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SATA, Ultra ATA ect.
sidebuster
Member UncommonPosts: 1,712
in Everquest II
I just got a SATA hdd that is connected threw a pci raid or whatever you wanna call it. I was just wondering would this decrease load time on a game? same question with the ultra ata.
Comments
2 SATA hard drives connected together are called raid. Raid decreases load times by keeping your os on one hard drive and games on another hard drive. So it doesnt have to use the same hard drive to work with the OS and your game. Is there a big difference betweem raid and a non-raid pc? Not much, although the raid pc gets better load times. SATA drives, are generally a little bit faster than a standard ultra ata drive- it has more bandwidth and how the data runs through the cable.
EQ2 Qeynos Guild- http://www.imperium-arcanum.com
Actually not COMPLETELY true, RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive/Independant Disks) is basically using duplicated disks for error recovery and more efficient operation. In other words combining multiple drives so that the computer "sees" them as one drive. There are several different setups:
RAID-0
RAID Level 0 is not redundant, hence does not truly fit the "RAID" acronym. In level 0, data is split across drives, resulting in higher data throughput. Since no redundant information is stored, performance is very good, but the failure of any disk in the array results in data loss. This level is commonly referred to as striping.
RAID-1
RAID Level 1 provides redundancy by writing all data to two or more drives. The performance of a level 1 array tends to be faster on reads and slower on writes compared to a single drive, but if either drive fails, no data is lost. This is a good entry-level redundant system, since only two drives are required; however, since one drive is used to store a duplicate of the data, the cost per megabyte is high. This level is commonly referred to as mirroring.
RAID-2
RAID Level 2, which uses Hamming error correction codes, is intended for use with drives which do not have built-in error detection. All SCSI drives support built-in error detection, so this level is of little use when using SCSI drives.
RAID-3
RAID Level 3 stripes data at a byte level across several drives, with parity stored on one drive. It is otherwise similar to level 4. Byte-level striping requires hardware support for efficient use.
RAID-4
RAID Level 4 stripes data at a block level across several drives, with parity stored on one drive. The parity information allows recovery from the failure of any single drive. The performance of a level 4 array is very good for reads (the same as level 0). Writes, however, require that parity data be updated each time. This slows small random writes, in particular, though large writes or sequential writes are fairly fast. Because only one drive in the array stores redundant data, the cost per megabyte of a level 4 array can be fairly low.
RAID-5
RAID Level 5 is similar to level 4, but distributes parity among the drives. This can speed small writes in multiprocessing systems, since the parity disk does not become a bottleneck. Because parity data must be skipped on each drive during reads, however, the performance for reads tends to be considerably lower than a level 4 array. The cost per megabyte is the same as for level 4.
There have been others which have popped up over the years, but those are the original 5, and most commonly accepted setups. The only 2 you're really likely to ever hear about tho are RAID-0 and RAID-1:
RAID-0, typically called Data Striping, is the best setup for performance increase. Basically you take 2 identical drives, set them up in a RAID-0 setup and the computer "sees" them as one drive. It writes to both of them at the same time in alternating bits. So for example data blocks 1,3,5,7... etc would be written to drive A while 2,4,6,8... etc are being writted to Drive B. Basically this is doubling your throughput, therefore increasing read/write speeds, hence the performce boost. However this setup offers no redundancy and no real data security. if you lose one drive you lose it all.
RAID-1, typically called Data Mirroring, is the most commonly used RAID setup for data security. Basically it writes the same data to both drives. No performance boost here, but everything is automatically backed up. No real use for this in the gaming sense.
Another typical setup being used alot lately is JBOD (Just a Bunch of Disks). This set up is good if you have a bunch of low volume drives laying around, you can install them in your system and set up a JBOD RAID. For example if you had 2 20gb drives, a 6gb drive and a 10gb drive, install them all in a JBOD setup and your computer would basically read it as one large (56gb) drive.
I think I got all that right, it's been a while since my A+ and Cisco classes and all that.
---------- MMORPG.com Staff --------- Desolation Guild Website ----------
Richard J. Cox
"There were much of the beautiful, much of the wanton, much of the bizarre, something of the terrible, and not a little of that which might have excited disgust."
Oh, to answer SB's question:
If I remember correctly IDE/EIDE transfer rates are 4-16 MB/s. Ultra ATA lets you get up to 33 MB/s and Serial ATA is like 150 MB/s, so yeah, I'd say that it would definitely increase data transfer rates. Once again, forgive me if I'm a little off on my numbers, like I said, been a while since I took these classes.
---------- MMORPG.com Staff --------- Desolation Guild Website ----------
Richard J. Cox
"There were much of the beautiful, much of the wanton, much of the bizarre, something of the terrible, and not a little of that which might have excited disgust."
EQ2 Qeynos Guild- http://www.imperium-arcanum.com
Well I was mainly referring to where you said that the OS is on one drive and the games on another, in a RAID-0 setup thats not the case. In RAID-0 as far as windows, and every other program are concerned, those aren't 2 seperate drives anymore, they're one drive. Whatever info is being sent to the drive is sent to the RAID controller which splits it as needed and sends it to the seperate drives.
---------- MMORPG.com Staff --------- Desolation Guild Website ----------
Richard J. Cox
"There were much of the beautiful, much of the wanton, much of the bizarre, something of the terrible, and not a little of that which might have excited disgust."
Thanks for the answers guys.
Actually not COMPLETELY true, RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive/Independant Disks) is basically using duplicated disks for error recovery and more efficient operation. In other words combining multiple drives so that the computer "sees" them as one drive. There are several different setups:
RAID-0
RAID Level 0 is not redundant, hence does not truly fit the "RAID" acronym. In level 0, data is split across drives, resulting in higher data throughput. Since no redundant information is stored, performance is very good, but the failure of any disk in the array results in data loss. This level is commonly referred to as striping.
RAID-1
RAID Level 1 provides redundancy by writing all data to two or more drives. The performance of a level 1 array tends to be faster on reads and slower on writes compared to a single drive, but if either drive fails, no data is lost. This is a good entry-level redundant system, since only two drives are required; however, since one drive is used to store a duplicate of the data, the cost per megabyte is high. This level is commonly referred to as mirroring.
RAID-2
RAID Level 2, which uses Hamming error correction codes, is intended for use with drives which do not have built-in error detection. All SCSI drives support built-in error detection, so this level is of little use when using SCSI drives.
RAID-3
RAID Level 3 stripes data at a byte level across several drives, with parity stored on one drive. It is otherwise similar to level 4. Byte-level striping requires hardware support for efficient use.
RAID-4
RAID Level 4 stripes data at a block level across several drives, with parity stored on one drive. The parity information allows recovery from the failure of any single drive. The performance of a level 4 array is very good for reads (the same as level 0). Writes, however, require that parity data be updated each time. This slows small random writes, in particular, though large writes or sequential writes are fairly fast. Because only one drive in the array stores redundant data, the cost per megabyte of a level 4 array can be fairly low.
RAID-5
RAID Level 5 is similar to level 4, but distributes parity among the drives. This can speed small writes in multiprocessing systems, since the parity disk does not become a bottleneck. Because parity data must be skipped on each drive during reads, however, the performance for reads tends to be considerably lower than a level 4 array. The cost per megabyte is the same as for level 4.
There have been others which have popped up over the years, but those are the original 5, and most commonly accepted setups. The only 2 you're really likely to ever hear about tho are RAID-0 and RAID-1:
RAID-0, typically called Data Striping, is the best setup for performance increase. Basically you take 2 identical drives, set them up in a RAID-0 setup and the computer "sees" them as one drive. It writes to both of them at the same time in alternating bits. So for example data blocks 1,3,5,7... etc would be written to drive A while 2,4,6,8... etc are being writted to Drive B. Basically this is doubling your throughput, therefore increasing read/write speeds, hence the performce boost. However this setup offers no redundancy and no real data security. if you lose one drive you lose it all.
RAID-1, typically called Data Mirroring, is the most commonly used RAID setup for data security. Basically it writes the same data to both drives. No performance boost here, but everything is automatically backed up. No real use for this in the gaming sense.
Another typical setup being used alot lately is JBOD (Just a Bunch of Disks). This set up is good if you have a bunch of low volume drives laying around, you can install them in your system and set up a JBOD RAID. For example if you had 2 20gb drives, a 6gb drive and a 10gb drive, install them all in a JBOD setup and your computer would basically read it as one large (56gb) drive.
I think I got all that right, it's been a while since my A+ and Cisco classes and all that.
---------- MMORPG.com Staff --------- Desolation Guild Website ----------
Dude get a life. Unless you get paid for it
(jk)
"Stare at the Sun im bored..."
Desolation
"Stare at the Sun im bored..."
If you'll notice the several references I made to the classes, I was quite obviously learning all this for that very reason. :P Considering I'm still in school for it, no, I'm not getting paid to do it yet, but maybe one day soon.
---------- MMORPG.com Staff --------- Desolation Guild Website ----------
Richard J. Cox
"There were much of the beautiful, much of the wanton, much of the bizarre, something of the terrible, and not a little of that which might have excited disgust."