View Full Version : 2xVertex 2's 60gb learning to raid-0 rofl
Splave
07-23-2010, 06:39 AM
2 of my beauties have arrived!
Going to check the firmware first, than research how to do a raid-0. Never raided anything in my life lol.
With all the shit that is going on, BS ES, cheating etc I figure I would better myself in an area that is lacking to become a more well rounded overclocker.
The plan is to get the hang of ich10, than grab another vertex 2 and a lsi megaraid card and go ballz out.
Anything I should know, how should I set it up, stripe size etc?
Max the strip as far as it will go (128k). For xp make sure you have a floppy or emulated msdos usb stick w/ driver ready. Vista/7 all you need are the files in a usb stick.
Pretty much it. After you get the os installed, cram in drivers as usual and enjoy the speed. :thumbsup:
Splave
07-23-2010, 07:41 AM
great, do I need to install intel matrix divers and is there any special version?
Yeah, it's a good idea to have the Matrix in there, but you will need to disable iaanotify in msconfig for a stripped xp. No special version, just whatever's on the site. :thumbsup:
Jor-El
07-23-2010, 08:28 AM
If you going with a radi card like lsi you don't need anything from ICH10. If you wanna just start ICH10 for fun use Raid_0 4k to 128k depending the benchmark you're planning to run. Test test test and more test runs will make you perfect on each subtest.
Make sure right cache is always ON thru Matix or Windows.
Splave
07-23-2010, 08:45 AM
planning on running pcmark05 only :) any tips on settings it up?
Neuromancer
07-23-2010, 08:47 AM
Also important when Formatting these drives, OCZ recommends a 32K cluster size (not to be confused with the raid stripe size) This offers the best 4K performance IIRC
I normally only change cluster size for large storage partitions (2+TB) but after seeing the results it seemed like a good idea.
A dedicated raid card is a good idea, with only 2 SSD you may be able to get away with a cheaper one, but for more drives you will need to spend big bucks to avoid bottlenecking. ICH10 is awesome and IIRC the limit is close to 800MB/s So about 3 of these in raid 0 ;)
I am going to be reviewing hte Nova when it comes back from corsair then I am selling it and getting a second vertex2 for some raid0 loving myself. It is the first SSD (out of three) that actually impressed me and made me want it over my velociraptor raid.
Jor-El
07-23-2010, 08:48 AM
My PCMark tips can't be open to public we will talk PM. :)
ocgmj
07-23-2010, 08:58 AM
Jor is a yoda in PCM. Taught me a great deal.
HITandRUN
07-23-2010, 09:06 AM
Jor is a yoda in PCM. Taught me a great deal.
YES he is! :thumbsup:
Splave
07-23-2010, 09:07 AM
thanks for all the help guys!
n00b questions
Do I change to raid in bios then install win7? What are like the steps if you where going to teach your dad to do it rofl.
Step 1. Hook up drives to controller desired.
Step 2. Boot Computer
Step 3. go into BIOS
Step 4. set ICH10R to RAID mode (dvd rom's and non-raid disks will default to ahci)
Step 5. When RAID config prompt shows up, press keys needed to enter raid configuration (quickly)
Step 5. Choose which disks to have included in RAID
Step 6. Set Strip size. 128kb works best. Follow all prompts afterward.
Step 7. Press key to exit setup.
For Windows XP:
As soon as the disk boots, make sure to spam F6 (it will say at the bottom of the screen). Have your floppy disk ready and drive ready to go (usb alterative is ok)
Once you get to the load driver screen of install, only compatable drivers will be shown. load ONE of the listed drivers and continue. If it is the correct driver, your raid will show, if not, reset button and try again. :thumbsup:
Windows Vista and 7 work the same, but you do not need to press any keys at boot, and the drivers can be on a usb stick.... once you get to where you pick/create partitions, you should load the driver then (even if it shows the drive(s) already). Windows RAID stock drivers blow.... fyi.
That should cover it. :thumbsup: (Hit me up on msngr or pm if you get lost)
thanks for all the help guys!
n00b questions
Do I change to raid in bios then install win7? What are like the steps if you where going to teach your dad to do it rofl.
...and my dad would just have me do it for him.... he's not willing to learn more than solitaire and facebook. :laughing:
ocgmj
07-23-2010, 10:48 AM
...and my dad would just have me do it for him.... he's not willing to learn more than solitaire and facebook. :laughing:
Same here Face. eBay is about the only thing my dad will do with a computer.
Splave
07-23-2010, 10:48 AM
haha I really appreciate it face, e-beers on me
ReverendMaynard
07-23-2010, 10:50 AM
any of you lads run Intel RAID in a RAID0 +1 config?
If you know how, and can test that for me that'd be swell ;)
If not, it's easy as hell and throws your burst into the stratosphere.
Hmm... gonna need moar drives.
....careful not to serve too many eBeers, I get a little handsy when I get too eDrunk. :taunt:
Neuromancer
07-23-2010, 12:21 PM
any of you lads run Intel RAID in a RAID0 +1 config?
If you know how, and can test that for me that'd be swell ;)
If not, it's easy as hell and throws your burst into the stratosphere.
IT will not effect Splaves setup. The Vertex2 are a cachless drive. Burst or buffered read/write tests are identical to the STR/Ws
Also raid0+1 should just be identical to raid0 with 4 drives shouldn't it? Just lower write speed on the raid0+1.
GFDuke
07-23-2010, 02:09 PM
I use this tweak guide for Vista. Minus the ram drive. Def. Install the matrix drivers and def. disable Indexing and Enable Write Back cahcing in thee matrix control panel.
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?47212-Vista-32-64-SSD-Windows-Registry-tweaks
This is a Win7 Guide
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?63273-*-Windows-7-Ultimate-Tweaks-Utilities-*&p=442158&viewfull=1#post442158
Another tip. When you want to change your os don't format the drive. Use "Sanitary Erase" in a XP os to wipe the drives individually then just rebuild your RAID and install your OS
Sanitary Erase Download (http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?64127-Downloads-Sanitary-Erase-and-Wiper-exe-FW-1-3)
Neuromancer
07-23-2010, 03:46 PM
You download a gparted ISO and use that too.
I know I saw that there was no point in enabling write back caching (it has no cache) and yet I just saw another test that showed otherwise :s
I am at a loss.
Splave
07-24-2010, 07:13 AM
thanks alot everyone!
Im also a new proud owner of an areca 1231ML raid card ftw
thanks alot everyone!
Im also a new proud owner of an areca 1231ML raid card ftw
effing sweet, soon you will be the raid mastah.... copy wazza in no-freakin-time. :thumbsup:
Splave
07-24-2010, 08:07 AM
think I already fucked up lol,
I set Raid in bios ctrlI setup up the raid 128k stripe, capacity was set to 110gb which is wrong I must set max of single drive 55gb right? seems to be working now. is that right though?
did diskpart and the align, loaded raid drivers and now win7 is installing. correct?
RAID0 stipes across both, so 55 +55 = 110. So the size of the array is 110gb. It would be 55gb for RAID1, since 2 drives are in parallel. If you look at the partition(s) on the stripe, and the total is <110 then I say do it again @ 110.
Splave
07-24-2010, 08:43 AM
thats really weird, when I had it set to 110gb it wouldnt install win7, said it was unable to create a new system partition. it showed as 110gb free space. When I made it 55gb it showed 55gb and installed win7 fine?
PICS below
You are saying that I should have left it 110gb for capacity and it should show 110gb for capacity in windows?
did you try to load the driver before you tried to install windows? i.e. the "load driver" option. Windows raid support is border-line garbage.
Was the firmware on the drives up to date?
I would try it with xp or vista to make sure it is not another win7 problem. :thumbsup:
GFDuke
07-24-2010, 09:28 AM
No need for diskpart or align with win7 bro. If its showing a size of 55 then you installed your os on 1 drive. Are you using your RAID card when doing this? Win7 RAID0 is so easy even a caveman can do it. Xp and Vista get a little more complicated. I will say though that i bought a Areca card and it was a PIA to get working and i returned it for my LSI card. I've never had an issue with it. I hope things wrk out better fr you.
Splave
07-24-2010, 11:09 AM
did you try to load the driver before you tried to install windows? i.e. the "load driver" option. Windows raid support is border-line garbage.
Was the firmware on the drives up to date?
I would try it with xp or vista to make sure it is not another win7 problem. :thumbsup:
yep loaded the drivers and everything, and my numbers look on point just dont have the capacity correct.
For the record it should show a capacity of my drives in total IE 55gbx2=110.
Yes total capacity, but Windows "sees" them as one drive sort of. Is that on the raid card or the ich10?
Splave
07-24-2010, 12:09 PM
on ich10
Going to reinstall on vista, thats where its at pcmark05 if im not mistaken
what may help is to install xp first and then vista in a second partition, then the vista partition can double as your superpi/wazza partition.... win and win.
Splave
07-24-2010, 02:21 PM
^I like this idea
Neuromancer
07-24-2010, 05:29 PM
No need for diskpart or align with win7 bro. If its showing a size of 55 then you installed your os on 1 drive. Are you using your RAID card when doing this? Win7 RAID0 is so easy even a caveman can do it. Xp and Vista get a little more complicated. I will say though that i bought a Areca card and it was a PIA to get working and i returned it for my LSI card. I've never had an issue with it. I hope things wrk out better fr you.
Vista is no more complicated then 7. They use the same installer same driver loading same 1024 offset. The only differnce is that with windows 7 if you have Pro or Ultimate you get a 100/200MB partition at the beginning of the drive in case you want to run the disk encryption stuff.
I agree with the dual boot option. Unlike mechanical drives you will not have to worry about performance loss of Vista OS because it is not at the leading edge of the platters!
GFDuke
07-25-2010, 09:01 AM
I guess i've been doing it all wrong. How the hell did i ever get such good performance on my ssd's. One of my ssd threads. 4 OCZ Vertex in RAID0 on Win7 (http://www.overclockaholics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1746) I guess i just got lucky. I'll just watch this thread and maybe i can learn something i don't know about.
DrNip
07-25-2010, 09:06 AM
Two days have passed and still no results? What gives man?
Splave
07-25-2010, 09:09 AM
had to DL BZ vista, tiny7 is too stripped to run pcmark doh
Will have results tonight
Neuromancer
07-25-2010, 03:09 PM
I guess i've been doing it all wrong. How the hell did i ever get such good performance on my ssd's. One of my ssd threads. 4 OCZ Vertex in RAID0 on Win7 (http://www.overclockaholics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1746) I guess i just got lucky. I'll just watch this thread and maybe i can learn something i don't know about.
Nope that looks fine. Actually impressive considering the cost of the card. Only $300 nice!
The Vertex2 are faster than the first gen (pushing almost 3Gbps on a single drive. Almost equal write performance too.
Those max theoretical numbers on that LSI card ar impressive as hell. It could handle about 6 maybe 7 vertex2s before it bottlenecked!! (Read speed it can handle 10!!!)
GFDuke
07-26-2010, 01:12 AM
In that installatioon i never used diskpar and i let Win7 take care of Alignment. Word has it that Win7 handles that fine. I never did try a Win7 installl using diskpar and setting the Alignment manually. But that was because over at OCZ forums i was told that i'd just be doing what Win7 does on its own. Vista and XP are different in that aspect. When i installed Vista i did use Diskpar though and performance was still not as good as Win7. That could have been the result of anything and i only instaled Vista on my SSD'd in RAID0 once.
I've never found RAID0 SSD's to be faster at Pi, Pifast or any other 2D test other than PC Mark 05. I'm trying to figure out what it is you are trying to accomplish so i can offer up some advise. So why are 2 OS's being installed? And one more question for my bud Splave. How are you clearing your drives in between installs?
Splave
07-26-2010, 05:43 AM
Clearing the drives by breaking the raid and re-instating it.
All these stripped OS's are terrible I havent gotten a score yet lol
Diskpar Takes 2 seconds to do so I just do it real quick just to make sure :)
Neuromancer
07-26-2010, 08:10 AM
I always use Vista formatting before I install XP, to get the 1024 offset on any disk. Including mechanical.
The only benefit of 7 over Vista for the SSD is TRIM which if you run wiper.exe inbetween benches will amount to the same thing.
No point in running diskpar with either Vista or 7. They both run a 1024 offset) Actually when I have checked on 7 it usually amounts to some ridiculous large number but it is still divisible by 64 evenly so its good to go. (I assume that is because of the 100MB boot partition)