LinuxQuestions.org
Share your knowledge at the LQ Wiki.
Go Back   LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Hardware
User Name
Password
Linux - Hardware This forum is for Hardware issues.
Having trouble installing a piece of hardware? Want to know if that peripheral is compatible with Linux?

Notices


Reply
  Search this Thread
Old 12-05-2009, 07:21 PM   #1
annihilan
Member
 
Registered: Jul 2008
Posts: 58

Rep: Reputation: 15
Would setting these drives in a RAID array give me significant performance increase?


I currently dual boot Vista and whatever distro I'm currently test-driving, currently Mint.

My specs are:
AMD 6400+ Athlon 3.2GHz dual-core
7200RPM 500gb 3.0GB/s WDC WD5000AKS drive, Vista boot
7200RPM 500gb 3.0GB/s ST350032 0AS drive, Vista auxillary
7200RPM 320gb 3.0GB/s ST332062 0AS drive, linux main
nVidia 8800GT 512MB
4GB RAM
M2N-SLI Deluxe
X-Fi Xtreme Music sound
Vista 64-bit Ultimate
Current release of Linux Mint

The Vista drives are customized with the 'enable advanced performance' which I believe enables another level of write-caching on the hard drive, if I remember correctly.

I keep seeing that RAID makes your hard drives much faster, but would it have a serious impact on this system? Yes, I know this is not a mostly Linux-oriented post, but I know that Linuxquestions harbors some of the most intelligent and learned computer-experts.

Thank you,
Annihilan

Last edited by annihilan; 12-05-2009 at 07:25 PM.
 
Old 12-06-2009, 07:10 AM   #2
Simon Bridge
LQ Guru
 
Registered: Oct 2003
Location: Waiheke NZ
Distribution: Ubuntu
Posts: 9,211

Rep: Reputation: 198Reputation: 198
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_RAID_levels

There can be performance increases with some kinds of RAID because multiple copies of the data is stored across multiple drives. This means that the computer can retrieve data from the drive whose read-head is closest to it.

It would have a significant impact on your system, specifically you'd have to reinstall your software to the new RAID configuration.

Using RAID1 on all three drives would reduce your data cap to 320gig, and triples the data-write time, even though you could better than double your read times you would not want to do that - probably you'd RAID the two big ones and keep the 320gig seperate. This provides a total capacity of 820gig (500gig in raid1). Read performance on the big drives, though, can be as high as 1.5 to 2x

However, if you have error checking or similar features enabled for the drives, performance could actually get worse.

With RAID0 you can join all the drives together to make 960gig, (again, RAID the first two for a 1TB drive) but if you deal with a lot of larger files, like media, then you won't notice any performance increase. You also lose reliability and, in the event either drive fails, you lose all your data on both drives.

The thing to remember about RAID is that it is not intended as a performance enhancer - that is a side effect. It is intended to help simulate large expensive drives using lots of old cheap ones instead. This does not stop home users joining two expensive drives for storage space or as a kind of "backup" system.

If you go to an all linux system (encouraged - of course) you also get the fun of LVM and linux software RAID to add to the mix.
 
  


Reply


Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off



Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Need help moving onto a larger RAID array -- drives getting full! lowsy Linux - General 1 10-28-2009 09:58 PM
fasted way to create a new RAID array on blank drives jerp Linux - General 0 08-14-2006 01:40 PM
Automatic recoginiton of new hard drives and growing in new space in raid array lewt Linux - Hardware 0 05-31-2006 11:29 PM
Does mounting 2 drives to one point give the raid effect joshuarowley Linux - Software 6 01-09-2006 08:52 AM
Setting up a system with a Raid 1 Array getza1 Linux - Hardware 4 11-13-2005 05:16 PM

LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Hardware

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 12:06 AM.

Main Menu
Advertisement
My LQ
Write for LQ
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute content, let us know.
Main Menu
Syndicate
RSS1  Latest Threads
RSS1  LQ News
Twitter: @linuxquestions
Open Source Consulting | Domain Registration