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Ask the Doctor

Raiding The Raptors

Posted 09/09/08 at 04:47:48 PM  by The Maximum PC Staff

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Ask the Doctor LogoI have a brand-new rig that sports two WD Raptors in a mirrored array. I wanted the speed of the Raptors and the convenience of a mirrored array. But I wonder if a mirrored or striped array (1+0, 0+1, or some other RAID number) using four 7,200rpm drives would be faster than the above array. And how would the price compare?

—David Thiel

 

As a matter of fact, the Doctor’s underlings have compared the speeds of various RAID configurations (November 2007). With Western Digital’s Raptor drives, we found that a four-drive 1+0 setup will outperform a two-drive mirrored array any day of the week. However, since a 1+0 setup requires twice as many drives as a mirrored array, it will cost twice as much to create.

As for whether four cheaper drives in a 1+0 setup would outperform a mirrored Raptor array, it’s certainly within the realm of possibility. A mirrored array of drives doesn’t offer a gigantic performance increase over just a single drive. There’s an increase, yes, but nowhere near what a striped array offers.

Given that you can now purchase drives that are both larger and cheaper than Western Digital’s Raptor, the Doctor thinks your best choice is to invest in cheaper drives and create a 1+0 array.

 

  SUBMIT YOUR QUESTION Are flames shooting out of the back of your rig? First, grab a fire extinguisher and douse the flames. Once the pyrotechnic display has fizzled, email the doctor at doctor@maximumpc.com for advice on how to solve your technological woes.

 

 

COMMENTS:7
TAGS: raptor, Western Digital, RAID, hard drives, ask the doctor, velociraptor
COMMENTS
avatarWhy not just use RAID 5? You

Submitted by murixbob on Sun, 09/14/2008 - 6:59pm

Why not just use RAID 5? You get the best of Raid 0 and 1 but with more storage space. Sure you need at least three drives for it, but it still is a much better option then Raid 0+1.

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avatarYou have to admit that those

Submitted by Keith E. Whisman on Tue, 09/09/2008 - 4:39pm

You have to admit that those two shows suck..

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avatarBTW I noticed that Ice Road

Submitted by Keith E. Whisman on Tue, 09/09/2008 - 2:12pm

BTW I noticed that Ice Road Truckers are no longer hogging up the History Channel. Thank god. I was getting sick of seeing the same episode over and over again. Same thing for Deadliest catch. Hours of the same crap on the Discovery channel. I was getting ready to have the cable disconnected. 

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avatarNot sure how that relates,

Submitted by nedwards on Tue, 09/09/2008 - 2:26pm

Not sure how that relates, Keith, frankly.

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avatarHe forgot and left Dragon

Submitted by sirphunkee on Tue, 09/09/2008 - 3:51pm

He forgot and left Dragon NaturalSpeak running while he took a call on his cell phone

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avatarOMG how embarrasing, let's

Submitted by AndyYankee17 on Tue, 09/09/2008 - 4:15pm

OMG how embarrasing, let's all laugh at kieth

 

 

AHAHAHAHA you watch semi-educational programming

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avatarFor the price of 2 or more

Submitted by Keith E. Whisman on Tue, 09/09/2008 - 2:06pm

For the price of 2 or more raptors you could have 2x 1TB Samsung F1 7200rpm hard drives in Raid 0 stipped array. I would'nt even bother raiding them though as they are faster as single drives than some drives in a raid. I love the Samsung F1 and I can't imagine getting anything smaller.

If I had to build a network server or Internet server then yes I would go with the Raptors as they are cheaper than SCSI harddrives and the required interface cards. If you have ever been on a slow network with an even slower server then you know why fast hard drives with Native Command queing is important but for my gaming rig I want speed and tons of storage for my games, movies and music. I have nearly 80gigs of music but nearly 600gigs of movies so lots of storage is very important and the Raptors just can't compete. 

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