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Raid-0 on 4 drives = ??

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  • Raid-0 on 4 drives = ??

    :confused:

    Just wondering if it is possible to do RAID-0 on 4 drives instead of 2?

    I was looking at the Promise ATA-RAID controller and it says it cann support 4 drives, although it only has two IDE plugs so I assume you have to do master/slave

    So would 4 drives be a lot faster than 2 drives, or would it even work?

    I was thinking about buying four of the same exact drive like 20GB 7200 RPM drives or something.

  • #2
    I don't believe that a 4-device RAID adapter will be able to handle a 4-drive RAID 0 configuration. You'll need a special RAID card for this, and those are going to start running into large amounts of cash. The main reason for support of 4 devices is so that it can run a 4-drive RAID 0+1 configuration. This allows a two drive RAID 0 array that is also mirrored.

    Of course, if money is no object, then you can start looking at RAID 5 too. :)
    Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill
    My Toys

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    • #3
      Of COURSE money is an object!!! Heheh.

      So now I'm thinking about saving up my $$ and maybe getting a SCSI RAID card and two identical 10K or 15K rpm SCSI drives.

      I have been reading up and most SCSI drives have 4MB or 8MB cache, and <5 ms access time is common.

      Can you imagine if I had two of those babies hooked up in RAID-0 ?? Dude that would be cra-a-aaaaazy!:geek:

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      • #4
        First you say money is an object, then you suggest a SCSI RAID system? That's kinda oxymoronic.. :)

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        • #5
          I am neither an "ox" nor a "moron" ;)

          Actually, looking around Ubid.com and Ebay.com, it seems like I could get a SCSI RAID controller for maybe $125, and a couple of 18GB 10K RPM SCSI drives for maybe $300.

          If I wanted to go the IDE RAID route, I would be looking at $100 for a Promise IDE RAID card and $250 for a new 80GB Western Digital to match the one I have.

          So IDE RAID would maybe be $75 or $100 cheaper and I would have more storage. With SCSI RAID i would have less storage capacity for the money but faster performance.

          Right?

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          • #6
            That's basically it. :)

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            • #7
              I am thinking that SCSI might be the way for me to go becuz i don't really want to have 4 drives in my system heating it up and making a racket besides... with two SCSI drives I can put an 120mm fan in the front of the box at the bottom and blow air across both drives... with 4 drives it would be a solid "wall" of hot hard drives :(

              Now, any SCSI users out there want to tell me how their performance compares to IDE for business and gaming applications?

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              • #8
                just out of curiousity what exactly are you looking at a RAID system for? Do you just want the fastest system you can get, or what?

                From what I've seen of RAID 0 setups on IDE drives, it's still very fast. Personally, I'd go for the 160GB setup you suggested with the two WD drives, as opposed to the 36GB setup with the SCSI drives, but that's just me.

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                • #9
                  I too would go the IDE route. Though there is a slightly faster performance rating with the SCSI setup, it really isn't that significant anymore. I already got rid of the MaximumPC magazine that had a head-to-head between the two, but the results were a lot closer than you would think. What it boils down to is that IDE keeps getting faster with age, and larger as well. SCSI on the other hand is almost stagnating. You'll only get real noticeable differences if you're using programs that intensively attack the capabilities of the array, and not too many do that.

                  So save a few dollars, get a huge gain on storage potential, and Kick-Ass performance to boot. How can you go wrong? Especially since you already stated that money was indeed a concern.
                  Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill
                  My Toys

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                  • #10
                    0 for a new 80GB Western Digital to match the one I have
                    My god, where do you buy your drives? there are WD 80 gig 7200 rpm drives on mwave.com for 118$ !

                    Oh maybe you are using a different currency...

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                    • #11
                      Sounds like the aussie dollar. :?:

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                      • #12
                        unless you regularly move real big files...I doubt you'll notice much of a real world performance difference between ATA, ATARaid0 and SCSI.

                        You'll be able to measure it in bench marks...but games and most common desktop apps. seem more or less the same

                        Incidently...I just bought new 4 x 73.4GB SCSI Ultra160 HD's at work $1100cdn/ea (that's more than$1400Aud/ea) + the SCSI controller

                        chances are any thing you pick up on eBay will be older Ultra Wide 40's or Ultra-2 80'2

                        A lot of cash to drop for a perfromance boost you may not even notice

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