Fastes Hard Drives?

[joek71]

Hi guys

Can anyone here please tell me what are the best hard-drives,meaning the fastes and stable. Money is not an object.
Will be using with a Raid.

Thanks in advance.
Joe

[Drake]

Seagate Cheetah (http://www.storagereview.com/welcome.pl/http://www.storagereview.com/articles/200209/20020901ST373453LW_1.html) in the world of SCSI and WD2000JB (http://www.storagereview.com/welcome.pl/http://www.storagereview.com/articles/200210/20021018WD2000xB_1.html) in the world of IDE. I imagine all the WD SE drives have the same performance with the only difference being size, but if money is no object... :D

What will the RAID set up be?

[joek71]

About the Raid I dont know yet, can you recomend what will be the best way to set up Raid so I will have the fastes speed possible. I dont want SCSI, I will go with IDE. What will you recomend about Raid.

Thanks,
Joe

[Drake]

I'm no RAID genius, but I know the best RAID set up will have its performance bottlenecked by the PCI bus bandwidth. A 64-bit/33MHz or 64-bit/66MHz will offer the best performance.

[joek71]

Is it the lower the number the faster it is? Or higher number faster it is?

[Drake]

32-bits * 33MHz (normal PCI slot) = 125MB/s
64-bits * 33MHz (64-bit PCI slot) = 250MB/s
64-bits * 66MHz (PCI-X slot) = 500MB/s

At least I think that's how things stand, I could be wrong.

If you have two drives set up on a RAID controller in a normal PCI slot, it'll work out fine, or at least it will be an extreme improvement over a single HD.

I'm guessing you're going to run RAID 0?

[Brinky]

i have two maxtors 133MB/s on raid 0 on board... so 266MegaBytes/Second data trasfer...
the higher the number the faster

so u get a set up of 4 hard drives on raid 0 and have 533mbs per second... if you find a chipset that has a good V-link.. so get it on board preferably... cause PCI will slow your performace down... most RAID controlers are to back up so most is trasfered from HD TO HD tru the card... in your case... from HD to Motherboard... get it onboard...
any questions?

P.S
Raid 0 (stiping) (unsafe.. one disk fails all data lost)
Raid 1 (mirroing) (copyes the HD to an exact image to other HD)
Raid 0+1 (both) ( speed and backup)

[Drake]

It's a theoretical 133MB/s, and then not even 133MB/s as that's just marketing, seeing how data is really measured in mibibits.

In any case, as I said the PCI bus on a mobo is limiting your data transfer, so even though you have four HDs in RAID 0, you're not going to get that magic 533MB/s, it will be limited to the speed of the PCI bus.

[Brinky]

yeah i know i think out of those MAX 133s it only 35~mbs i saw some benches but some chipset (or im wrong) had like a very high vlink incresing the pci bus to 266 i dont remember... but the 4 hds on raid 0 migh come to a 150mbs peak

[joek71]

What about the Raid speed setting? What about 16K,32,K,64K128K.

what about that?

[Brinky]

raid is raid... they are just like IDE controlers but they can formed in arrays... so ATA33,66,100,133 then RAID serial ata 150,300,600mbs... and so on... its just an IDE conector to set up raid

[sptw]

From Drake:
32-bits * 33MHz (normal PCI slot) = 125MB/s
64-bits * 33MHz (64-bit PCI slot) = 250MB/s
64-bits * 66MHz (PCI-X slot) = 500MB/s

Congrats Drake.Almost it.
32bits/33Mhz= 127.2 MB/s
64bits/33Mhz= 254 MB/s
64bits/66Mhz= 508.6 MB/s
133 MB/s,266 MB/s and 533 MB/s are the numbers only for convenience, you're right above those numbers.

From Brinky:
i have two maxtors 133MB/s on raid 0 on board... so 266MegaBytes/Second data trasfer...
It's not true.Never.You have two maxtor 133MB/s, then you continue to have 133 MB/s.This number is a ATA specification, a interface standard of 133MB/s and has nothing to be with PCI Bandwidth.This 133MB/s is a external tranfer rate, in other words, it only happens on buffer or cache.Cache is a little piece of memory soldered in the PCB on HD.Cache tend to be empty fast, then in real life "Sustained Data Rate" is the most important number to consider.Tops IDE hds have a 40-50 MB/s, then with 2 Hds on Raid0, meaning 80-100 MB/s, but it doesn't mean that you're going to get 100 MB/s.Now it depends of the controller, PCI bandwidth and the chipsets.If you have a good controller, then think about a 127 MB/s of bandwidth on 32bits/33Mhz bus bandwidth.Remember that there are other process running in backgroud as, sound, usb.....and others.You'll be happy if you can get 70-80 MB/s in real life with 2 top Hds on Raid0 configurations, and i'm talking about reading operations, you will be surprise if you can get 40 MB/s in writing operation.Try to look for a "write tranfer rate" in a Hard disk specification from manufactures.I bet you can't find this for most of them.They used to hide this number.For last, please, don't tell me that ATO, HdTach show you a wonderful number, because it's not a real life, it's only a benchmark with a determined size of the file.

so u get a set up of 4 hard drives on raid 0 and have 533mbs per second... if you find a chipset that has a good V-link.. so get it on board preferably... cause PCI will slow your performace down... most RAID controlers are to back up so most is trasfered from HD TO HD tru the card... in your case... from HD to Motherboard... get it onboard...
Well, i think it's not necessary to comment this, but V-Link is a connection between southbridge and northbridge, remember that
devices are conected to chipsets using PCI, and PCI continued to be with 33Mhz, then the same number above 127.2 MB/s.

For Joek71:

Which mobo, and which Raid controller are you thinking about?And for what usage?tell us and maybe we can help you in the better way.

[Drake]

I believe he's referring to the stripe size.

The larger the files are you work with, the larger you should set it, though I would not choose 128k.

[Brinky]

i dont nkow about my raid controler... some promisse modle... well its on the A7V333R so it means Kt333 so yeah "266" tranfer rate thats what i eman cause 2*133HDS... so end up around what u sayed SPTW...

[Brinky]

how do u chose that?

Originally posted by Drake
I believe he's referring to the stripe size.

The larger the files are you work with, the larger you should set it, though I would not choose 128k.

[sptw]

What about the Raid speed setting? What about 16K,32,K,64K128K.
what about that?

Joek71, you can find your answer Here (http://www.liquidninjas.com/bbs/showthread.php?s=&threadid=584)

[Drake]

You choose it when you first set up the RAID array. Otherwise, it's automatically set by what format type you choose.

Bah, you type a bit faster than me, sptw :rolleyes:

[sptw]

of course not Drake, the answer was ready :D

[NorthernYankee]

Originally posted by Brinky
i dont nkow about my raid controler... some promisse modle... well its on the A7V333R so it means Kt333 so yeah "266" tranfer rate thats what i eman cause 2*133HDS... so end up around what u sayed SPTW...

Brinky I still think you are a bit confused here...No matter how many drives you use 1,2,3, or 4 its still 133Mb/s. There is no 2x133, 3x...etc. The controllers limit is 133Mb/s.

--NY

[joek71]

Right now I have KG7-Raid and 2 30Gig Maxtors. I am think of getting a VapoChill soon as the Hammer comes out and don;t know about the mobo yet see what will be out there. Comments on future mobo out there that look good for over clocking? Also is there a progrom out there some where that can test the Raid in real time? NOT HDTech or SiSoft.

Thanks,
joe

[Drake]

Any nForce2 solution is a great overclocker, as it locks the PCI/AGP bus. Besides, if you're getting new, why not get the latest?

[Brinky]

what i think is that you can get the 266MBS in the raid controler but your pci bus will limit it...
RITE?


Originally posted by NorthernYankee


Brinky I still think you are a bit confused here...No matter how many drives you use 1,2,3, or 4 its still 133Mb/s. There is no 2x133, 3x...etc. The controllers limit is 133Mb/s.

--NY

[NorthernYankee]

Originally posted by Brinky
what i think is that you can get the 266MBS in the raid controler but your pci bus will limit it...
RITE?




No the controller itself is limited to 133Mb/s...there is no more you can get out of it.

--NY

[Brinky]

huh weird... juss i wonder why would they make a 4 channel raid controler then.?

[NorthernYankee]

Originally posted by Brinky
huh weird... juss i wonder why would they make a 4 channel raid controler then.?

Because as I said in another thread even the fastest single drives only have an STR of 40-45Mb/s and 2 drive Raid 0 Arrays have STR's of 75-80Mb/s. 4 Drive RAID 0 will max out the controller at 133Mb/s and give you that full speed all the time thats why there are 4-drive Arrays.

--NY

[Brinky]

oh ok make sence to me now..

how much performance u lose if u take 4 ch raid and use 8HDs on 0+1

[NorthernYankee]

8 HDD's in RAID 0+1 would in theory have the same speed as a 4 drive RAID 0 array. But that is not usually seen as it is very expensive...Usually you will see 3-5 drive RAID 5 array.

--NY

[Brinky]

i know.. about raid 5
but im saying performance wize... your raid 0 will slow down if u have 1 in the same channel rite?