Do I Need A New PSU?

[Lowvez]

Hey all,

This is the power supply i have:

http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=22551

I eventually plan to run Crossfire on it with the X1900 series cards (X1900 Crossfire and X1900XT) at some point in time. I am just curious if you think i will be able to run it with this power supply considering i have the following:

2 74GB Raptors
Another hard drive i have yet to purchase so i can back up the RAID 0 Array
X1900XT (With the crossfire card coming)
3 Hard Drive Coolers (Vantec Vortex)

Plus an A64 4000+.

Nothing is overclocked right now i am just wondering if i am at my limits or even close yet because i was thinking of getting that backup hard drive and also thinking of getting a 3rd raptor 74gb to have a 3 Drive RAID 0 array.

Any thoughts?
_________________
ASUS A8R-MVP
Athlon 64 4000+
Sapphire X1900XT
2 X Western Digital Raptor 74GB
Antec 550W PS
2GB PC4000 OCZ Gold (DDR500)

[Google]

[[TN] Nathan]

[2old2care]

[Lowvez]

Raid 0 works with 3 drives. It will work with any number of drives larger then 2. It works the exact same way except one extra drive.

On another note, will a 3 Raptor Raid 5 Be faster then a Raid 0?
_________________
ASUS A8R-MVP
Athlon 64 4000+
Sapphire X1900XT
2 X Western Digital Raptor 74GB
Antec 550W PS
2GB PC4000 OCZ Gold (DDR500)

[2old2care]

Ummm...in theory maybe...but here in the real world is the page out of your motherboard manual, for the ULI controller.



I'd hate to try and write the firmware to interleave for 3 or 5 disks in R0. It might be possible but not practical.
_________________
.
Liquid-Cooled Q9450 and an EeePC
.

[Lowvez]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundant_array_of_independent_disks#RAID_0

says otherwise...but i didn't actually check to see if my motherboard would do a 3 disk raid 0, i just assumed since the description of raid 0 doesn't say that drives must be added in pairs, that it was possible for all raid controllers if they did a true raid 0 array.

i have also seen someone with a 3 disk raid 0 array put it was with a PATA not a SATA set of drives.

Here:

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=95397
_________________
ASUS A8R-MVP
Athlon 64 4000+
Sapphire X1900XT
2 X Western Digital Raptor 74GB
Antec 550W PS
2GB PC4000 OCZ Gold (DDR500)

[2old2care]

Well, again real world shiz will work better.

Let's look at how we have "traditionally" organized data storage in the hardware realm.
Everything has evolved as blocks based on powers of 2. For example 64K is 2 to the 6th power, 256K is 2 to the 8th power and 1024K (or 1M) is 2 to the 10th power. In the case of hard drives we need to create blocks of data, that we can readily grab when we need them. So we take large blocks of data let's say 1024K, and we break it into smaller blocks of data so we can grab them and move them easier, let's say 64k. So that's 16 x 64K pieces. So to mechanically get these 16 pieces of data a single hdd takes 16 X whatever time it takes (t). Now we throw in some redundancy. (RAID) Let's say we have two drives. The t (time) involved can be shortened because one drive can be going one way looking for it's next piece, (seeking) while the other drive is reading it's piece of data. So the mechanical delay can be reduced in 1/2. (I know not really, closer to 9/16) Or basically, 8 pieces of 64k on two drives equaling the 1024K. A similar thing of course works with 4 drives, 4 pieces of 64K still equals the 1024K.

Now, let's say someone wants to use 3 drives. We now would have to put 5 64k pieces on 2 of the drives while one of the drives would have to have 6 pieces, using our previous example. You can see one drive will have to do a bit more work than the others, and more to the point the other two must wait for the other to finish it's task. So the gain is not as much.
Now I know using combinations involving 12 could be used to increase this, but now a driver must act as a translating level (do the math) to let the OS work with it cause the OS still wants things based on powers of 2.

This is prolly not the best explanation for this, but this is the way I rationalize it. I have used RAID setups for a few years and I've never had a controller that would run R0 with anything other than 2, 4, or 8 drives, that I can remember. Hope this made sense, and maybe helps.
_________________
.
Liquid-Cooled Q9450 and an EeePC
.

[Lowvez]

How about a 4 Drive Raptor RAID 0?

It will work on my southbridge...
_________________
ASUS A8R-MVP
Athlon 64 4000+
Sapphire X1900XT
2 X Western Digital Raptor 74GB
Antec 550W PS
2GB PC4000 OCZ Gold (DDR500)

[2old2care]

I really don't know for sure. The mobo manual says two, but 4 isn't uncommon. While your SB may support it, the bios may limit it. Poke around on the Asus forums and see if you get any clues.
I run 2 Raptors in R0 on both my computers (home and work) and they are fast and consistant. They are the best bang for the buck you can get, and remember adding two more, doubles the buck but only increases speed a little bit, and increases the chance of a failure. IMO I'd use the money elsewhere, like a killer no questions asked power supply or such.
_________________
.
Liquid-Cooled Q9450 and an EeePC
.

[[KoG]^weaZel]