RAID0, striping... what would you do given these results...

[streetster]

Hey Guys,

I'm about to reinstall XP on my raid array (rig is same as My System on the left), but thought id experiment with cluster sizes and striping sizes... im a bit confused with the findings, well more confused about 'what is best'... anyhow, here are the results of HD Tune:

16K stripe

4 / 8 / 16 k cluster gives:

Minimum 71.2
Maximum 136.4
Average 98.5

Access Time 13.1ms

Burst 164.0
CPU 18.2%

32K stripe

4 / 8 / 16 k cluster gives:

Minimum 71.0
Maximum 137.7
Average 107.5

Access Time 13.5ms

Burst 102.9
CPU 21.1%

64K stripe

4 / 8 / 16 k cluster gives:

Minimum 71.4
Maximum 116.3
Average 101.5

Access Time 13.1ms

Burst 103.5
CPU 14.2%

128K stripe

4 / 8 / 16 k cluster gives:

Minimum 71.1
Maximum 105.7
Average 96.7

Access Time 13.1ms

Burst 103.0
CPU 11.6.2%


.... As you can see, the bonses/cons are as follows:

16K
+ 164MB burst
- 98MB average
- 18.2 % CPU

32K
+107.5MB average
- 102.9 burst
- 21.1& CPU

64K
+14.1 % CPU
- 101.5MB average
- 103.5 burst

128K
+11.6 % CPU
- 96.9MB average
- 103.0 burst



Do I go for 16K which has a 98mb average read, but 164mb burst with 18.2% cpu
or do i go for 32K which will give me 107mb average read, but 102.9 burst with 21.1% CPU

or something else?

[alsenior]

64k i would say would probably be best

[streetster]

just run 32K stripe / 4K cluster and got:



ie, everything the same except CPU down to 14.1%, im not sure if this is just vista being stupid, or the fact that ive moved the drives onto SATA1 and SATA3 (so they are both masters, rather than SATA1 and SATA2 that i had when i ran the initial tests)


[e!] on the right is 32K stripe / 8K cluser

[streetster]

hmm.. using SATA1 and SATA3 seems to be a step forward...

16K stripe, 16k cluster:



16L stripe, 8k cluster:



16K stripe, 4k cluster:





4k it is