Raid 0 on m17

Ok so when my m17 comes on monday or tuesday i want to have the second hard drive here from newegg so i can setup raid 0 right away. The hard drive i got with my m17 is the seagate 160gb 7200.2 hard drive. From what alienware says on the website the access time is 1.5gb/s. The problem is, i found the exact thing almost on newegg but instead its 3.0gb/s. Also the hard drive from alienware has 8mb cache while the one i want to add will have 16mb of cache. Will this be okay to use or does it also have to be 1.5gb/s? and lastly, does it have to be the same brand name hard drive or can you mix two brands when doing raid 0?

m17 hard drive is 160gb seagate, 7200.2, 1.5gb/s and 8mb cache.


so im hoping this will work with the hard drive my m17 comes with in raid 0:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145180

 

bump, anyone?

 

i suggest u get a exact same hdd as the one in your m17, if u cant get one then buy 2x from newegg and sell the original one

 

go for two 7200rpm 320gb drives in raid 0.
The seagate 7200.2 is really slow, you dont want that in your laptop, that can only do about 45mb/sec
For RAID 0 to work in a laptop you need two identical harddrives. Laptop RAID is going to be software raid, so the most performance you are going to get is less than 10%. Hardware raid controllers are where the performance is at. But if you want hardware raid expect to pay a ton for it. Plus only one laptop model sold with a hardware raid controller, and that is not the laptop you have.

K-TRON

 

The M17 supports 1.5gb/sec max. That doesn't mean you can't use 3Gb/sec, only that they'll still max out at 1.5.

With what you're saying, I'd skip running Raid and just run off the one you're buying, as the cache size is larger. You'll probably see about the same improvement running solely from the one you're looking at buying vs. buying another identical to the one that's in there and running raid 0.


If you insist on running Raid 0 with that HD, it will work. You probably won't see as much of a performance increase as you're expecting though.

 

so u guys are saying i should just stick with one hard drive and forget about raid 0 in the m17?

and to ktron, if i do go raid 0, do u have a link to newegg on which exact hard drives i should get? thanks

 

no mechanical laptop sized harddrive can max out the sata 150 bus, so you shouldnt worry too much.
If you want performance either go with a single 320gb 7200rpm drive, or a 500gb 7200rpm drive.
To maximize performance get a good stable SLC SSD like a Samsung 64gb, and than use a 500gb drive as the storage drive. A good SSD will yield much higher performance than any raid 0 array in a laptop.

K-TRON

 

I'm saying that IF you buy the hard drive mentioned above, to use it as your primary HD, as it will be faster.

If you decide to buy it and run it in RAID, you'll see a SLIGHT increase in performance, but the same increase you'd see running an identical HD to the 7200.2 already included. THIS increase however will still most likely be less than if you were to just run the hard drive above as your primary.

 

ok cool....wat if i use a SSD as a primary and then just use the 160GB for a secondary storage?..i forgot about SSD drives now im thinking about getting one...any links to good ones on newegg?

 

why stick with 1 hard drive ? get 2 just run them not in raid lol more space the better

edit dang i didnt even get a chance to say SSD

 

i dont know which would be better as a primary hard drive..im deciding between these two..one is SSD and one is regular...im thinking the 320GB seagate is the best bet, but i need ktrons approval before i buy it lol.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148336

OR

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231220

 

you looking for the best? and how big you want i need specs and a price range

edit both look very solid drives SSD are nice and does any one know how much they will add to battery life? of the m17

 

i dont care for hard drive size. I just want the fastest hard drive for about 100 bucks or lower

 

o lol the fastest is http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167005 = 250 mb write speed i read about them in pcworld magazine

if your rich

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167015

 

The fastest harddrive your getting for under $100 is going to be a 320gb 7200rpm drive.
A good SSD will cost at least $300, so if youre budget is $100 a mechanical harddrive is the way to go.

K-TRON

 

ok i guess this is the one to go with?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148336

btw the 160gb seagate that comes with the m17 is 7200.2 so it gets more than 45mb/s...from online reviews on them it says they get around 60, so would the above hard drive be much faster than the one my m17 comes with?

 

Their is no way the 7200.2 does an average of 60mb/sec. The 7200.3 can do 65-70mb/sec on average.

K-TRON

 

ok gotya......im assuming this is the fastest drive i can get then?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148336

there is also a 250gb version with the exact same specs?

 

actually, the very fastest mechanical drive right now is the Seagate Momentus 7200.4 - it has 7200rpm, but higher data density thanks to its 500gb capacity.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148374

 

Just to point out from an earlier reply the M17 does have a SataII motherboard controller which is obviously compatible with Sata I.

M17 x9100 3870x2 320gb 7200 500gb 5400 1920x1200

 

Okay my final choice is this hard drive, and im going with just one, so i hope im not missing anything by not going raid0 with them
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148336

 

Sry for the ot but I found the same HDD as I have in my M17.

http://www.alternate.de/html/produc...n=HARDWARE&l1=Festplatten&l2=SATA&l3=2,5+Zoll

Now I am note sure how I can make it work as a raid after I installed it. Do I have to reinstall OS? Do I need something else than the second HDD?

I am not sure whether I want Raid 0 or 1^^ Or just two 160GB HDDs this depends on how mutch work it is^^

THX 4 youre help!
Greetings
Julian

 

u have to put in the second drive and then in the bios set up the RAid, then you gotta do a clean install of your OS as setting up raid0 will wipe out ur drives completely

 

wait this is my last question....which would be better/faster for me

going for one of these
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148374

OR

going for two of these in RAID 0?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148336

 

the latter option would definitely be faster - RAID0 will beat a single HDD any day.

 

oh ok thx!

Greetings
Julian

 

hmmm i want to raid 0 those, but its well over my budget...im looking to raid 0 two drives but keep the price around 100-120 bucks.

would going for two cheaper hard drives in raid 0 be better than just getting a single 320gb 7200.3 hard drive?

 

I hope he is right

I remember a pictured guid from Alienware showing how to chance HDDs ... but I can't find it ... can sb help me pls

Thanks!
Greetings
Julian

PS: second HDD arrived 1,5 houres ago

found it!

 

Hi

sry for waiking this sleeping thread up again, but I was wondering how big youre increasment from Raid0 was?

I just installed Vista again and scored with Raid0 12,499 3DMark06 (1280x720) and had 12,417 without Raid0.

THX for youre answer.
Greetings
Julian

 

Hi Julian,

If this helps you my system was RAID 0 "factory config" and the first bench was 13,401. After disabling the RAID I got 13,000 - 13,100.

The difference is almost unnoticeable.

Both benchs were at the same resolutions and with the same drivers.

 

You won't see diddly in a graphics benchmark. It's just nice for installing apps and transferring large files.

For that reason, my next upgrade will be 1TB (2x500GB) RAIDO.

 

Nice turbo 1 tb that's something to be proud of

 

Nah, not really. That was a joke. I can't even fill up these two 160GB drives. Definitely going SSD when the price gets better.

 

o dang i feel stupid now i want to get a intel SSD when they hit 100-150 ..the good kind and get a 500 gb as secondary

 

Oh ... when they hit 100-150 ... this would be awsom^^ But I don't expect this too soon^^

Greetings
Julian

 

i don't see it any time soon as well .....but all i got is time

 

To make this thread complet

Alienware M17 with 2x Seagate 7200.3 Raid0



Now I am interessted to see one SSD ... two 160GB (or when you bye from AW even the 2x250GB) Raid0 is cheeper than a good SSD^^

Greetings
Julian