[gundersausage]

"RAID helps multi-user applications far more than it does single-user scenarios. The enthusiasm of the power user community combined with the marketing apparatus of firms catering to such crowds has lead to an extraordinarily erroneous belief that striping data across two or more drives yields significant performance benefits for the majority of non-server uses. This could not be farther from the truth! Non-server use, even in heavy multitasking situations, generates lower-depth, highly-localized access patterns where read-ahead and write-back strategies dominate. Theory has told those willing to listen that striping does not yield significant performance benefits. Some time ago, a controlled, empirical test backed what theory suggested. Doubts still lingered- irrationally, many believed that results would somehow be different if the array was based off of an SATA or SCSI interface. As shown above, the results are the same. Save your time, money and data- leave RAID for the servers!"

http://www.storagere...40625TCQ_6.html

[Chewy509]

And the point of this is?

[Sivar]

Yep, the FAQ says about the same thing in more words.
I think RAID is good, even for desktops, but not for performance reasons usually. You can tell someone to make regular backups all day, and the first day they listen is when their drive dies.

[stone cold steve austin]

I personally believe that raid can go into any computer. I personally think that most don't do it because it co$t$ too much! Every one of my computers at home use some sort of raid setup. I think that it is important to know what raid type to use at what time / situation!

Raid 1 has the safest track record in every type of situation for any computer. But some like raid 5 or raid 0. No one should be judged on the raid type they choose to use. Heck, the computer that I am writing this post with is using a raid 0 array with two old crappy maxtors (two 13 gigs). I am finding that the speed is better than just a single drive (independent 13 gig). However i have a ghost image of my setup so i am not worried. So as long as some one has good backups, let them choose whatever raid level they want for whatever type of computer they want to use it in!

SCSA

[balding_ape]

The attraction of RAID to most enthusiasts is based in performance. Seeing as there is very little performance increase in test after test on the application level, it's not entirely unreasonable to pronounce the death of RAID for most single-user scenarios. Of course, our FAQ has been saying that for quite a while, as Sivar points out.

[HisMajestyTheKing]

Quote

You can tell someone to make regular backups all day, and the first day they listen is when their drive dies.

Oh so very true! Even when people take backups, they often fail to check whether those backups were completed successfully.

[Gilbo]

I agree HTMK. I would say that most regulars of this forum accepted 'the death of RAID' some time ago. Anyone who frequents this forum knows that I have been rather adamant in my position that both theory (with reference to low level characterizations of desktop access patterns) and real world empirical evidence have long demonstrated that striping offers little or no performance benefits for some time. This most recent article just crowns a long-existent mountain of evidence.

Chewy509, on Jun 25 2004, 02:18 AM, said:

And the point of this is?

A lot of forum members get to say "I told you so." Oh, and a lot of silly enthusiasts who were determined to throw their money away have to watch .

Despite this article, I don't think we can herald 'the death of RAID,' not even in the SR forums. Witness Stone Cold Steve Austin --even after all the evidence. I'm sure Picard will still call us "anti-RAID thugs."

Yes, sadly there is no doubt in my mind that many RAID fan boys will have to be buried in their coffins clinging to their arrays . No amount of evidence or rational theory has changed the beliefs of these individuals in the past, and I doubt any amount of evidence will alter them in the future.

[Ralf]

Don't ridicule the RAID fans. It's up to them what they spend their money for.

The Death Of Raid?

--
Single-user RAID, 1.6 TB, STR 680 MB/s (for dual channel Film2K RGB 10 bit non-linear editing).

[Gilbo]

Ralf, on Jun 25 2004, 11:23 AM, said:

It's up to them what they spend their money for.

Of course, I think that is rather self-evident. It also doesn't change the fact that money wasted is money wasted .

The "you can spend your money on what you want" argument doesn't really go anywhere constructive. I certainly don't want to go down that road. In that department, I'll blatantly plagiarize and echo Honold: I advocate crack, strippers, and licquor --not necessarily in that order-- over spending money on RAID 0.

[gundersausage]

Chewy: I'm painting a picture, should be done by tomorrow