How Do I test my RAID-0 setup ??

Alexpho · 20 Aug 2010

Hello there. I am on the tail end of building my system. It has been quite and experience so far. After an already successful first build, the computer is OC at 3.9 ghz stable but then I felt the urge to upgrade my sole 1TB hard drive ( 32 MB Cache /3 mbs ) into a RAID 0 configuration, using 2 brand new WD 1TB hard drive, 64 MB Cache / 6 mbs, which my Asus supports. I am assuming that this will seriously improve speed and performance.

After hell trying to figure out the RAID setup in BIOS and a clean install of Windows 7 64 bit, I finally got it to work. The computer is now operational. But there is only concern I have...

I can't tell any MAJOR improvement ! A slight improvement in speed when I change windows and programs is notice. In addition, the transfer rate when I moved files to the new RAID was quicker at around 88 MBS.

Why I am concern is because my Windows system assessment's score for hard disk transfer rate is only at 5.9, which is low and the same as before. Everything else is at 7.5 or higher. Also, I was hoping the load times of my files ( the thumbnail previews ) would increase in speed, but appears to be the same. I am somewhat certain that my RAID setup in BIOS was done correctly. The system is seeing one drive with a 2 TB capacity. I use my computer to do a lot of hd video editing.

1- Is there a way or to test, monitor, or tweak my RAID 0 setup for optimum performance?

2- Am I actually getting the best out of RAID 0 and my expectations were just too high?

3- Are there specifically " one " type of RAID 0 setup? ( I just want to eliminate the possibility of setting up RAID 0 incorrectly in BIOS ).

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

AMD 965 125 watt
ATI 5770
700 watt psu
M4a87td EVO
8 gigs of ddr-3 memory
Windows 7 64 bit home
WD 1TB hard drive 64 mb cache/ 6 mbs ( RAID O )

ken9122 · 20 Aug 2010

Raid 0 will only give you a marginal increase it performance in that setup.
Ken

Bare Foot Kid · 20 Aug 2010

Hello Alexpho, welcome to Seven Forums!

You would have been way better off and had a lot better performance if you got a Solid State Drive (SSD) as the boot drive and use the spinners for everything else.

Alexpho · 21 Aug 2010

Thanks guys. I guess I have to live with it for now. Perhaps wait until a bigger and cheaper SSD drive comes out. But overall, this thing I built is still a beast!

Bare Foot Kid · 21 Aug 2010

Hello again, it does sound like a nice machine.

pparks1 · 21 Aug 2010

Alexpho said:

I can't tell any MAJOR improvement ! A slight improvement in speed when I change windows and programs is notice. In addition, the transfer rate when I moved files to the new RAID was quicker at around 88 MBS.

While I would agree that seeing a MAJOR improvement in the operating system won't be very noticeable....you should have had a significant increase in your hard drive throughput. A single Caviar Black should be transferring around 88MB/s in a benchmark test. I would expect your RAID setup to move 120-140MB/s pretty easily.

Alexpho said:

Why I am concern is because my Windows system assessment's score for hard disk transfer rate is only at 5.9, which is low and the same as before.

That's because of the fact that the test limits you to about 5.9 unless you seriously drop your access time.....which doesn't improve much at all with a RAID configuration. In order to drop that access time, you need to go with an SSD. That is the real beauty of the SSD...it's the ultra low access times....not necessarily it's throughput speed.

A lot of times the RAID controllers on mobos are nothing more than software RAID and don't lead to great performance. You might consider picking up a stand alone RAID controller card which might really improve your performance. Of course, that's just taking money away from the SSD though...which is still your best speed increase just based on it's low access times.