striped disks

[formerly known as 'cat arranger']

It seems from what I've read that if I combine
drives into striped, raid 0, logical whatever they
are called, I will get a lot faster reads and writes.
What is the diminishing point of returns on IDE
drives, say 250GB 8MB buffer Maxtor or WD?
How about the same but ATA 7200 or 10000
rpm? At what point will my gigabit NIC be the
slowest link?

Thanks, I know this isn't that easy to figure
and if you can give me any info at all I'll be
grateful. : -)

Am I correct in thinking that re: video editing
that this won't make any difference but that
if wanting to capture to one drive while processing
or viewing on another that it will?

 

[formerly known as 'cat arranger']

in message : It seems from what I've read that if I combine
: drives into striped, raid 0, logical whatever they
: are called, I will get a lot faster reads and writes.
: What is the diminishing point of returns on IDE
: drives, say 250GB 8MB buffer Maxtor or WD?
: How about the same but ATA 7200 or 10000
: rpm? At what point will my gigabit NIC be the
: slowest link?
:
: Thanks, I know this isn't that easy to figure
: and if you can give me any info at all I'll be
: grateful. : -)
:
: Am I correct in thinking that re: video editing
: that this won't make any difference but that
: if wanting to capture to one drive while processing
: or viewing on another that it will?
:
:
:

Was this a stupid question? or one that is too
complicated to expect someone to answer on
a ng? Thanks : -)

 

[kony]

It seems from what I've read that if I combine
drives into striped, raid 0, logical whatever they
are called, I will get a lot faster reads and writes.

A little faster, yes, and maybe a lot faster for some uses,
but in general it's not going to speed up everything enough
to notice on a desktop "PC".

What is the diminishing point of returns on IDE
drives, say 250GB 8MB buffer Maxtor or WD?
How about the same but ATA 7200 or 10000
rpm? At what point will my gigabit NIC be the
slowest link?

When the Gb nic is the bottleneck will depend on what the
system is doing, and presumably this being a PC, how
saturated the PCI bus is, unless it's an Intel integrated
NIC with separate bus. Other factors like jumbo frame
support from the Gb switch can also make the Gb performance
vary, so without a fixed point of reference we also can't
provide a fixed comparision of HDD limitations.

Generally speaking, you should be able to exceed 40MB/s with
properly running semi-modern system. Many modern large hard
drives can exceed this alone, on their mid to outer tracks.

You have failed to mention intended use of system nor a
concise description of it, so we have no idea of the load on
it, where your bottleneck will be. Genearlly speaking a WD
Raptor alone, single drive, is sufficent to make the typical
Gb NIC the bottleneck (or at least the techonlogy, buses
linked by the NIC are the bottleneck, not the drive itself).

Unless you have a paritcular need for very fast Gb
performance, rather have a need for mass amounts of storage,
then perhaps a pair of 250GB or larger drives is the best
solution... again you didn't specify priorities, use,
system, etc.

Thanks, I know this isn't that easy to figure
and if you can give me any info at all I'll be
grateful. : -)

Am I correct in thinking that re: video editing
that this won't make any difference but that
if wanting to capture to one drive while processing
or viewing on another that it will?

Whether a logical drive is one single physical drive or two
RAID0 drives, it should be either a source or destination
for the job, not both, and used by one applicaiton (or OS)
at a time. If your system were to have only 2 drives in it,
I suggest keeping them separate, using a WD Raptor and your
favorite make of 2nd, high capacity drive for the majority
of storage needs beyond the OS & Apps on the Raptor. Having
a lone RAID0 pair of drives is best used by gamers to
decrease level load times, IMHO.