4 raptors in a raid?

[Mr Bob]

I plan on building a new computer, and would love to have a set of raptors in a raid array.

I use a single raptor right now, and just love it!

The raptors put off a lot of heat, and I will need adequate cooling and power for them. I was thinking about using the Thermaltake Kandolf Aluminum case and using this PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817101205

The case has somewhere around 6+ fans, will this setup be good enough for the 4 raptors?

Also, I want to put the raptors in an array so that the space will be 74gb X 2, and they will be mirrored.

Any downsides with doing this, other than the price? I already have one raptor, and I can pickup three more for only $480

 

[TankGuys]

Honestly, that's a nice waste of $480.

Any performance benefit you get from a RAID away is almost non-existant. It seems an especially poor return on investment when dealing with hard drives of such expense.

 

[Mr Bob]

I'm not putting them in raid for performance, but for security.

After spending some time reading this article, it is making me feel a bit different about those raptors :/

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=2396&p=14

 

[ElTorrente]

That would be an awesome array - BUT you need to get a RAID card that will keep your CPU usage down - that is key. Onboard RAID's use lots of CPU time, so the benefits you gain in read/write/transfers are somewhat diminished by the fact that your CPU is using like 15 or more percent.

With my RAID array, I am the first person into every single level in BF2- every single time, no exceptions. Some folks think there is no benefit, and that is somewhat true for software solutions- but for 4 disks on a nice raid card.. they really are much faster. It comes down to if you are willing to spend money for it- which I was.

Anandtech did some lame article a while back that compared RAID and non-RAID setups for stuff like games and windows bootup, and concluded that it was a waste. Many people point to this and similar articles as "proof" that it isn't worth it. That article was a 2 disk array on an onboard, software solution. Since this ONE RAID setup he tested wasn't very good, the reviewer made a blanket statement proclaiming it as a total waste of time.

If you just hook up an extra disk or two to your mobo, your gains aren't gonna be all that great when taking CPU usage into account. Spend some money on a good card though- and you WILL see BIG gains all around.

EDIT: I should point out that as far as loading games- they are all different. Some levels you sit there waiting for it because it is loading up huge amounts of data off the disk, sometimes it doesn't load much from the disk- and instead you're just waiting for the CPU to compile all the data. For game level loading, you aren't *just* waiting for it to load from disk, but for your computer to handle all the data it has loaded. A fast RAID is just one piece of the puzzle for an overall fast system.

 

[t3h l337 n3wb]

4 Raptors in RAID is the biggest, most worthless waste of money ever... You could spend that money upgrading your video card, CPU, mobo, or that crappy PSU that'll probably blow up soon...

 

[chrisrod01]

Get a freakin terabyte raid lol

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Originally posted by: chrisrod01
Get a freakin terabyte raid lol

But he's doing this because he likes Raptors. Damn, that would a lot of Raptors. hehehehe
14 atleast. hehehee. Not that I'm dissing terabyte RAID arrays. I quite like mine. hehehehe. But nonetheless. Although if I were doing an array with 4 Raptors, I would defintiely be doing RAID 5 instead of RAID 1 (mirroring), due to the size limitations on the Raptors in the first place.
Tas.

 

[Mr Bob]

That would be an awesome array - BUT you need to get a RAID card that will keep your CPU usage down - that is key. Onboard RAID's use lots of CPU time, so the benefits you gain in read/write/transfers are somewhat diminished by the fact that your CPU is using like 15 or more percent.

- 15% ? That is quite a bit. Have any suggestions for a raid card, as well as some benchmarks backing up your claim? In the meantime I will do some searching myself to see if I can find anything.

Anandtech did some lame article a while back that compared RAID and non-RAID setups for stuff like games and windows bootup, and concluded that it was a waste. Many people point to this and similar articles as "proof" that it isn't worth it. That article was a 2 disk array on an onboard, software solution. Since this ONE RAID setup he tested wasn't very good, the reviewer made a blanket statement proclaiming it as a total waste of time.

- I don't think a review that is old can be used as a comparison with the newer MBs/HDs. Right?

4 Raptors in RAID is the biggest, most worthless waste of money ever... You could spend that money upgrading your video card, CPU, mobo, or that crappy PSU that'll probably blow up soon...

- Why does putting them in raid, justify one wasting money? Also, what's wrong with the PSU. Someone linked me to it saying it was really good. I need a PSU that have covered wires (like the one I linked to), can you find a non crappy one with a covered wires? After upgrading from my old seagate drive to a raptor, I noticed a HUGE difference in speed, more than enough to justify its price.

 

[Shenkoa]

The guy said security, ok what are the odds of 3 raptors dying at once. Come on!

 

[Mr Bob]

The guy said security, ok what are the odds of 3 raptors dying at once. Come on!

- Exactly, if my drives were in the raid setup, I would have to have two drives fail before I lose data. Some poeple need to have the added security of their data.

 

[Googer]

You would be much better off with 6 WD 16MB Cache 250GB 7200 RPM HDD's on a good LSI HBA running RAID 0+1.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144701

SAS/SATA--> http://www.buylsilogic.com/product.asp?sku=2682911

SATA300 8 Port--> http://www.buylsilogic.com/product.asp?sku=2616803

http://www.topmicrousa.com/arc-1210.html

 

[Mr Bob]

So thats like $1300 worth of hard drives? I think that's a bit too much lol

 

[OSUBeaver]

I think mirrored raid is more for if a drive fails, your computer will keep running, very important for a server, but is downtime that catastophic for your home desktop? I have a UPS, but I definately don't need redundant power supplies.

You say you need data security. Is this data so special that burning to a DVD and/or putting onto an external HD wouldn't be possible?

Sounds like you want to get the setup no matter what anyone says, but other than to tell eveybody you are rocking 4 raptors in a raid and putting it in your sig, I don't see a reason to.

 

[Shenkoa]

Buy a tape drive.

 

[Mr Bob]

"I think mirrored raid is more for if a drive fails, your computer will keep running, very important for a server, but is downtime that catastophic for your home desktop? I have a UPS, but I definately don't need redundant power supplies."
- I thought mirrored raid makes sure that two drives are identical, in case one crashes, you sitll have your data.

"You say you need data security. Is this data so special that burning to a DVD and/or putting onto an external HD wouldn't be possible? "
- It's possible, but I am a designer with a lot of images, and want to quickly access them. Some files are on my 250gb, but the ones I access frequently are on the raptor.

" Buy a tape drive. "
- You have 1k posts, and your suggestion is to buy a tape drive? Mmmhmmm. I would ask for a reason why, but I know there isn't one.

"Sounds like you want to get the setup no matter what anyone says, but other than to tell eveybody you are rocking 4 raptors in a raid and putting it in your sig, I don't see a reason to."
- If that was my plan, why would I have posted a review that shows the seagates are sometimes better than the raptors? 4 raptors in a raid would be a waste of money to some people, I will barely be able to afford that as it is, but I would rather have something a lot faster. I went from a standard sata seagate drive to the raptor, and couldn't believe the performance gain.

 

[GamerExpress]

Silly!!!

 

[Makaveli]

wouldn't it be a better idea, to go Raid 0 + 1

2x 74GB raptor
1x 160GB

???

 

[imported_michaelpatrick33]

All of you are wrong of course. He should definitely go SCSI and do a nice raid 5 or 10 with some 15000 rpm screamers and faint in hard drive accessing ecstasy. Oh, wait, that is my fantasy nevermind, LOL.

 

[Jimmah]

I have a RAID 0 setup with 2 basic and cheap 80gb WD cavairs, and its great, like Eltorrente I'm usually first or second to load into a game and all of my load times have decreased drastically. IMO, go with 2 drives if you don't care about losing some data, or get an external drive (I have one for backups) and backup every night.

 

[Mr Bob]

"I have a RAID 0 setup with 2 basic and cheap 80gb WD cavairs, and its great, like Eltorrente I'm usually first or second to load into a game and all of my load times have decreased drastically. IMO, go with 2 drives if you don't care about losing some data, or get an external drive (I have one for backups) and backup every night."
- I already answered why not to do that above.

 

[t3h l337 n3wb]

I mean 4 Raptors is a waste of money, not putting them in RAID. You'd be better off with a single Raptor as a boot/apps drive and a huge 7200RPM drive. And Raidmax PSU's are crap. Go with a tried and true brand like Fortron, Sparkle, PC Power and Cooling, Enermax, or Antec just to name a few.

 

[Mr Bob]

That might work in your situation, but in mine, it doesn't. I want the speed of the raptor, in a large drive. The only way to accomplish that is to put them in a raid array. If i had asingle raptor, I could suffer from losing data. We're only talking about spendign another $350 to get one of the fastest rated hard drives, with security of raid.

I looked around for good PSUs, the one listed looked like the only good one. Like I said "I need a PSU that have covered wires (like the one I linked to), can you find a non crappy one with a covered wires?"

I just looked again on Newegg, under every mfc you listed, none have one to my specs.

 

[gwag]

4 drives go SCSI for raid.

 

[Shenkoa]

Originally posted by: Mr Bob
" Buy a tape drive. "
- You have 1k posts, and your suggestion is to buy a tape drive? Mmmhmmm. I would ask for a reason why, but I know there isn't one.

Most "techs" will tell you that its a good idea because Banks and big buisness often use tape discs as a form of backup and security, it would not be hard to rewrite a tape disk every night before going to bed. And why do you consider post count as a matter of judgment for this particular issue?

Granted they are expensive, but they last a long long time. Tapes are another form of magnetic storage, why frown apon then when you dont frown apon a HDD???

 

[t3h l337 n3wb]

If you really want speed, go for 4 15k RPM SCSI drives in RAID 5. That would give you a much more noticeable performance increase, the most storage space, and redudancy.