Raid 0 on Gateway FX

Wanting to setup a raid 0 with two WD 250 @ 5400 can some send me to a thread that tells how to do or better yet do a howto on this thread.

Please help.

Thanks.

 

Page 52 of your Gateway manual has a good deal of information on what you need to do to set up your raid. You'll need to go into your bios and enable raid first, then during bootup, you'll see a screen that you'll have to enter to set the 2 drives for raid. After that it's just a matter of installing your OS.

 

so I need to do a clean vista instal with both drives in correct?

 

Yes, if you plan on running a raid configuration.

 

Scorp40, did you see any gain by upgrading your ram? Did you just upgrade the 1gb stick? or did you buy a set 2gb?

 

I'm still waiting for it to be delivered. I'm just swapping out the 1gb stick for a 2gb stick. I looked to see what was in the laptop, and then went online to match it with the same type/brand/model. I doubt there will be any huge gain at the moment as I'm still running Vista 32, but at least I have it if I decide to go to Vista 64.

 

What kind of memory is in it? where did you buy your 2gb stick?

 

HEHEHE, I knew that was coming next , here's the link to the memory, and where I purchased it from. https://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=D2-6SO2GS

 

Thanks, what games have you tried on it, when your wife is asleep that is

 

The Witcher, COD4, Crysis so far. I purchased it more for my wife than myself, I just wanted something that I could game on when we're on the road/vacation.
I'm usually gaming on my desktop, although that needs to be upgraded next. Only plus to the desktop at the moment is that I have it hooked to a 32" LCD tv. The laptop is faster than my desktop...at the moment.

 

Nice, I bought it for my wife also, see said she would game with me if see could sit next to me while we play.

 

At least she's willing to play, if it doesn't say freecell, zuma or tetris somewhere in the name, my wife won't touch it. My son has more fun watching me play, especially if it's Lego Star Wars on the Xbox 360. Future gamer in the making.

 

Very cool, I cant wait to get ours, I play Everquest 2, COD4, and want to play Cyrsis. Everquest 2 is a game that uses the cpu very heavly, its a good game to benchmark a system, lol

 

You'll be happy with it, my last laptop was a Dell 8100, spec'd out for gaming ( long time ago, or so it seems ). I was waiting a long time for a deal like this to come along.

 

scorp40, Is that ram you posted the same as the ram in the laptop? PC5400 DDR2-677? or is it 5300?

 

I matched it using the MFG number on the sticker that is on the ram. I was under the impression that it was PC5300, but the website is saying PC5400.

 

As long as it works, thats what is important, thanks

 

Honestly, if I were you, I'd take out my ram, and see what kind you do have. There is always a chance that the laptops have different brands.

 

Your right I will wait until I get it, I am not good at waiting though

 

I wouldn't worry about matching the RAM, any DDR2 667 or 800mhz will work fine (the 800mhz ram will only run at 667 though, but sometimes it's cheaper since the older stuff isn't manufactured anymore)

 

Hey, you guys think that FX can handle the new 500GB laptop HDD's that are coming out? A TB of storage would be great in a laptop! MUAHAHAHAH!!! :-O

 

Samsung 500gb yes (standard 9.5mm), Hitachi & Fujitsu 500GB no since they are thicker than standard specs. FWIW!

 

DVSman, did you see a great difference in performance going with your raid 0 7200s setup?

 

From a single drive? Yep!

Not only were the new drives singly faster, but together in a RAID 0 is just nuts fast.

While its most notable during boot - it also helps when playing games and it has to pull data off of the HDs. The placebo effect or real?

Just look at the difference in HD Tune numbers (click the link in my sig). I didn't think the numbers would be that different but they are.

The big question tho' - was it worth the money? I would probably say for most folks no. Another 250gb added to the stock one in a RAID 0 should be more than enough - but I happen to have the spare drives laying around so - WTH

I'm waiting on my T9300 to arrive and I'll do another series of tests but so far HD Tune has been an eyeopener.

 

Have a +rep DVSman! I'm still on the fence. I would like to do it with two bargain bin 80 or 100G 7.2 drives, with work files on an external drive.

I just can't trust the 250G WD's, at this point, without buying another 500G back up drive. After 4-5 months of no problems, you tend to fill them puppies up

 

Personally, I've been pretty lucky lately - haven't had an HD go bad in quite a few years (knock on wood) - so I'm willing to take my chances.

I know running RAID 0 is a little on the risky side, especially on a mobile - but since this is my gaming machine, 1) I don't keep any important docs on it and 2) I figure I (like most of us) have re-installed Windows enough times already - so one more time isn't going to be that big of a pain if the hard drive or drives bite it. Especially if you have NLite or VLite restore disc made for your computer already :-D

 

OK, I'll byte.

I picked up the WD-250 White Passport today. $95 after coupons and BB points before they expired.

There seems to be two flavors of WD-250 drives one 4 megs and one with 8 megs of cache, think I read a thread a while back that touched on that.

We use the WD2500BEVS-22UST (232 GB) with 8 meg cache.

Since I'll go Raid 0 when work allows, I went ahead and did the full format.
Whoa, sitting on desk the drive hit 58C before I raised front of notebook and kicked on ceiling fan. The drive finished long format at 51C Working MAX is 60C.

Cheers

 

Thats hot! Well too hot for my taste. Try re-plugging in all the connections? See if any vents, if there are any, is blocked? I heard 50C+ for HDD isn't good. Stock WD HDD runs around 35C~40C.

 

How did you check your temps? My C: drive always runs 42C or so when warm at idle. If you push it, it will get hot.

 

I use Everest on Windows Sidebar to continually monitor my temperatures, well when I stare at the bar of course

 

And you are only hitting 40C?? I must have two defective drives

 

Well, after an hour of Painkiller Overload, both drives were sitting at 50C. I guess I'll just keep a ceiling fan running during gaming, especially when the summer months roll in.

Both drives idle around 43\44 via Everest FWIW.

 

Right now, my oem WD HDD idles at 30C. When playing games and such, it goes to 40C, I seen low 40C once or twice. But nothing like high 40C or in 50C.

 

Thanks peter, I'm in the southern US, so local may have an effect?

I saw a post by snowsurfer with a Hitachi drive showing 50C.

In any case, anyone want to track their HD temps, please post your findings in the gateway forum, as usual the posts gets scattered.

 

All things considered, running 2 WD 250m 5400s in raid 0, compared too running 2 200m 7200s running in raid 0, is the speed difference enough too go with the 7200s?

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=222203

Great post about different configs and speed in RAID