# 2 Velociraptors in Raid 0 Benchmark



## poo417 (Oct 13, 2008)

Ok i have downloaded a copy of HD tune and ran some bench marks. The problem is I have no idea if they are good or bad . The raid is set up using intel matrix storage with 150 gig velo raptors in a 64k stripe.

Any comments on wether looks like it should would be great.

Thanks



Poo


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## MKmods (Oct 13, 2008)

I havent run that program so its hard for me to compare my old Raid0 setups. How does the comp feel while you use it?
(thats what really matters)

I always have used 64k stripes but I remember hearing 128k may be a bit better so later this week I am gonna set my comp up and see.


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## poo417 (Oct 13, 2008)

It seems to feel pretty snappy.  Ther system was run on an old raptor x so that was not a slow disk either.  This was the first time I have used a raid setup and am not sure I have done it the best way.  I did have drivers on a usb stick for the raid setup but was never asked for them in vista.  I did install teh drivers one the vista install was done.  Is there anoher program that you would recommend using?

Cheers and thanks ofr the quick reply.

Poo


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## Woody112 (Oct 13, 2008)

Thats normal. I have the same set up and tested them both. Full drive raid with no partion I was getting the same results. When I partioned the drives to 80gigs each for a 160gig raid 0, and partioned the remainder. My average read went up to 210MB/s.


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## poo417 (Oct 13, 2008)

Woody112 said:


> Thats normal. I have the same set up and tested them both. Full drive raid with no partion I was getting the same results. When I partioned the drives to 80gigs each for a 160gig raid 0, and partioned the remainder. My average read went up to 210MB/s.



Thanks that is what I was after was just not sure if I had got it all right.


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## Fitseries3 (Oct 13, 2008)

have you enabled Intels writeback cache? you should see a huge increase if you do.


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## poo417 (Oct 13, 2008)

fitseries3 said:


> have you enabled Intels writeback cache? you should see a huge increase if you do.



I have no idea.  How would I do that? As I have said first time out for raid 0 for me.

Poo


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## Fitseries3 (Oct 13, 2008)

if you have intel matrix storage console installed you need to open it up and right click your raid and click enable write back cache


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## Woody112 (Oct 13, 2008)

fitseries3 said:


> if you have intel matrix storage console installed you need to open it up and right click your raid and click enable write back cache



Oops forgot about that. Ya enable it bro, I also disabled indexing services. Noticed a good jump in performance.


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## ZenZimZaliben (Oct 13, 2008)

You access times seems to high. 

What I would suggest is making a partition for the OS and Applications. This is also called short stroking...make the partition around 60-100Gb. You will see a good increase from that.


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## niko084 (Oct 13, 2008)

Access times also has quite a bit to do with your controller, but those don't look bad Intel ICH ftw.

Honestly I would say you are looking pretty decent.


Also remember HD Tune is a pretty horrible program to test hard drives in all honesty... For the most part, there isn't really a good single program to do it.


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## poo417 (Oct 13, 2008)

fitseries3 said:


> if you have intel matrix storage console installed you need to open it up and right click your raid and click enable write back cache



Well you were very right!!  The differece in burst speed and the file bench mark were huge!! I also ran one on my old raptor x slightly slower!!!

Many thanks again.



Woody112 said:


> Oops forgot about that. Ya enable it bro, I also disabled indexing services. Noticed a good jump in performance.



OK and how do I do that one then?


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## niko084 (Oct 13, 2008)

I wouldn't disable indexing, while it will pickup some things, it will greatly slow others...


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## Woody112 (Oct 13, 2008)

poo417 said:


> Well you were very right!!  The differece in burst speed and the file bench mark were huge!! I also ran one on my old raptor x slightly slower!!!
> 
> Many thanks again.
> 
> ...



Indexing Services is a small little program that uses large amounts of RAM and can often make a computer endlessly loud and noisy. This system process indexes and updates lists of all the files that are on your computer. It does this so that when you do a search for something on your computer, it will search faster by scanning the index lists. If you dont search your computer often, or even if you do search often, this system service is completely unnecessary.
You can disable indexing by going to your control panel and opening up add/remove programs. there should be a file that says indexing options.
The quickest way to disable it is by doing the following:
1) Click start
2) Computer
3) Right Click on your OS drive
4) Uncheck index this drive for faster searches
5) Click apply
6) Your done
What you gain no more hdd constantly working when your not doing anything, no more clicking on a program to open and having that pause before it opens. I have noticed that my computer is much more responsive with indexing off. It can alway be turned back on just by re checking the box and clicking apply.
In my experiance it has no way in any form hindered any other application or service.


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## niko084 (Oct 13, 2008)

Woody112 said:


> In my experience it has no way in any form hindered any other application or service.



Most use it wont hurt your performance, until you try to do something like a File Search.... Then you are really in for a good cry.


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## Woody112 (Oct 13, 2008)

niko084 said:


> Most use it wont hurt your performance, until you try to do something like a File Search.... Then you are really in for a good cry.



True. 
But honestly how often do you do a file search. Me I keep everything pretty much organized so have no use for it.
What could be done is change the indexing options to search only the folders you want to search. Ex... music, videos, pictures
Most people already know where these are located unless you have TB"S of info on one disk.
Which in that case, say for example if I had a 1TB HDD with nothing but videos on it ya I would index just that drive.
All I'm saying is that it's completly pointless to index your OS and program files that windows does automaticly and over time the more programs you install the slower your drives get.
Has anyone ever noticed that when you first load a fresh copy of windows it starts up fast and everything is responsive. Yet after you load a few programs and your favorite games it turns into a slug.
This happens for one fragmentaion, two back ground services, and three you just multiplied the indexing file by a multiple of a thousand.
Nothing wrong with indexing just have to know how to use it.


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## niko084 (Oct 13, 2008)

See that's where I have the trouble, I have over 600gb's of music, over 2 tb's of movies, and around 750gb's of various synths, beats and pads that I use for production... It would get pretty bad if I had indexing turned off.


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## Woody112 (Oct 13, 2008)

niko084 said:


> See that's where I have the trouble, I have over 600gb's of music, over 2 tb's of movies, and around 750gb's of various synths, beats and pads that I use for production... It would get pretty bad if I had indexing turned off.



You dont have to turn indexing complety off you could index those drives or folders only.
Personally what I do is the following.
Load OS, Programs, and Games on one partion with indexing turn off.
Load Videos, Music, Picturs, Documts, etc... on the other partion with indexing turned on. By doing this my OS and programs are not constantly being indexed and my HDD is not constantly driving me nuts.
But ya I see your point. You would be embracing the suck with out indexing, that's quite a bit of files.


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## Fitseries3 (Oct 19, 2008)

well..... heres my results with writeback cache off...


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## Fitseries3 (Oct 19, 2008)

and on...


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## lemonadesoda (Oct 19, 2008)

Swings and roundabouts, then?


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## B239 (Dec 9, 2008)

Wow is that all the speed you get ? OUCH!!!! I don't even have 10k RPM Hard Drives.

This is my raid setup:





















fitseries3 said:


> well..... heres my results with writeback cache off...


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