Another Raid 0 question

JRW21JRW21 Dunlap, IL
edited July 2005 in Hardware
My sons computer is getting very slow. I would like to set it up with Raid 0 array. The thing is i don't want to buy new hard drives so i am going to use what i have laying around.

I have an ULTRA ATA/133 Raid controller card as well.

My questoin is, will this combination work?

I have:

Western digital (WD200EB)

* 20 GB
* 100 MB/s (Mode 5 Ultra ATA)-- 66.6 MB/s (Mode 4 Ultra ATA)
* 5,400 RPM

Maxtor (93073U6)

* Maximum Capacity of 40.9 GB
* Supports Ultra Mode 4 for up to 66 MB/sec data transfers
* 2 MB Cache Buffer
* 5,400 RPM
* < 9.0 ms average seek time

Not exactly the best drives, but, its what i have laying around.

Comments

  • KometeKomete Member
    edited July 2005
    It'll work but you will loose 20 gb of the 40gb harddrive so in total you will only be able to access 40 gig's.. In the end whichever HD is slower will dictate how fast the other goes. It's highly recomended they be the same Model size etc but many have ran with mixed combo drives in raid 0 with no problems.
  • JRW21JRW21 Dunlap, IL
    edited July 2005
    ok, i will give it a shot. my biggest concern was that the raid controller card is ATA/133 and the drives are rated 66. NOt a problem?
  • PreacherPreacher Potomac, MD Icrontian
    edited July 2005
    Having used RAID-0 for years, I doubt you will see much, if any, of a performance difference unless you are doing high end video/audio editing or something similar that stresses hard disk writes and reads. You also are at least doubling your risk of total data loss, so have a good backup plan. If one of the drives in a RAID-0 array fails, you lose all of your data. Anandtech, Maximum PC, and many others did numerous real-world tests on RAID-0 arrays with very good cards and drives and the difference was negligible.

    I would ask why is your son's PC slowing? It would help to post its specifications too.

    A format and reinstall of Windows and/or a good spyware/adware scan may fix the slowness.
  • JRW21JRW21 Dunlap, IL
    edited July 2005
    his pc is pretty old and outdated.

    Pentium 3 650E
    256MB Ram
    Maxtor 40gig 5400rpm
    Win XP

    IT is loaded with games.

    So, just trying to find a cheap solution. Maybe i could scrounge up another maxtor 40 gig.

    Any thoughts?
  • shwaipshwaip bluffin' with my muffin Icrontian
    edited July 2005
    more RAM ^_^

    A 7200 RPM HD

    What is your son trying to do on it that makes it seem really slow?
  • JRW21JRW21 Dunlap, IL
    edited July 2005
    the newer games are playing much slower, he says.
  • MadballMadball Fort Benton, MT
    edited July 2005
    JRW21 wrote:
    the newer games are playing much slower, he says.
    And it will with those specs. Adding Raid 0 to that PC will do very little to improve his games. The only thing that will help is upgrading hardware. The three things that impact game performance the most are video card, processor, and RAM. In that order. Hard drive speed has very little impact on gaming.
  • PreacherPreacher Potomac, MD Icrontian
    edited July 2005
    More RAM and the highest CPU that motherboard can take will make a noticeable increase. What kind of video card does he have?
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited July 2005
    Have you defragged the drives lately? If they are fragmented and/or either drive if pretty full the disk performance will suk.

    But I bet to fix his game performance it has little to do with the disk unless they are really full
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