RAID array or (2) separate drives?

[mvanbebber]

I just bought a new computer to run VSL and Gigastudio. The new computer is being built from new pieces, and I bought (2) 160GB SATA 7200RPM drives. Should I install them in a RAID 0 (striped) configuration, or as two separate drives?
The reason I ask is because I read that it is wise to keep all samples and audio on a separate drive from the OS. Would a separate drive partition work? Any other ideas?
thanks in advance,
Mike

[cm]

mike, this are the only two drives on this computer i'd assume ...
if you can't get OS and programs to a seperate drive i think the best solution would be a 20-30 GB (primary!) partition for windows and gigastudio and a second (primary!) partition for less frequently used samples on disk1. another primary partition on disk2, all partitions for samples (or other audio) formatted with a cluster size of 4096.
such a splitting would avoid fragmentation for audio files on the drive where your OS is sitting.

a bootable raid-0 with a 30 GB system partition could be also interesting but depends on your raid controller and i've not tested performance for such a configuration so far.
christian

[mvanbebber]

Thanks for the help!
I formatted the two SATA 160GB drives in RAID 0 (bootable RAID, stripe configuration) with a 30GB OS/application partition and 280GB sample partition. How can I test the performance of the system? Will the computer treat it as one drive?
Has anyone tried this setup before?
thanks,
Mike

[cm]

mike, the computer will treat is as one drive with two partitions. after you have loaded everything (started up windows and gigastudio) there should be not much access to the first partition (i'd assume you have 2 GB RAM and virtual memory disabled) - so all the motion will happen on your second partition and you should get something like 20 - 28 MB/s data throughput for random access (more than you can ever handle with gigastudio)
just set up a huge performance filling up all voices gigastudio can give you and listen for pops and clicks - i'm pretty sure you will not encounter any
christian

[laughingbear]

Hi Mike,

just a few numbers and hints.... I use AIDA32 enterprise edition to do such benchmarking thingies and system analysings....

As for througput.... I think you can never have enough, but I am doing also adobe stuff besides pure music, so film and audio comes together.

I am not so sure about Christian random access figures...

I use somewhat faster SATA harddrives from western digital so called Raptors.

To give you an idea about thier performance, configured without RAID O, hence JBOD, I have measured a single raptor with 61.8 MB/s random read, linear read 61.7 MB/sand buffered read 109.6 MB/s . In raid-0 the random went up to flippin 98.9MB/s.

All above were averages, not maximums! If you are working with higher Khz and bitrates, a better throughout will help big times IMO.

[cm]

laughingbear, how did you run this test - with EZSCSI? if yes, which filesize? please note streaming applications like gigastudio don't access *complete files* but tiny peaces (64k or possibly even less). what makes me wonder is that there is no difference between random and sustained reads
christian

[laughingbear]

Hi Christian

I use aida32 enterprsie edition for those tests.

yeah, I heard about that GS thingy. I suppose it would make sense for Mike to think about a propper clustersize for his GS drive to avaoid bigger slacks. depending on his average FS.

Don't know about this EZSCI, might just do another test with it as well.... is it payware?

[cm]

it's not about the clustersize (which is 64k by default) but the portions which the raid controllers or benchmark programs are using to transfer data. don't know aida, but usually you should be able to select filesize for benchmarks. EZSCSI is payware and comes with several adaptec controllers
christian

[Abel]

Just on topic of HDs... I've heard there're first 400MB units already!!!
How large are Raptors?

[Tomkovsky]

I think they are only available in 36Gb or 74Gb at the moment and are more than twice the price of an equivalent 7200rpm SATA drive.