Raid0: Is this useful for a DAW

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mario
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2010/10/05 17:41:00 (permalink)

Raid0: Is this useful for a DAW

I finished building my new i7 system about a week ago and it has been running smoothly;
I have W7 Pro 64bits on an SSD drive and XP Pro 32bits on another one and I "flip-flop"
between the 2. I have 8.5PE installed and a couple of specific audio related application.
 
I am now in the "tweak phase" (I know...a dangerous one but it's a good learning exercise)
so I will post a question once in a while....
 
Raid0: Is there any value in using it? Based on what I have read it doesn't seem to be aplicable
 
Note: I have no intention of getting into the mirroring aspect of Raid
 
Sahre your knowledge & opinions
 
Mario
#1

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    Karyn
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    Re:Raid0: Is this useful for a DAW 2010/10/05 18:29:50 (permalink)
    Audio production is a real time application.  It involves a lot of HDD activity ontop of the normal Windoze HDD activity.
    The limiting factor for HDDs is the time wasted moving the read/write head around on the disk surface, linking drives together with any form of RAID does nothing to alter this.  It is called "seek time".

    To optimize HDD use you need as many independent read/write heads as you can get. In an ideal situation, every entry in Sonar Options that specifies a drive/directory entry should point to a seperate physical HDD.  In reality it is good enough to simply seperate out your audio files from windows/system/program files onto a second HDD.

    Mekashi Futo. 
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    Current DAW.  i7-950, Gigabyte EX58-UD5, 12Gb RAM, 1Tb SSD, 2x2Tb HDD, nVidia GTX 260, Antec 1000W psu, Win7 64bit, Studio 192, Digimax FS, KRK RP8G2, Sonar Platinum

    #2
    mario
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    Re:Raid0: Is this useful for a DAW 2010/10/06 10:41:34 (permalink)
    Karyn,

    Stream audio/from a dedicated hard drive: I have been operating in this mode for a long time.

    Since I have never used any of the RAID configuration before I am/was curious to see if there is anything to be gain, other than redundancy...something I never required as I have never lost files  due to a "bad dick failure" in 25 years.

    I came close but it's the OS drive  that died that time.....:)
    #3
    Karyn
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    Re:Raid0: Is this useful for a DAW 2010/10/06 11:05:12 (permalink)
    Sorry,  short answer : There is no advantage using any sort of RAID

    Mekashi Futo. 
    Get 10% off all Waves plugins.
    Current DAW.  i7-950, Gigabyte EX58-UD5, 12Gb RAM, 1Tb SSD, 2x2Tb HDD, nVidia GTX 260, Antec 1000W psu, Win7 64bit, Studio 192, Digimax FS, KRK RP8G2, Sonar Platinum

    #4
    jcschild
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    Re:Raid0: Is this useful for a DAW 2010/10/06 11:26:51 (permalink)
    slightly longer answer

    if doing more than say 50 tracks 96k you have to go to raid 0
    aside from that no point to it

    Scott
    ADK
    Home of the Kentucky Fried DAW!
    #5
    slartabartfast
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    Re:Raid0: Is this useful for a DAW 2010/10/06 16:57:23 (permalink)
    much much longer answer:

    http://tweakers.net/reviews/515/1/raid-0-hype-or-blessing-pagina-1.html
    #6
    jcschild
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    Re:Raid0: Is this useful for a DAW 2010/10/06 18:34:17 (permalink)
    ummm extremely outdated! 2004.


    Scott
    ADK
    Home of the Kentucky Fried DAW!
    #7
    RandallB
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    Re:Raid0: Is this useful for a DAW 2010/10/06 23:17:02 (permalink)
    mario


    Karyn,


    Since I have never used any of the RAID configuration before I am/was curious to see if there is anything to be gain, other than redundancy...something I never required as I have never lost files  due to a "bad dick failure" in 25 years. 


    You must be using WD Viagraraptor drives...

    #8
    personrandom
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    Re:Raid0: Is this useful for a DAW 2010/10/12 19:35:48 (permalink)
    Yes, Raid-0 provides twice the track capability.

    It splits the audio record/playback across two drives.

    Many studios with busy productions use this setup.

    It's a question of how many *real* audio tracks you have during playback.  Not midi tracks,
    not vst synth tracks, not little drum beat samples being retriggered.  Those projects are
    smaller than they look.

    I'm talking about recording a rock band where you have 24 or more tracks of full tilt audio.  Nothing
    but endless views of continuous audio streams all over your screen.

    People doing stuff like that often opt for the Raid-0.  It's not a gimmick.
    #9
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