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  • Stripe RAID

    I have a nice RAID setup, 2 20Gb IBM 60GXP's on a Abit Hotrod 100 with a stripe size of 64k. I used the default, because I could not find a good source of what stripe size was most efficient for typical desktop use. Da LAN Tech has an extensive FAQ on IDE RAID, and they recommend 16k. What does everyone here think?
    P=I^2*R
    Antec SX1240|Asus A7V333WR|Athlon XP2200 1.80Ghz|512 MB PC2700|TDK VeloCD 24-10-40b|Samsung 16x DVD|SBAudigy2|ATI Radeon 8500 128MB|WinTV Theater|15/20/60GB Maxtor|3x 100GB WD100JB RAID0 on Promise Fastrak Lite|WinXP-Pro|Samsung SyncMaster 181T and 700p+|Watercooled

    IBM Thinkpad T22|900Mhz|256MB|32GB|14.1TFT|Gentoo

  • #2
    Stripe size settings are highly dependent on what type of applications you run and their file sizes. The best thing to do is find a good benchmark (I like ZD WinBench) or test with your applications to find the optimal size.
    <TABLE BGCOLOR=Red><TR><TD><Font-weight="+1"><font COLOR=Black>The world just changed, Sep. 11, 2001</font></Font-weight></TR></TD></TABLE>

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    • #3
      I run typical office apps like, well, Office XP, some Visual Studio, and occationally some game that load from a CD.

      As for the benchmark, I'll have to try it when I have time tonight.
      P=I^2*R
      Antec SX1240|Asus A7V333WR|Athlon XP2200 1.80Ghz|512 MB PC2700|TDK VeloCD 24-10-40b|Samsung 16x DVD|SBAudigy2|ATI Radeon 8500 128MB|WinTV Theater|15/20/60GB Maxtor|3x 100GB WD100JB RAID0 on Promise Fastrak Lite|WinXP-Pro|Samsung SyncMaster 181T and 700p+|Watercooled

      IBM Thinkpad T22|900Mhz|256MB|32GB|14.1TFT|Gentoo

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      • #4
        The best thing you could do for your RAID performance is get a Promise Fasttrack and pitch the "hotrod" into the nearest body of water.

        - Gurm
        The Internet - where men are men, women are men, and teenage girls are FBI agents!

        I'm the least you could do
        If only life were as easy as you
        I'm the least you could do, oh yeah
        If only life were as easy as you
        I would still get screwed

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        • #5
          Is there really that much of a difference between the Promise FastTrak and the HotRod?
          P=I^2*R
          Antec SX1240|Asus A7V333WR|Athlon XP2200 1.80Ghz|512 MB PC2700|TDK VeloCD 24-10-40b|Samsung 16x DVD|SBAudigy2|ATI Radeon 8500 128MB|WinTV Theater|15/20/60GB Maxtor|3x 100GB WD100JB RAID0 on Promise Fastrak Lite|WinXP-Pro|Samsung SyncMaster 181T and 700p+|Watercooled

          IBM Thinkpad T22|900Mhz|256MB|32GB|14.1TFT|Gentoo

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          • #6
            I think the simple answer is, "One sucks, the other doesn't."
            Gigabyte P35-DS3L with a Q6600, 2GB Kingston HyperX (after *3* bad pairs of Crucial Ballistix 1066), Galaxy 8800GT 512MB, SB X-Fi, some drives, and a Dell 2005fpw. Running WinXP.

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            • #7
              Yes there is. Highpoint RAID will farg up your sound card, your video card, and perhaps your entire system. Every time they release a new BIOS you need to cross your fingers and pray real hard that flashing it isn't the last thing you do before losing all your data.

              Add to that the fact that it is very CPU-intensive and performs like poop, and... well... yeah Highpoint sucks. A lot.

              The Promise card is cheap. Like $25 cheap. Just go get one - you'll be glad you did.

              - Gurm
              The Internet - where men are men, women are men, and teenage girls are FBI agents!

              I'm the least you could do
              If only life were as easy as you
              I'm the least you could do, oh yeah
              If only life were as easy as you
              I would still get screwed

              Comment


              • #8
                Gurm,

                The cheapest Promise Fastrack ATA100 RAID controller I could find was at newegg.com for $75 bucks...

                Scott
                Why is it called tourist season, if we can't shoot at them?

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                • #9
                  Oops! I always forget that I have to explain this.

                  You buy a Promise Ultra100 controller, and a quick BIOS flash changes it into a Fasttrack.

                  Storm Pages provides you with 25 MB of FREE web space to build and host a website about whatever topic you choose. Stormpages includes many useful hosting features and web tools to build a website or web page.


                  - Gurm

                  [ Edit ] Fixed the link
                  Last edited by Gurm; 20 October 2001, 05:39.
                  The Internet - where men are men, women are men, and teenage girls are FBI agents!

                  I'm the least you could do
                  If only life were as easy as you
                  I'm the least you could do, oh yeah
                  If only life were as easy as you
                  I would still get screwed

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Gurm
                    Oops! I always forget that I have to explain this.

                    You buy a Promise Ultra100 controller, and a quick BIOS flash changes it into a Fasttrack.

                    Storm Pages provides you with 25 MB of FREE web space to build and host a website about whatever topic you choose. Stormpages includes many useful hosting features and web tools to build a website or web page.


                    - Gurm
                    You've found a missing page, or typed in a wrong URL
                    chuck
                    Chuck
                    秋音的爸爸

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                    • #11
                      Hey, guess what f#*(@ up? I was trying to reset the strip size by using Norton Ghost 2002 to copy the drive, reset the strip and RAID, then copy back. Well, it didnt work , and I am stuck attempting to coax the RAID and Norton to work. I didn't know that ghost didnt like RAID.

                      As for the FastTrack (which it looks like I'll be getting anyway), is there only a bios difference between the raid and the U100 controller? I wish I'd have known that before.
                      P=I^2*R
                      Antec SX1240|Asus A7V333WR|Athlon XP2200 1.80Ghz|512 MB PC2700|TDK VeloCD 24-10-40b|Samsung 16x DVD|SBAudigy2|ATI Radeon 8500 128MB|WinTV Theater|15/20/60GB Maxtor|3x 100GB WD100JB RAID0 on Promise Fastrak Lite|WinXP-Pro|Samsung SyncMaster 181T and 700p+|Watercooled

                      IBM Thinkpad T22|900Mhz|256MB|32GB|14.1TFT|Gentoo

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                      • #12
                        You can't do an image backup of a RAID array and then change the stripe size. You need to do a file backup instead. You can recover your image backup by resetting your array to the stripe size that was set at the time of backup.
                        <TABLE BGCOLOR=Red><TR><TD><Font-weight="+1"><font COLOR=Black>The world just changed, Sep. 11, 2001</font></Font-weight></TR></TD></TABLE>

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                        • #13
                          That was the first thing I tried, but life isn't that easy, xortam. Apparently, a small bit of my ghost image is messed up, which is completely throwing the HotRod into a fit.

                          I had two partitions backed up, one of which apparently worked fine, but the important one doesn't. I am in the process of installing Win2k on a spare HD so I can access the Ghost Explorer and extract the files there to the partition. As long as I have my data, I can reinstall an OS in my sleep.
                          Last edited by PowerHungry; 19 October 2001, 14:42.
                          P=I^2*R
                          Antec SX1240|Asus A7V333WR|Athlon XP2200 1.80Ghz|512 MB PC2700|TDK VeloCD 24-10-40b|Samsung 16x DVD|SBAudigy2|ATI Radeon 8500 128MB|WinTV Theater|15/20/60GB Maxtor|3x 100GB WD100JB RAID0 on Promise Fastrak Lite|WinXP-Pro|Samsung SyncMaster 181T and 700p+|Watercooled

                          IBM Thinkpad T22|900Mhz|256MB|32GB|14.1TFT|Gentoo

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                          • #14
                            Yes, in MOST cases the only difference between the Ultra100 and the FastTrack 100 is a BIOS, some drivers (you'll need to change a 4 to a 0 in a bunch of places), and perhaps a bit of resistance from pin 36 to ground. 150milliohm resistors are available for a couple cents apiece at Radio Shack... and since you should put your drives on separate channels anyway to maximize performance, just stuff the resistor into the holes on the primary slave connector.

                            - Gurm
                            The Internet - where men are men, women are men, and teenage girls are FBI agents!

                            I'm the least you could do
                            If only life were as easy as you
                            I'm the least you could do, oh yeah
                            If only life were as easy as you
                            I would still get screwed

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