Raid 0 - stripe size and block size

[TyMac]

I've got a DV editing rig where I have one disk array set up for writing video to and one array where the project files sit that will be read from. I will be primarily DVD authoring where the output will be .vob files.

I am wondering what a good block size and srtipe size would be for my arrays?

[cacepi]

Originally Posted by TyMac

I've got a DV editing rig where I have one disk array set up for writing video to and one array where the project files sit that will be read from.

I am wondering what a good block size and srtipe size would be for my arrays?

For block size, bigger is better; 16k is better than 8k; 32k is better still.

Stripe size is a litter harder to quantify, as it's somewhat dependent on the number of drives in the array. Some say that stripe size should be block size - one block per stripe - but there's no way of knowing for sure that each stripe holds a whole block. Others say that larger files should have smaller stripes, with the logic being that smaller stripes mean the data is more spread to more drives, thus better throughput.

Outside of HD video, however, I don't see a huge benefit in large arrays other than available drive space. A good SATA drive can easily sustain DV data rates, and then some.

Of course, if you have the extra drives, it doesn't hurt to use them. I'd say go for a smaller stripe size relative to the block size.

[theReal]

I'd also consider using the drives seperately. The only time you'll need a lot of throughput will be large file-copy operations (like something copied to temp while editing or when you render the output file). If you are using say 4 single drives, you can always copy from one drive to another and you'll probably be faster than with a RAID 0 system.