New build - WOW!

[kungpo]

Wow - these e4300 really can clock well! 3Ghz with stock fan stable overnight. Now for some proper cooling...

However, what I did see is that using RAID0 makes a MASSIVE difference in performance. This machine starts up and shuts down way faster than the E6420 machine with a single SATA disk. The disks aren't anything special - WD SE 250 SATA with 8mb cache. Also, fiddling with the RAM timings in the BIOS certainly made a difference (at least in the Vista Scores). Default settings gave 5.3, then setting the timings took it to 5.9.

Overall, very pleased. I'm guessing the P5B board is a big factor here as well.

[Dreaming]

Bear in mind that increase cpu performance, in my experience, won't make a massive difference unless you're taxing your PC.

[timtim86]

How massive is a massive difference when using RAID0? I'm considering doing it but last time it was quite a lot of hassle and i'm not sure if i can be bothered with it again...convince me!

[aidanjt]

The first time is a painful learning experience, the second time you're prepaired and know the quirks

[kungpo]

I found it quite straightforward to setup. Changed the SATA settings in the BIOS to raid, which then enabled the Intel Matrix RAID bios option. Added the two disks, set it to RAID0 and that was it. Vista just picked it up, so no need for any drivers (unlike XP which can be a challenge without a floppy).

Speed difference - hard to say as my two PCs are different motherboards and different CPUs etc. Both do have identical HDs though, one with a single, and the other with RAID0. The RAID one certainly *feels* way faster. Vista gives it a score of 5.9 over 5.3 on the non RAID machine. My perception says it is about 30% faster.

[Blitzen]

I found it quite straightforward to setup. Changed the SATA settings in the BIOS to raid, which then enabled the Intel Matrix RAID bios option. Added the two disks, set it to RAID0 and that was it. Vista just picked it up, so no need for any drivers (unlike XP which can be a challenge without a floppy).

Speed difference - hard to say as my two PCs are different motherboards and different CPUs etc. Both do have identical HDs though, one with a single, and the other with RAID0. The RAID one certainly *feels* way faster. Vista gives it a score of 5.9 over 5.3 on the non RAID machine. My perception says it is about 30% faster.

I dunno about 30% but HDTach will definitely give you the correct comparisons. It will be quicker.

[kungpo]

OK - in the single disk system, I get a score of 117.2MB/s and in the RAID0 system, way better at 296.6MB/s.

Don't know what difference the rest of the system makes. The non RAID system is a Gigabyte with Intel 965 chipset, and the RAID0 system is an ASUS with Intel 965 chipset.