RAID-0 Performance Under Windows 7

Hi

Im considering installing Windows 7, well technically its still downloading from Microsoft but its getting there so while its going I was just curious how it performs on a RAID-0 system, right now I have 2x 500GB Seagate Drives at 7200rpm and was wondering if A) The increase is speed is definatly noticable and B) what the Vista rating is for having 2x 7200rpm Drives in there under Vista its a 5.9.

Also the RAID controller is hardware based and setup through BIOS on my P5Q-PRO, I didnt have to install the drivers so am I correct to assume the same on Windows 7

Thanks Guys

halo200 said:

Hi

Im considering installing Windows 7, well technically its still downloading from Microsoft but its getting there so while its going I was just curious how it performs on a RAID-0 system, right now I have 2x 500GB Seagate Drives at 7200rpm and was wondering if A) The increase is speed is definatly noticable and B) what the Vista rating is for having 2x 7200rpm Drives in there under Vista its a 5.9.

Also the RAID controller is hardware based and setup through BIOS on my P5Q-PRO, I didnt have to install the drivers so am I correct to assume the same on Windows 7

Thanks Guys

Hi first let me welcome you to SF.
win7 overall is faster than vista. I dont have raid experience in vista so I have no comparison the drivers for my raid were installed by default. It was painless.

Hope this gives you some reassurance and thanks for filling out your system specs it really helps.

Hope this helped somewhat and ask questions we all learn

Ken

I have a raid 0 setup with raptors...what is the question you are trying to ask?

Just finished installing 7 and on the RAID 0 it boots so much faster than Vista did, also like Vista it automatically picked up the drive no problem on the Raid. I find it funny how my scores have gone up, like my CPU was at 5.7 in Vista and then it went up to 6.5 in 7 and then up to 7.0 after an overclock.

Thanks Guys

halo200 said:

Just finished installing 7 and on the RAID 0 it boots so much faster than Vista did, also like Vista it automatically picked up the drive no problem on the Raid. I find it funny how my scores have gone up, like my CPU was at 5.7 in Vista and then it went up to 6.5 in 7 and then up to 7.0 after an overclock.

Thanks Guys

I knew you wouldn't have a problem. The WEI upgrade is just Bill G's way of saying thank you for installing our newest. Lots of people find their WEI varying with no changes at all

Glad it wirked so easily

Ken

I think the WEI scores are a better reflection now...there is no way that my vid cards would have had a 6.6 considering they are 285s and quite overclocked. 7.4 all around except for my hard drive which is at 5.9 sounds more correct to me.

If this helps - I've been running Win 7 on a raid 0 set-up for a couple of weeks now with no problems. I just updated to build 7229 with no issues to report!

halo200 said:

...Also the RAID controller is hardware based and setup through BIOS on my P5Q-PRO...

That is still software RAID. Hardware RAID has it's own CPU and memory. Hardware RAID is expensive.

5.9 is Win7 WEI peak for non-SSD drives (I am advised).

In Vista, the WEI scale peaked at 5.9. Peaks at 7.9 in Win7. Navy math= Your score dropped from .966 to .822 (5.7/5.9 vs 6.5/7.9)

I can't imagine ever dropping RAID0 for my OS without replacing it with SSD. I even ran 4 WD 250's in RAID0 for a while. Internet throughput was absolutely blazing on that config.

Antman said:

That is still software RAID. Hardware RAID has it's own CPU and memory. Hardware RAID is expensive.

Antman, I would classify on-board RAID such as implemented by the ICH10R chipset as hardware based. They run off their own firmware and processing capacity and do not use the system CPU. Not as powerful as a dedicated outboard PCI-E card controller, sure, but hardware based never-the-less, and far preferable to a RAID set up in the Windows Disk Manager, which is what I would term a software-based RAID. Not to mention almost free .

Unless I misinterpreted your post? Or are we getting into shades of grey here ?