# Fits Quest for uber fast raid setup



## Fitseries3 (Feb 9, 2009)

so i got me a dell perc 5/i last week and i was thinking about what hard drives to get.

heres a little comparison i did... http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost.php?p=1180868&postcount=12

option 1: SAS. i have 2 15k rpm sas drives currently and they are smokin fast. hard to find these guys cheap though and for the price it may be better to go with ssds.

option 2: SATA. yeah, regular old sata drives will always be cheap but i think im looking for something faster.

option 3: SSD. looks to be the best option for reads. price is kinda shitty though. heres my 32gb patriot that erocker has now... http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost.php?p=1077260&postcount=850

what do you think?

i know for a fact that 4 decent ssds will read at ~560mb/s average and have .2ns access time which is GREAT if you ask me.

help me find some deals here!


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## Duffman (Feb 9, 2009)

please edjumacate me...

What is SAS?


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## Fitseries3 (Feb 9, 2009)

serial attached scsi. looks like sata... but its not. sata drives can work on a sas controller but sas cannot work on sata controller. 

sas drives spin 10k rpm for low end drives and 15k rpm for high end drives.

access times are 5ns or lower and most sas drives can read and write like 2x raided sata drives.


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## Duffman (Feb 9, 2009)

interesting.  Are the raptors in that category?


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## Fitseries3 (Feb 9, 2009)

Duffman said:


> interesting.  Are the raptors in that category?



no. raptors are just 10k rpm sata drives.


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## Duffman (Feb 9, 2009)

ahh, i see.  Thanks for the info.

SSD's are the future tho no?


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## Fitseries3 (Feb 9, 2009)

yeah kinda. they still suck for write times though. read is awesome as well as access times.


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## REVHEAD (Feb 9, 2009)

How someone can this day an age live with 32gb drives is beyond me, even 6 of them wouldn't do most of us, what do you actually install on these drives besides a operating system Fit? one or 2 apps and a game or 2?,seems like a waste of time chasing speed for something so small, but now if you had lots of apps and games then we would be talking.

 Please enlighten me on your quest for speed? you only just got the SaS drives when most said to go with SSD?

 Your really wasting your time with cheap and nasty onboard FAKE raid contollers if your after speed alone, most drives run ok on FAKE raid but with the extra Cache ect and dedicated CPU a dedicated PCIE raid card has then your wont be chasing records here, ive seen guys with 8 intel SSD drives im raid 0 perform less than there expectatons, and your allso battling against the poor SATA 2 controller that only has a theoretical output of 300mbps per drive, not idealy suited to the new SSD drives in a raid Config, eithER ditch the PCI bus limmited onboard raid, or wait for Sata 3, or your chasing a pipe dream and wasting cash to boot.

 Good luck with your quest.


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## Fitseries3 (Feb 9, 2009)

its for benching only. win7, drivers, 3dm06, 3dmvantage, and a few other benches take up only 12gb or so.

my problem with the sas drives is they are non existent in the size i want. the prices suck on the bigger drives. sas is still cheaper than ssd.

IF and only IF i could find a sick deal on small ssd's then i would get them. until then.... sas blows ssd out of the water.(sata too)


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## FordGT90Concept (Feb 9, 2009)

SAS 10k/15k are freakin' expensive.  They are fast and high bandwidth but you really got to want it/need it to justify the price.

SSD, I don't trust.  The purpose of these drives is long-term storage.  SSD's haven't proven to be effective at their primary job yet so I would only use them for data I don't care much about.

SATA 7200/10k are the most economical choice as they are proven reliable.


Which is the best if budget isn't much of an issue is dependant on what you intend to use them for.




Fitseries3 said:


> its for benching only. win7, drivers, 3dm06, 3dmvantage, and a few other benches take up only 12gb or so.


Best off using a RAM drive then.


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## Fitseries3 (Feb 9, 2009)

i reinstall OS about once a month on my bench rig so.....


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## FordGT90Concept (Feb 9, 2009)

RAM drive will make you reinstall on every boot!  Only power off once a month and all will be great.


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## Deleted member 3 (Feb 9, 2009)

Fitseries3 said:


> its for benching only. win7, drivers, 3dm06, 3dmvantage, and a few other benches take up only 12gb or so.



How much of a difference exactly does a harddisk/SSD/whatever make in graphics benchmarks?


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## Fitseries3 (Feb 9, 2009)

bench machine is too loud and uses too much power to run more than a few hours at a time.


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## Deleted member 3 (Feb 9, 2009)

FordGT90Concept said:


> RAM drive will make you reinstall on every boot!  Only power off once a month and all will be great.



Not the battery backed up ones. ie Gigabyte iRAM, rocketdrive and that new one that got released and costs a kidney.


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## Fitseries3 (Feb 9, 2009)

DanTheBanjoman said:


> How much of a difference exactly does a harddisk/SSD/whatever make in graphics benchmarks?



well... other benches and possibly games. i also like pcmark which loves high speed hdd's.


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## Deleted member 3 (Feb 9, 2009)

Fitseries3 said:


> well... other benches and possibly games. i also like pcmark which loves high speed hdd's.



So you're looking at spending a few hundred bucks just for PC mark and "other benches"?


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## Fitseries3 (Feb 9, 2009)

i spent $1150 on 2 gtx295's just for benches and games.

not to mention my $380 mobo, $800 water cooling rig and tons of other stuff.

the money is there... 

i'd just like to find stuff at reasonable prices. ($132 for a 36gb 15k rpm sas drive is insane.)


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## Deleted member 3 (Feb 9, 2009)

Fitseries3 said:


> i spent $1150 on 2 gtx295's just for benches and games.
> 
> not to mention my $380 mobo, $800 water cooling rig and tons of other stuff.
> 
> ...



May I give you my bank account number?

I think if you're buying stuff just to spend money at least buy something different than everybody. Make some strange contraption  browse ebay for odd storage devices


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## Fitseries3 (Feb 9, 2009)

i really havent seen anyone with sas drives at all in a desktop computer. 

all the ppl on OCN with del perc 5/i's use huge sata drives. i dont need the capacity... just the speed.

im watercooling this perc 5/i if that counts as strange. no one has done that.


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## FordGT90Concept (Feb 9, 2009)

I would go for SAS then.  Get three 15k HDDs and knock yourself out. XD

It may not be as fast as SSD but at least it can be trusted to work.


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## LAN_deRf_HA (Feb 14, 2009)

RAID two of these. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167015

Decent amount of space, no stuttering issues and the best performance of any SATA ssd, especially in benchmarks you don't normally see. The write speed isn't even that bad, will be better after the raid.


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## mlee49 (Feb 14, 2009)

1st SAS
2nd SSD
3rd Sata


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## ntdouglas (Feb 18, 2009)

How many drives do you want to raid?


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## Fitseries3 (Feb 18, 2009)

as many as i can afford.


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## ntdouglas (Feb 18, 2009)

Ok, check this out. I was talking to this guy on the hdtach thread a while ago. Look at his benches and hardware. Amazing.
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=26630&highlight=hdtach+thread&page=10


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## Fitseries3 (Feb 18, 2009)

nice. i think im going to grab another pair of SAS drives and call it a day.


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## ntdouglas (Feb 18, 2009)

Which ones?


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## Fitseries3 (Feb 18, 2009)

2 more of what i have. 15k rpm maxtor 36gb sas. i have a hookup on them.


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## Disparia (Feb 18, 2009)

Grab some cascadeable SAS expanders and max that card's array member limit (32) 

Though you'll top out on speed fairly quickly, as that controller only has a IOP333. Probably only take 4 fast SSD's to do that.


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## Fitseries3 (Feb 18, 2009)

ssd's cost too much.


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## ntdouglas (Feb 18, 2009)

Post some benches when you get them going. Will be interesting.


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## MoonPig (Feb 19, 2009)

I say either:

2 x Intel X25-M 80GB SSD = $738.00
3 x Intel X25-M 80GB SSD = $1,107.00
4 x Intel X25-M 80GB SSD = $1,476.00

I love what you do with hardware. People may moan about you spending so much just for a five digit score, but you also achieve what some of us only dream about. And giving us logs and pictures etc. makes it all better. 

These results best be good. lol


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## Fitseries3 (Feb 19, 2009)

if you wanna pay for them then ok i will try it.

im all about reasonable prices and high speed.


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## MoonPig (Feb 19, 2009)

I'm alright, just spent money on a water cooling kit, ATi 4870 and an E8600.

If not, i say go for just the SAS Drives. How many do you have at the moment?


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## Fitseries3 (Feb 19, 2009)

2


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## MoonPig (Feb 19, 2009)

go for them then, their fast enough. 

Good luck.


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## ntdouglas (Feb 24, 2009)

Any benches yet?


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## Fitseries3 (Feb 24, 2009)

waiting on a 3rd drive to arrive


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## ntdouglas (Feb 24, 2009)

That was fast. Are you at work like me?


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## Fitseries3 (Feb 24, 2009)

im always/never @ work. i work for myself.

i already had 2 sas drives. just waiting on a 3rd


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## ntdouglas (Feb 24, 2009)

I thought you were going to raid 4 of them. Are you using on board raid or do you have a raid controller?


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## Fitseries3 (Feb 24, 2009)

raid controller. dell perc 5/i

only have room and money for 3 drives for now.


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