Why has there been a lack of gaming/gamer oriented RAID cards?

[Beta]

Why has there been a lack of gaming/gamer oriented RAID cards? As the gaming community keeps wanting to push the boundaries of computers why has hardware manufactures met the demand for fast raid controllers that are dedicated and have there on CPU and on board RAM. You would think that someone would want to get into this such as Asus brand “Republic of Gamers.” Any thoughts?

 

[arkhi]

LoL. ROG. My RoG laptop doesn't have a raid controller <_<

 

[Beta]

I am talking about stand alone PCIex4 or x8 Raid Cards not intigrated. This has nothing to do with a laptop.

 

[badger906]

there have been a couple, watched a video last night of a rig with an 8 SSD array running off a pci card. but the read write speeds werent that much off a standard SSD

 

[arkhi]

Case-in-point: If Asus didn't take the absolute steps necessary to fully beef up an RoG device (my laptop), what makes you think they (i.e. Asus ROG) would take the initiative to get this?

 

[Beta]

STAND ALONE CARD. This has nothing to do with a laptop or what it should or should not have. This is about desktops. Also it does not need to be ASUS but any company.

Also with your laptop it is ment to have installed a SSD and a standard HD. One for the OS and one for programs and media. No need to raid so get over it. No one made you buy it.

 

[Beta]

there have been a couple, watched a video last night of a rig with an 8 SSD array running off a pci card. but the read write speeds werent that much off a standard SSD

I have seen 4 Sata 3 SSD in raid get over 1600 MB/s read on a server raid card.

 

[badger906]

but will a RAID card with non SSD's offer the performance of a top level SSD?
as i cant see the average gamer wanting to have to buy multiple SSD's and a controller.

 

[arkhi]

You still don't get it. I'm going by the logic that Asus is a company that usually cares for performance in both laptops and desktops. I don't know if you figured this out yet, but there are laptops who actually have miniPCI-E slots and miniPCI-E SATA RAID cards that go with it. The fact that they didn't bother implementing/developing this makes a point.

Your initial question:

You would think that someone would want to get into this such as Asus brand “Republic of Gamers.” Any thoughts?

Question: Lack of gaming-oriented RAID controllers/cards. Why? Thoughts?

My thoughts: That being siad, I would think so too, but if the company that I know is usually inspired to innnovate did not take the initiative to start, what are the chances others will?

Besides, RAID wouldn't benefit the gamer (in the purest sense, mind you) since the only major advantage this would bring are faster loading times. I'm a gamer, and I am more concerned about RAM/GPU/CPU performance (GPU being 70% of it) than my HDD performance. It's not like I'm getting 10,000 database queries per second when I game. I'm more concerned on how good my fireball looks and how fast I can warp from town A to town B and launch that RPG on the bus right there.

 

[Beta]

If your a big PC gamer then all you want is to be is the fastest boy in the village. What I am trying to point out is that there is a GAP in the market that needs someone to step in and make something happen. Maybe OCZ will make one since they have the PCIe SSD drives.

 

[stormy13]

One reason would be because it won't make the game run any faster. The most you would get from RAID or a SSD with games is faster loading times, your FPS won't go up at all.

 

[arkhi]

If your a big PC gamer then all you want is to be is the fastest boy in the village. What I am trying to point out is that there is a GAP in the market that needs someone to step in and make something happen. Maybe OCZ will make one since they have the PCIe SSD drives.

If you initially stated it that way then I would've understood more what your are trying to point out.

And yes, I do agree that someone needs to step up in this part of the hardware business.

 

[badger906]

550mbps read/write speed does me! I'm first into every game lobby and often have to wait for others to appear. Used to think it was my poor 1.4mbps internet speed, but ssd proved otherwise.

 

[Beta]

If your a big PC gamer then all you want is to be is the fastest boy in the village. What I am trying to point out is that there is a GAP in the market that needs someone to step in and make something happen. Maybe OCZ will make one since they have the PCIe SSD drives.

If you initially stated it that way then I would've understood more what your are trying to point out.

And yes, I do agree that someone needs to step up in this part of the hardware business.

It's ok. I like a good heated thread. I just hope someone does.

 

[DeaconFrost]

That's almost like saying there aren't any gamer oriented printers available. RAID has very little, to zero to do with gaming. There are three main components that affect gaming capabilities....cpu, memory, and gpu. The hard drives only play a role when loading a level or starting a game, that's all.

Besides, if we are going to discuss HDD RAID, it really has no place on a desktop computer. SSD RAID may be a different animal, but even with a single SSD drive in your system, you are more than fast enough to have zero negative impact on your gaming.

Simply put, if you want to be the "fastest boy in the village", worry about the components that matter. RAID is all hype, and that is why you don't see "gaming oriented" RAID cards. Besides...what would make it gaming oriented? Fatal1ty logos? Neon lights? Big heat sinks? RAID cards do what they are designed to do....and if you ignore the myths and stick to facts, you'll soon find out the R is the most important letter in RAID.

 

[Beta]

A price point of around $200 and would be made for non servers.

 

[DeaconFrost]

There are RAID cards for sale that go for less than that...quite a bit less. The price isn't what makes them "server-oriented)...it is the nature of what RAID is all about. It isn't meant for desktop use, with a single user. It is meant to add a large number of disks together to add redundancy. RAID0 is all hype, and doesn't offer greater performance. That myth was debunked quite a few years ago, so unless you are still buying into that myth, there's no need or reason to consider RAID for a gaming system. Spend that money on a better CPU or GPU if you really want to affect your gaming performance.

 

[Wishmaster]

My opinion on the matter is this:

RAID does not help gaming performance in the least. Second, raid array is much more prone to problems and failure than a single drive.

HD speed (or SSD speed) will not help gaming performance in the least.
Only the load times.
Once a game level or map is loaded, it runs from memory.

Gaming performance will be determined by GPU --> CPU --> then memory last


As far as speeding up load times, the best method I have found is by using multiple single drive setups. SSD/Spinner mix.

Sure SSDs are expensive, and not really a good choice as a primary game drive if you have lots of games.

I opted for a SSD as the OS dive.
A large Spinner as a Game drive.
Then a secondary SSD which only holds 3 or 4 games that Im currently playing. (or the games that access the HD often)

Some games load fast and show no real improvement on a SSD, so these can always stay on the spinner.
The rest can be swapped back and forth using a simple Juntion link.

Perhaps my way is too much effort, but I find it a better option than RAID.
Its more stable and problem free than a raid array and also, a single SSD is much faster than a mechanical drive Raid.

Perhaps Im wrong, but this may actually come out cheaper too, than a raid card and multiple spinners for the array.

 

[Beta]

There are RAID cards for sale that go for less than that...quite a bit less. The price isn't what makes them "server-oriented)...it is the nature of what RAID is all about. It isn't meant for desktop use, with a single user. It is meant to add a large number of disks together to add redundancy. RAID0 is all hype, and doesn't offer greater performance. That myth was debunked quite a few years ago, so unless you are still buying into that myth, there's no need or reason to consider RAID for a gaming system. Spend that money on a better CPU or GPU if you really want to affect your gaming performance.

There is no raid card with on board ram for under $320 that I could find.

Newegg.com - Intel RAID SAS/SATA 4 internal port w/ 128MB cache memory PCI-E x8 Controller Card (SRCSASLS4I)

This is somewhat like what I would like to see.

Newegg.com - Intel RAID SATA 8 internal port w/ 256MB cache memory PCI-E 2.0 x8 Controller Card (RT3WB080)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816117152

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816117224

 

[Hopalong X]

Those are raid card contollers.

They control SSD's or HDD's.
You plug your harddrive into the controller instead of onto the motherboard directly.

They have nothing to do with video or gaming.