T61 Performance: 100G-7k vs 320G-5k x2 RAID in Ultrabay?

T61 Performance: 100G-7k vs 320G-5k x2 RAID in Ultrabay?

I have a few 320G WD (Slow / 5400 or so drives) and a 100G Hitachi (7200 drive) kind of lying idle for experiments as I am moving a bunch of that stored data to a NAS.

Mostly I will want to run VMs on it for Middleware and similar Enterprise tools. A little portable play box.

I am wondering the following:

- RAID Possibilities on T61 with Ultrabay HDD - At all Possible? - With Desktop or Server instance of Windows / Linux / Maybe a Bare Metal Virtualization Environment?

- If at all possible, Performance comparative between the two options below:

A - 320G-5k x 2 - RAIDed (Slower Drives Raided)

B - 100G-7k (Main) + 320G/120G (5k) (2nd in Ultrabay)

Even if the above RAID is not possible in the T61 (from my signature), any thoughts / experiences on how this A vs B would compare/ perform on a MACHINE that could support the RAID.

Thoughts from the respected veterans and experts. ??

 

Insignificant performance delta compared to switching to an SSD

 

the main hd bay is sata 1 (sata 2 if you have middleton bios) the ultrabay on the t61 is pata ide. So raid would not really work.

 

Agreed with Commander Wolf here: if you're looking at a performance increase, you're better off getting a SSD and Middleton BIOS (if you don't have that already). Not only will you max out seq. read/write with a SSD, but you also get much better random access times as well as less power used / less heat produced.

 

I have an SSD and I was the only high schooler with a SCSI drive at home

PS: I appreciate the feedback. I was just curious as I had some spare drives lying around and wanted to figure out how I could play this.

 

Why don't you use a two port eSATA ExpressCard for RAID? There are a few which handle stable SATA I/II speeds and there are pocket-friendly 2.5" enclosures which support two drives--if you want bus powered, FW400/800 RAID is possible to do with an ExpressCard. I would avoid the long discontinued SIIG eSATA card which had hardware level RAID 1, performance is below par for eSATA and has unpredictable rebuild if you had to switch out a failing drive.

On the weekends I use my spare T61 as a media server, works good enough with two eSATA drives and a FW400. I only use my ultrabay for Acronis TrueImage, even with the middleton BIOS patch the ultrabays' SATA-PATA bridge still cripples it to SATA 1... only reason I don't bother using a 7200 RPM drive in there, a single platter 7mm Hitachi 320GB HDD is a good performer(close to 7200 RPM access times) and lower heat/power vs typical 5400 RPM drive.

 

I will look deeper into the options you suggested and revert back later. Thanks.