Western Digital Raptors versus RAID Arrays - Final Words
(Page 4 of 4 )
Final Words
We've come to the end of this article. Let me sum up the conclusions briefly. The strongest advantage of RAID 0 arrays is their raw power for pure throughput. On the other hand, the major advantage of WD Raptors is with their random access read/write time and smaller chunks of data that are spread all over the drive. The RAID 1 plays a role only in data reliability due to its mirroring scheme. It is awesome only if it is required.
In synthetic benchmarks a RAID 0 array will always score better because of this raw power. An array like that "looks better in benchmarks." These sorts of benchmarking applications focus mostly on the reading and writing of large amounts of data. It is not uncommon to see even a twofold performance edge compared to only one HDD, but in real life that almost never happens! It is an ideal scenario.
Furthermore, I recommend that you brainstorm your needs. Take into consideration your available budget and grab the best bang for the buck. I'd say that for an average computer user, enthusiast, or gamer a WD Raptor will do for the main system drive. Grab the 74GB one if you're tight on money. If not, go with the 150GB big brother. If that's not enough storage, then in addition you should get a 320GB 7,200 RPM of any other modern drive just for the sake of "mass storage."
All in all, if money is not an issue and you want the ultimate in performance regardless of fault tolerance, then aim for 2x150GB WD Raptors and hook them up in RAID 0. If you can shell out even more for security too, in which case you'd purchase four and then set up a 1+0.
One last note before I finish: "What about SCSI 15,000 RPM drives? How does one of those compare with WD Raptors?" The crucial difference here comes not from the r/min, but rather the firmware optimizations. All of the modern SCSI drives are optimized for server-related intensive usage. That is, continuous and simultaneous data reads/writes for relatively small chunks of data.
Due to this, on I/O benchmarks (IOMeters from 2-128 I/Os) these SCSI drives dominate the field! In the real world these patterns do not apply either. WD Raptors have the best firmware optimization combination, which serves both servers and desktop users alike. To answer that prior question: "SCSI drives have their place in the industry. You won't need one for desktop. Better grab a WD Raptor for fast random access time."
Oh, and also, NCQ (native command queuing) should do the same thing (theoretically) as SCSI drives. NCQ works on the basis of accepting multiple simultaneous I/O requests and then reordering them based on priorities. This technique is great, but it's not as powerful as SCSI and/or WD Raptors because it takes time to actually do the reordering process. And this little amount of time gradually adds up.
I certainly hope that reading this article shed a bit of light on this topic. Hopefully you are now able to pick the best solution that fits your needs. If you have any sort of hardware related questions or issues, don't hesitate to join our community at DevHardware Forums and ask for help. We will do our best. You can bank on that!
| DISCLAIMER: The content provided in this article is not warranted or guaranteed by Developer Shed, Inc. The content provided is intended for entertainment and/or educational purposes in order to introduce to the reader key ideas, concepts, and/or product reviews. As such it is incumbent upon the reader to employ real-world tactics for security and implementation of best practices. We are not liable for any negative consequences that may result from implementing any information covered in our articles or tutorials. If this is a hardware review, it is not recommended to open and/or modify your hardware. |
