RAID in Notebook PCs

[VezZiE]

I used to work with one powerful desktop for all my computing needs. But due to a lot of field-trip study, I decided to switch for a laptop.

So far I didn't feel any significant speed decrease switching from AthlonXP 2Ghz -to-> Mobile Pentium 4 1.9Ghz; But I really miss the fast transfer rate using a RAID card.

I hope there are some of you can help me with the following queries:

1. Is there somekind of device that can RAID two external HDs?

2. Or maybe using an external Firewire/Usb 2.0 Hd is fast enough ?

3. Which one is actually faster (in real application) FireWire HDD or USB 2.0 HDD?
[ Yes, I know that USB 2.0 promised a faster transfer rate. But some user reported that Firewire still runs faster. Can somebody verify this? ]

Well.. in short, any ideas on how to make an External HDD run as fast as RAIDed IDEs?
Thanks..

 

[Bovinicus]

With Windows 2000 (Possibly XP, I don't know) there is a way to setup a software RAID array. There is an article about it on Tom's Hardware. Here is the link. The benchmarks seems to show that it does offer quite a boost in performance. In fact, it is not much different from having a hardware solution.

 

[MWink]

First of all, what speed hard disk do you have (4200RPM or 5400RPM)? If you only have a 4200RPM I recommend you get a 5400RPM. As for external drives. I have an 80GB 7200RPM HD in an external Firewire enclosure and it benchmarked (in Sandra) about 25% faster than the laptops internal 4200RPM HD.

 

[VezZiE]

Originally posted by: MWink
First of all, what speed hard disk do you have (4200RPM or 5400RPM)?...

I am using IBM Travelstar 40gnx 40Gb @ 5400rpm. I believe that is the fastest laptop HDD so far according to this benchmark..

Thanks for the replies so far. Please keep the comments coming as I believe It could help other members too in the future.

 

[MWink]

Does the laptop you are using have the ability to run two internal hard drives at once? If so you MIGHT be able to do what Bovinicus was talking about with Windows 2000/XP's RAID thingy. I've never used it but I've heard of it. I wouldn't do it but if you really need the performance it's worth a shot.

Since you are already using a 5400RPM internal drive I would not recommend using Firewire drives as they would probably be slower (even 7200RPM drives).

 

[Mingon]

I found that my 40gb laptop drive gave about 12mb/sec on usb 2 and 14 on firewire

 

[MonkeyK]

Even if you could do it, your laptop would get pretty darned hot with the amount of spinning those Raided HDs would be doing.


-Mike

 

[MWink]

Originally posted by: MonkeyK
Even if you could do it, your laptop would get pretty darned hot with the amount of spinning those Raided HDs would be doing.


-Mike

huh??? If the laptop is designed to take two hard drives it should not be a problem. They would produce the same amount of heat whether they were in a RAID config or not (that is assuming you never have them spin down which is what I do). It's not like the hard drives are next to each other like in a desktop. My Inspiron 8200 can take two hard drives (one in the HD bay and the other in the media bay). Laptops are already quite hot. The hard drive makes very little difference in the heat levels compared to most other components. Laptop HD's tend to run very cool. I never noticed any temp change when I put my second HD in my laptop.

 

[VezZiE]

Just forwarding glugglug's Opinion from similar thread in Highly Technical forum:
[/quote] Originally posted by: glugglug

Originally posted by: VezZiE
1. Is there somekind of device that can RAID two external HDs?

you can get SCSI externals easily enough... but then you are defeating the purpose of having a laptop no?

2. Or maybe using an external Firewire/Usb 2.0 Hd is fast enough ?

USB 2.0/firewire drives don't approach the speed of ATA even though they are both priced more like SCSI

3. Which one is actually faster (in real application) FireWire HDD or USB 2.0 HDD?

Neither is worth looking at[/quote]

 

[jschuk]

To setup the software RAID (striping) in W2K/XP, you first have to convert the drives to dynamic drives and then you should be able to stripe them. Supposedly, Microsoft made it so that this feature is disabled when running in a laptop (wasn't able to get it to work in my laptop). I played with it on my desktop and it did speed up my HDD. I don't think you can convert the HDD containing the OS into a dynamic partition meaning you would have to have (3) HDD's total in that laptop.

 

[RichieZ]

Since you are already using a 5400RPM internal drive I would not recommend using Firewire drives as they would probably be slower (even 7200RPM drives).

I have a WD 1000JB in a firewire enclosure 30MB/s across the disk, limited by oxford 911 bridge.

Hm the 40GNX is quite fast, but I have to assume the increased latency makes it feel slower than a 7200RPM drive in a firewire enclosure.

Man I just got a 40GN, I"m thinking now I should have gotten the 40GNX. But the damn thing is SILENT when its not seeking, big improvement from my old laptop HD