RAID 0 question

hat · Jul 15, 2016

I'm considering creating a RAID 0 array. I have a 500GB HDD I use as a temporary space for my encoding projects to go, and some things are limited by disk speed. If I could get another drive cheap enough, I could increase the capacity and the performance of certain aspects. So the question is, do two drives in RAID 0 need to be identical to work? I have a WD5001AALS, it would be best if I could avoid getting another of the same exact model, because I would have to spend less money.

Just saying right off the bat, this is pretty much a temporary work storage space only. If one of the drives were to go bust I wouldn't lose much, so I'm willing to be a little bit adventurous here.

Disparia · Jul 15, 2016

No, it doesn't have to be identical. It doesn't even have to be another hard drive. I've raided up some old 80GB hard drives and flash drives I had laying around for spits and giggles.

DeathtoGnomes · Jul 15, 2016

Jizzler said:
No, it doesn't have to be identical. It doesn't even have to be another hard drive. I've raided up some old 80GB hard drives and flash drives I had laying around for spits and giggles.

That gives me an idea with thumb drives being rather cheap, that and a 7 or 10 port USB hub.

Looked around at new prices, 64gb 3.0 thumb drives are around $20-25 each, 7/10 port hubs around $40-50. 10x64gb in raid. The nice thing is that at used computer parts stores you might find everything for less than $50-75 bucks. Not sure how practical it might be but sounds like a fun experiment.

hat · Jul 15, 2016

Jizzler said:
No, it doesn't have to be identical. It doesn't even have to be another hard drive. I've raided up some old 80GB hard drives and flash drives I had laying around for spits and giggles.

That's good news. If it were more critical data I might be much more of a stickler for doing it 'proper' but for a temp workspace drive, well, that kinda goes out the window, at least for me.

Aquinus · Jul 15, 2016

Actually, mixing models isn't always a bad idea because it mitigates failure of all drives at the same time (if you get them all at once,) as defective units like to come in batches (figured that one out from experience.)

Just as a friendly reminder, RAID will get you improved throughput but, it does not improve latency. In fact it harms latency since something has to orchestrate the drives plus the latency of the slowest disk so, if you're working with large contiguous files, you'll see a benefit. If you're working with small or highly fragmented files, it could actually be worse.

SithLord · Jul 15, 2016

hat said:
I'm considering creating a RAID 0 array. I have a 500GB HDD I use as a temporary space for my encoding projects to go, and some things are limited by disk speed. If I could get another drive cheap enough, I could increase the capacity and the performance of certain aspects. So the question is, do two drives in RAID 0 need to be identical to work? I have a WD5001AALS, it would be best if I could avoid getting another of the same exact model, because I would have to spend less money.

Just saying right off the bat, this is pretty much a temporary work storage space only. If one of the drives were to go bust I wouldn't lose much, so I'm willing to be a little bit adventurous here.

you would lose both drives if one were to bust. if one goes the whole array fails. Not to mention RAID 0 is more prone to failures.

DiRSVK · Jul 15, 2016

It is good that both drives have the same speed (+-).
RAID0, if one disk fails, so there are no data.
RAID1, if one disk fails, the data is OK.
Intel RST RAID1 reads data simultaneously from both drives so that the reading speed is as RAID0.

Without RAID1: 498 MB/s (Read)
With RAID1: 938 MB/s (Read)

hat · Jul 15, 2016

Actually I think something else is going on here. I tried moving a project to an SSD and it sped it up, but not by much, so I don't think RAID 0 would really help.

cdawall · Jul 15, 2016

Probably not at all and for reference my work pc has mixed Seagate and wd 3TB drives in raid 5 and mixed Toshiba/wd 1tb drives in raid 1. It all works fine.

Nobody99 · Jul 16, 2016

hat said:
Actually I think something else is going on here. I tried moving a project to an SSD and it sped it up, but not by much, so I don't think RAID 0 would really help.

It probably depends on your encoding settings i.e. using "Placebo" in Handbrake (slowest encoding) demands less disk I/O because the CPU needs more time to process the data and "Ultrafast" demands more disk I/O in that period of time; and 2 pass encoding also takes more time. CPU speed is the biggest hindrance at encoding. Perfect setup for encoding would be multi socket motherboard with 20+ core Xeon CPUs.

Intervention · Jul 16, 2016

hat said:
I'm considering creating a RAID 0 array. I have a 500GB HDD I use as a temporary space for my encoding projects to go, and some things are limited by disk speed. If I could get another drive cheap enough, I could increase the capacity and the performance of certain aspects. So the question is, do two drives in RAID 0 need to be identical to work? I have a WD5001AALS, it would be best if I could avoid getting another of the same exact model, because I would have to spend less money.

Just saying right off the bat, this is pretty much a temporary work storage space only. If one of the drives were to go bust I wouldn't lose much, so I'm willing to be a little bit adventurous here.

Like others have pointed out, it does not have to be the same make and model, but both disks will perform identically. So if one is 5400RPM, you will get 5400RPM speeds out of both and so on. Your raid 0 array will be as good as your weakest link.

System Name	Starlifter :: Dragonfly
Processor	i7 2600k 4.4GHz :: i5 10400
Motherboard	ASUS P8P67 Pro :: ASUS Prime H570-Plus
Cooling	Cryorig M9 :: Stock
Memory	4x4GB DDR3 2133 :: 2x8GB DDR4 2400
Video Card(s)	PNY GTX1070 :: Integrated UHD 630
Storage	Crucial MX500 1TB, 2x1TB Seagate RAID 0 :: Mushkin Enhanced 60GB SSD, 3x4TB Seagate HDD RAID5
Display(s)	Onn 165hz 1080p :: Acer 1080p
Case	Antec SOHO 1030B :: Old White Full Tower
Audio Device(s)	Creative X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro - Bose Companion 2 Series III :: None
Power Supply	FSP Hydro GE 550w :: EVGA Supernova 550
Software	Windows 10 Pro - Plex Server on Dragonfly
Benchmark Scores	>9000

Processor	Intel i5-6600
Motherboard	ASRock H170M-ITX
Cooling	Cooler Master Geminii S524
Memory	G.Skill DDR4-2133 16GB (8GB x 2)
Video Card(s)	Gigabyte R9-380X 4GB
Storage	Samsung 950 EVO 250GB (mSATA)
Display(s)	LG 29UM69G-B 2560x1080 IPS
Case	Lian Li PC-Q25
Audio Device(s)	Realtek ALC892
Power Supply	Seasonic SS-460FL2
Mouse	Logitech G700s
Keyboard	Logitech G110
Software	Windows 10 Pro

System Name	Dumbass
Processor	AMD Ryzen 7800X3D
Motherboard	ASUS TUF gaming B650
Cooling	Artic Liquid Freezer 2 - 420mm
Memory	G.Skill Sniper 32gb DDR5 6000
Video Card(s)	GreenTeam 4070 ti super 16gb
Storage	Samsung EVO 500gb & 1Tb, 2tb HDD, 500gb WD Black
Display(s)	1x Nixeus NX_EDG27, 2x Dell S2440L (16:9)
Case	Phanteks Enthoo Primo w/8 140mm SP Fans
Audio Device(s)	onboard (realtek?) - SPKRS:Logitech Z623 200w 2.1
Power Supply	Corsair HX1000i
Mouse	Steeseries Esports Wireless
Keyboard	Corsair K100
Software	windows 10 H
Benchmark Scores	https://i.imgur.com/aoz3vWY.jpg?2

System Name	Starlifter :: Dragonfly
Processor	i7 2600k 4.4GHz :: i5 10400
Motherboard	ASUS P8P67 Pro :: ASUS Prime H570-Plus
Cooling	Cryorig M9 :: Stock
Memory	4x4GB DDR3 2133 :: 2x8GB DDR4 2400
Video Card(s)	PNY GTX1070 :: Integrated UHD 630
Storage	Crucial MX500 1TB, 2x1TB Seagate RAID 0 :: Mushkin Enhanced 60GB SSD, 3x4TB Seagate HDD RAID5
Display(s)	Onn 165hz 1080p :: Acer 1080p
Case	Antec SOHO 1030B :: Old White Full Tower
Audio Device(s)	Creative X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro - Bose Companion 2 Series III :: None
Power Supply	FSP Hydro GE 550w :: EVGA Supernova 550
Software	Windows 10 Pro - Plex Server on Dragonfly
Benchmark Scores	>9000

System Name	Apollo
Processor	Intel Core i9 9880H
Motherboard	Some proprietary Apple thing.
Memory	64GB DDR4-2667
Video Card(s)	AMD Radeon Pro 5600M, 8GB HBM2
Storage	1TB Apple NVMe, 4TB External
Display(s)	Laptop @ 3072x1920 + 2x LG 5k Ultrafine TB3 displays
Case	MacBook Pro (16", 2019)
Audio Device(s)	AirPods Pro, Sennheiser HD 380s w/ FIIO Alpen 2, or Logitech 2.1 Speakers
Power Supply	96w Power Adapter
Mouse	Logitech MX Master 3
Keyboard	Logitech G915, GL Clicky
Software	MacOS 12.1

RAID 0 question

hat

Enthusiast

Disparia

DeathtoGnomes

hat

Enthusiast

Aquinus

Resident Wat-man

SithLord

DiRSVK

New Member

hat

Enthusiast

cdawall

where the hell are my stars

Nobody99

Intervention

Processor	Intel i5 6600k (4.5GHz @ 1.315V)
Motherboard	ASUS ROG Maximus Viii Hero
Cooling	Corsair H80i v2
Memory	Corsair Vengeance LPX 16gb (2x 8gb 2400mhz)
Video Card(s)	MSI gtx 970 Gaming 4g
Storage	HDD: Western Digital Black 1tb / SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 256gb
Case	Corsair Carbide SPEC-02
Power Supply	Corsair CS750m
Mouse	Corsair Scimitar RGB
Keyboard	Corsair K70 Lux (Cherry MX Blue)

System Name	All the cores
Processor	2990WX
Motherboard	Asrock X399M
Cooling	CPU-XSPC RayStorm Neo, 2x240mm+360mm, D5PWM+140mL, GPU-2x360mm, 2xbyski, D4+D5+100mL
Memory	4x16GB G.Skill 3600
Video Card(s)	(2) EVGA SC BLACK 1080Ti's
Storage	2x Samsung SM951 512GB, Samsung PM961 512GB
Display(s)	Dell UP2414Q 3840X2160@60hz
Case	Caselabs Mercury S5+pedestal
Audio Device(s)	Fischer HA-02->Fischer FA-002W High edition/FA-003/Jubilate/FA-011 depending on my mood
Power Supply	Seasonic Prime 1200w
Mouse	Thermaltake Theron, Steam controller
Keyboard	Keychron K8
Software	W10P

System Name	none
Processor	AMD R7 7800X3D
Motherboard	ASUS TUF B650 GAMING PLUS Wifi
Cooling	ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 420
Memory	32GB Kingston 5600MT/s @6200MT/s CL32-36-36-28-68 tweaked sub-timings
Video Card(s)	ASUS TUF RX 7900 XTX OC
Storage	Samsung PM9A1
Display(s)	Samsung U28E590
Case	Corsair 7000D
Audio Device(s)	none
Power Supply	Corsair RM750x
Mouse	Corsair
Keyboard	Corsair K95 Platinum
Software	Windows 11
Benchmark Scores	Who cares!