] · 12-22-2007, 09:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cromewell

I agree completely but some people think they really extra few seconds of play time it will get them and to them it's worth having to rebuild completely more often due to the increased failure rate. Of course, just because the failure rate is increased that's just on average, it may not fail more often or in the entire time you use it.

And on the reverse side of that, someone may have a single drive and think they are safe, to then have that drive fail on them causing data loss.

12-22-2007, 05:34 PM	#15 (permalink)
SirKenin banned Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 4,711	That's the point. Get a stopwatch. The gain is so little, if any, that you won't accurately be able to measure the difference. And for what? Are you a masochist? hehe. It's not something for a home desktop at all. It's not something where data integrity is critical. If you don't mind losing everything for that extra second here and there, yeah, ok... Fine. Personally, though, it's not worth it for me as my time is worth more than that. I'll sacrifice a second here and there for reliability, or I'll spend the money on the RAID 5. For me, failures are not an option. Not for myself, not for my clients. I'm the kind of person that will spend an extra thousand dollars, just so I don't have to screw with something later. Rogers totally pissed me off not long ago. I went to Telus and dropped almost $2000, just so I could get away from them. I do not have the time for failures, for down times, for broken promises, for mistakes. These things are not an option. I am willing to pay good money to avoid them. About 3 weeks ago I had a rather disturbing reality check while standing in line at Walmart. It suddenly occured to me, out of the blue, that my time was worth $2 a minute. When that hits you, you'll totally rethink how you do things. It was one of those paradigm shifts that has totally, permanently altered the way I think. Figure $2 a minute times the number of hours you have to rebuild. That's how much that extra second here and there will cost you. Well, me anyways. And thus my stance for saying "there's no place for RAID 0 on a home desktop". Last edited by SirKenin; 12-22-2007 at 05:40 PM.

12-22-2007, 06:02 PM	#16 (permalink)
[-0MEGA-] VIP Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Concord, NH Age: 20 Posts: 27,985	I currently have a 500GB external drive which I use for my backup. I use SyncToy to synchronize all of the data in the "Users" folder, as well as saved games, which I do at least once a day. BTW, I'm using Seagate drives. I've had very bad experiences with WD's portable hard drives in the past. __________________ Core 2 Quad Q9550 @ 4.1GHz Asus Rampage Formula X48 ATI 4870X2 2GB GDDR5 (800/1900) 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 960 750GB SATAII w/32MB Creative SB X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty SilverStone 750W +12V@60A 3DMark06: 22605 www.photosbygeoff.com

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12-22-2007, 05:21 PM	#12 (permalink)
SirKenin banned Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 4,711	For a home desktop, the best thing you could ever do for yourself is forget that some moron even invented "RAID0"... If anything you're looking for RAID0+1. You have to have redundancy when you're using striping, or you're asking for trouble... and seeing as how most people on this board insist on advocating Caviars, despite the fact that on a weekly basis every drive I repair is a Caviar that's toasted it's MFT... You have to prepare for the inevitable. If your data is important to you, and you're not one to backup daily... do NOT use RAID 0. You'll regret it, I promise. Get a file server, a RAID 5 array and a gigabit LAN.. Or worst case scenario, if the money situation prohibits that, a RAID 1 array... And dump all your important stuffs on there. You'd be much better off investing in a Raptor (and do not enable NCQ, as that actually hampers performance in a single user configuration).

12-22-2007, 05:23 PM	#13 (permalink)
SirKenin banned Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 4,711	Like I said, there are certain games where the level files are huge... COD is one of them (probably at least partially due to the fact that EA sux0rz at teh game coding thing.. lol).

12-22-2007, 06:18 PM	#17 (permalink)
SirKenin banned Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 4,711	It's very good that you do a regular backup. That's awesome. At least you have a "plan b". Most people don't do that (one of the biggest reasons why I'm called in to homes... To save them from disasters because they haven't done backups).