RAID time 2 x 40gIBM's what strip/cluster size

[Marshmallowman]

Hi I have finally got my second 40g 60gxp, and it time for some raid action.
So if you RAIDicaly gurus could give a few pointers on RAID setup
eg cluster size, stripes size, drivers to use for win 2k SP2 ntfs RAID 0.(good general purpose peformance)

I will be using the Highpoint 370 controller on my motherboard

I have been video capturing with a single 40 g without to many problems(hpt370) at 640x480 PAL(huffy, uncompressed..etc), so drive speed is okay.

Win 2k SP2 is on a separate drive now, but I will be installing win 2k on the C: drive (the striped set).

So what I need is a good set of all round parameters for two drive striped array (raid 0) which gives good general win 2k NTFS performance(not just video capture).

Specs:
epox 8kta3+ 2x 40G ibm GXP'S. 512 of pc150 mem, 1.4 Gig athlon. currently have win 2k on a separate IBM 4.3G UWscsi drive, and linux mandrake 8 on a 2.1G uw scsi.
oh...and a asus geforce 6800 deluxe(vid cap), yes I know but at the time I was looking to a RR for my g200 someone offered me the gefart (VIVO) for less than a RR by itself, I promise I'll buy a g800 eTV the when they come out....

soon to be 80G RAID for for win 2k and video capture and 4.3g for Mandrake 8....etc


Eric

Condolences and sympathy for all those affected by the recent terrorist insanity.

[Ghydda]

If I read your message correctly, You want to use the striped array of drives (2) for both your Win2k installation AND capture files.

Not a good idea!

Ideally, You should put Win2k on one drive (for instance the drive that holds the boot partition), the swap-file on another seperate drive and have a third drive (or array of drives) for your capturing.

This should maximize your bandwitdh to the most frequently used parts of the I/O-subsystem during captures. This configuration with three drives will be able to handle allmost any stressful situation you can throw their way and still come out on top (ie. no dropped frames). A simpler plan is to use the same drive for win2k and swap-file. For most people it provides sufficient performance.


Ghydda

[Dr Mordrid]

OS's should be on drives totaly separate from those used for capture.

I use a single partitioned drive for OS's and use the RAID should be used for video capture only.

Dr. Mordrid

[LC1104]

Dr Mordrid, so you put your OS on your maxtor and capture with your 4 drive array. i'm wondering, where do you put your swap file and also what size is it? thanks much

[hippie91]

i actually just did away with the swap file (unless i'm editing a MASSIVE project). with 768 of ram it seems to run better.

of course win2k doesn't actually let you completely ditch the swapfile, but if you set it at a min/max of 2 (the minimum) it is ok, on the few occasions that the memory needs go over this, windows tell you it's going to use more, then shrinks it back down when it's no longer needed.

[hippie91]

actually, i'd like people's opinions on my configuration...

i have a 4-drive raid, but i have a raid built in to my new MB. so should i split this raid into 2X2-drive raids (so all drives are master) or should i just use them all on one controller

the MB controller is the highpoint ata100 raid controller with the newest bios

the card is a fasttrak 66

[Dr Mordrid]

My swapfile is on a drive on the primary slave connection. This drive I also use for downloads, unzipping installations etc.

I also have my TEMP folders and the MSPro/Premiere preview files placed on the video drive. Since preview files are *.avi's used to fill in where effects are they should be on the video drive. TEMPS are moved using these autoexec.bat command sequences;

SET TEMP D:\TEMP
SET TMP D:\TEMP

with TEMP being the video drives TEMP folder.

Dr. Mordrid

[Marshmallowman]

Marshmallowman

I only have two 40G's, so Its either 1 RAID drive or 2 separate drives.(my other drives are to slow and are going to be sold).

I have set it up as a single drive(64k stripe size,for now) I will see how it goes...I would have prefered a separate drive for the OS but I don't have enough drives right now.