Zerene : to raid or not to raid ?

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Adalbert
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Zerene : to raid or not to raid ?

Post by Adalbert »

Hello everybody,

I’m collecting the components for the new computer for the stacking now and have a question :-)
Does the RAID-0 with two M2-SSD PCIe 4 make any sense? Is the performance significantly better?

BTW, I have already decided to Ryzen 9 3900
https://www.photomacrography.net/forum/ ... 482a5db755

BR, ADi
Last edited by Adalbert on Fri Apr 03, 2020 8:48 am, edited 3 times in total.

JKT
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Post by JKT »

I presume you are talking about two PCIe M2:s? If so, I'd think there is no point. Did you go for PCIe 4.0?

I have Ryzen 3800 with 1TB PCIe 4.0x4 SSD as temp disk and I definitely don't feel that is a bottleneck. I doubt it would be with PCIe 3.0x4 either.

Adalbert
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Post by Adalbert »

Hi JKT,
Yes, the new mainboard “ASUS Prime X570-P” supports PCIe 4.0
And the name of the M2-SSD is: “Corsair Force Series Gen.4 PCIe MP600 1TB”
If I used RAID 0 I would expect an increasing of the performance about 50%.
BR, ADi

JKT
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Post by JKT »

I doubt it. The delay caused by the I/O with that drive is so small that you likely won't notice the difference. Everything else takes so much more time.

Adalbert
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Post by Adalbert »

Actually I would like to know if RAID 0 is good for Zerene and LR :-)
e.g. it depends on the method of the reading of the CR2 and writing TIFF, etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ffxkvf4KOt0

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

I have had reports from users that RAID 0 helps with uncompressed TIFF due to the higher bandwidth.

In fact one user reported that large TIFF files read so fast on his system that he requested an option to write screen preview images as TIFF instead of JPEG. (That one's "on the list" but not done yet.)

--Rik

Adalbert
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Post by Adalbert »

Hello Rik,
May I assume that you recommend RAID-0 ?
BR, ADi

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

Adalbert wrote:May I assume that you recommend RAID-0 ?
As opposed to what?

--Rik

Macro_Cosmos
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Post by Macro_Cosmos »

Ah, so RAID0 does help with Tiff files? That's noted, I'll be considering RAID0 when I build a desktop PC.

Adalbert
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Post by Adalbert »

Hello Rik,
What is the advantage of RAID0 for Zerene e.g. “Align and Stack” ?
BR, ADi

Adalbert
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Post by Adalbert »

Hi Macro_Cosmos,
Yes, I can imagine that the conversion of the RAW-files into the TIFF-files by LR could be faster.
BR, ADi

JKT
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Post by JKT »

Let's say your TIFF file is 200 MB. The write speed of PCIe 4.0x4 M.2 drive is around 5000 MB/s (ATTO benchmark on mine). So the writing of the TIFF file takes 40ms. If your software RAID were 100% efficient (which it likely is not), you'd get that down to 20 ms. So for 50 TIFF files you might save a total of 1s. I wouldn't bother.

Edit: I'll rephrase the last: I DIDN'T bother. :wink:
Last edited by JKT on Sat Apr 04, 2020 12:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Adalbert
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Post by Adalbert »

Hi JKT,
I will start without RAID but it is an option for the future :-)
In the meantime I’ll study the features of the Asus Hyper M2 card.
BR, ADi

JKT
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Post by JKT »

Adalbert wrote: I will start without RAID but it is an option for the future :-)
Depends on how you configure the system. I put system and programs on PCIe 3.0x4 in one M.2 slot and used the other slot for the even faster temp drive. Changing to RAID 0 isn't exactly an easy option now.

Edit: The correct write speed was actually 4000 MB/s, not 5000.

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

Adalbert wrote:What is the advantage of RAID0 for Zerene e.g. “Align and Stack” ?
It is a matter of bandwidth, reducing the I/O time.

I like JKT's answer for your situation. The other user I mentioned was using rotating hard disks.

--Rik

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