2 Cheetah 15.7k in Raid 0 and still no performance?

I have a fully loaded HP XW8600 Workstation with:
16 GB
2 quadcore 3.16 Ghz procs
nVidia Geforce 480

I just purchased 2 Seagate Cheetah 15.7k disks and have installed them as Raid 0.
I was expecting nothing less than a blazing fast system. But it is not really fast.
When I checked I found out that esp the disk is/are not performing well. (see screenshot below).

I upgraded the firmware on the disks as was indicated by HP, but could not find any new drivers for the controller.

Any suggestions what to do?
Thanks a lot for your help, it would be really appreciated if I can get this fixed.

Peter

PeterDorr said:

I have a fully loaded HP XW8600 Workstation with:
16 GB
2 quadcore 3.16 Ghz procs
nVidia Geforce 480

I just purchased 2 Seagate Cheetah 15.7k disks and have installed them as Raid 0.
I was expecting nothing less than a blazing fast system. But it is not really fast.
When I checked I found out that esp the disk is/are not performing well. (see screenshot below).

I upgraded the firmware on the disks as was indicated by HP, but could not find any new drivers for the controller.

Any suggestions what to do?
Thanks a lot for your help, it would be really appreciated if I can get this fixed.

Peter

Peter while the cheetahs are great HD's 5.9 is as high as you can get without an SSD.

Whats the controller?

Is that HP tool comparable to the W7 performance tests?

My black Caviar rate at 5.9 in W7 and I believe 7.0 would be the maximum.

It seems random IO are bad in your system. But you also have to see that the rating system compares that to a hypothetical SSD. and those run circles around even your expensive HDD RAID setup.

If the system feels fast, I wouldn't worry.

I'm not quite sure why you didn't use SSD since you apparently need the speed and nowadays the cost is not so bad compared to the high-rpm HDD.

Edit: here is what W7 says about the scores:
"The scores currently range from 1.0 to 7.9. The Windows Experience Index is designed to accommodate advances in computer technology. As hardware speed and performance improve, higher score ranges will be enabled. The standards for each level of the index generally stay the same. However, in some cases, new tests might be developed that can result in lower scores."

Thanks for your replies.

The on-board controller is LSI adapter SAS 3000 series, 8 port with 1068.
Would SSd really make that big a difference?

I merely use it for Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom 3.

PeterDorr said:

Thanks for your replies.

The on-board controller is LSI adapter SAS 3000 series, 8 port with 1068.
Would SSd really make that big a difference?

I merely use it for Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom 3.

I assume your system is fast enough and if you don't feel drag when working, no need to upgrade. I assume you just bought this. Starting up the application will be faster, a bit when you use SSD.. but working with it won't really be that faster with the memory you have.

If money is not an object, I'd wait till next year when more SAT3 SSD are out assuming you have SATA3 with 6GB. Your setup is pretty fast, no need to upgrade now. and SSD will get even faster (and more affordable). the HDD likely reached its summit.

Intel (and others) are bringing out their 3rd generation SSD in Q1/2011. that is whne I buy.