Stripe Size?

lightsource

What is the affect of stripe size on performance and reliability?
What is the most suggested stripe size for gamers?
What is the risk i take if i set a very low stripe size ?
Is there a noticable change of performance between a 128k array and a 16k array?
What stripe size should i set for 2x320GB Seagate SATA2?

Judas

Stripe Size ... Block size?....

OK, you've got 2x 320GB seagates.

Whats the largest you can set?

if 128kb is the largest, go for it. It'll be the best in the eyes of any gamer because sheer size of most games data is emense. You'll benifit from a Raid 0 Stripe size of 128kb, if you can go larger, 256kb for example, i'd even take that. I've noticed the fastest load times with that size. 2mb Is pushing it, but it has it's advantages, course it slows down quite a few the smaller apps and small file transfers, but things fly in terms large files, specially video encoding.

Don't go below 64kb...

Just Learnin'

I agree with the 128KB over the smaller, never tried any larger ones than that.

Judas

well i'm still stuck on ULi onboard which only provides a 64kb max.

I miss my HighPoint tech 374, that sucker went all the way to 2mb... and steller performace.

CDsDontBurn

can the sripe size be changed while there is still data on the drive and not remove/damage the data while changing the stripe size?

i don't want to change the stripe size and find out the hard way

Just Learnin'

Has to be selected when creating the RAID, before OS install, sorry...

Judas

Creating .... recreating a raid array, with different stripe sizes, is done through the raid's bios. Now on intels raid system, pangingjr can answer that the best.

However in general, while doing anything with raid, all information is compeletely deleted with no way to retreive it after a raid is created with the drives.

CDsDontBurn

gotcha. so it's best if i transfer my data elsewhere before i do that.

now, how do i find out what the current size of my stripe size is?

Judas

Do you have raid atm?

You'd be able to find out by going into your Raid Bios It should state the size, name, total drives, size of drivers, which is boot, and give you other such options...

What motherboard do you have.. do you have a raid addin card? what raid controller do you have/using?

Grace

It's not the best; it's necessary. You will lose all of your data if you alter a RAID's settings.

When you enter the RAID creation screen before-after the BIOS, it should notify you about the existing RAID arrays and their stripe sizes.


Smaller RAID stripe sizes give better benchmarks, small file transfers and multiple small file read times (e.g. thumbnails appear faster). Larger stripe sizes will give worse benchmark results BUT loading times of games, decompression of files, CPU usage and the read/write times of files larger than the set stripe size will all decrease.

It all depends on what you want to do, I would set an 128Kb stripe size though. 64 if you cannot set it to 128Kb.

H3X4D3C1M4L

Anywhere between 32 and 128 is fine if you have no idea, it won't make night and day unless your PC is used for one thing only (i.e. just games or photoshop or file serving etc)