RAID performance issues

[slaveOne 0]

I have been getting some weird HDTach results on my RAID 0 array. The speed is extremely inconsistent, and I haven't been able to produce this behavior on any IDE drive configurations. The maximum transfer rate I get is quite high, but the minimum transfer rate is extremely low (approx. 1400k/sec).

 

Please go here for my RAID configuration (click on the numbers on the first image to see additional information) and the HDTach results:

 

http://www.zbattle.net/raid

 

These inconsistencies have caused problems on many games, but most noticably in Neverwinter Nights, because it streams the world from the hard drive. The game stutters as I move around the world as a result.

 

If anyone can shed some light as to why this is happening, it would be greatly appreciated.

 

Here are my system specs:

Abit KD7-RAID (VIA KT400)

Athlon XP 2600+

512MB PC2100 DDR RAM

2xWD1200JB RAID Array (mode 0)

eVGA GeForce4 Ti4600 (8xAGP)

Windows XP Professional w/ SP1

Latest BIOS w/ latest HPT BIOS

Latest VIA 4in1 drivers

Latest nVidia Detonators (44.03)

 

Thanks,

Ian

[infinity9 0]

http://www.georgebreese.com/net/software/

 

Check out the Via latency patches. Not sure if the KT400 still need it but these really improved scores on a KT333.

[slaveOne 0]

Quote:

http://www.georgebreese.com/net/software/

Check out the Via latency patches. Not sure if the KT400 still need it but these really improved scores on a KT333.

Thanks, but it didn't help =/

[ViperZ2000 0]

Can you try setting your swap file to a fixed size? I think 1.5x your memory should be fine (768MB). Reboot and give it a try.

 

Also, disable any virus protection (sigh-I know, I know), any disk defragmenters if scheduled, and other unnecessary items in the system tray.

 

Have you reloaded your system from scratch? If not, I would recommend that you ghost your image to a temporary location (server or another HD) and reinstall XP, your VIA chipset driver first, then the remaining drivers. I would then ghost it again to a temp location on another PC so that you have a fresh image in case you ever need it. I would then install Neverwinter Nights and see if it still occurs.

 

If so, take the one of your drives out of the array, plug the other into the standard IDE slot, then pull the image back down to it and see what happens.

 

Still laggy, then try it with the other hard drive.

 

This could even be from faulty memory, faulty memory slot, or even excessive paging.

 

Hope this helps.

[slaveOne 0]

Quote:

Can you try setting your swap file to a fixed size? I think 1.5x your memory should be fine (768MB). Reboot and give it a try.

It already is a fixed size (768MB)

Quote:

Also, disable any virus protection (sigh-I know, I know), any disk defragmenters if scheduled, and other unnecessary items in the system tray.

When I performed the benchmark and ran NWN, I only had about 9 processes running (all of them necessary for Windows to run properly). I also defragmented my hard drive before trying either.

Quote:

Have you reloaded your system from scratch? If not, I would recommend that you ghost your image to a temporary location (server or another HD) and reinstall XP, your VIA chipset driver first, then the remaining drivers. I would then ghost it again to a temp location on another PC so that you have a fresh image in case you ever need it. I would then install Neverwinter Nights and see if it still occurs.

It's done the same thing ever since I set up my RAID array (and incidentally performed a clean install of Windows XP). So, it's not something that developed over time.

Quote:

If so, take the one of your drives out of the array, plug the other into the standard IDE slot, then pull the image back down to it and see what happens.

Not sure what you mean by this.. how can I use the drives independently when they have been formatted to work as an array?

Quote:

Still laggy, then try it with the other hard drive.

This could even be from faulty memory, faulty memory slot, or even excessive paging.

Hope this helps.

I also have a WD400BB drive connected to a Promise ATA/133 PCI card and it doesn't exhibit this type of behavior in HDTach or NWN.

Thanks,
Ian

[ctay 0]

This is a fairly known problem between Highpoint RAID controllers and Neverwinter Nights. Goes back six months or more. Go to the Bioware forums and read for yourself. Bioware blames Highpoint ... Highpoint blames Bioware. Nothing has been done. There is NO fix. There were about six or so folks complaining about it, me included. We tried everything under the sun, nothing worked except switching controllers. Doesnt matter if you use RAID or not under the Highpoints, still lags. Sorry .....

[slaveOne 0]

Quote:

This is a fairly known problem between Highpoint RAID controllers and Neverwinter Nights. Goes back six months or more. Go to the Bioware forums and read for yourself. Bioware blames Highpoint ... Highpoint blames Bioware. Nothing has been done. There is NO fix. There were about six or so folks complaining about it, me included. We tried everything under the sun, nothing worked except switching controllers. Doesnt matter if you use RAID or not under the Highpoints, still lags. Sorry .....

Thanks for the info! Fortunately, someone posted a fix for it on the NWN forums and I no longer experience that problem. However, the HDTach benchmark results still remain. Does anyone know if this is normal behavior or should I be concerned that something is wrong with my setup?

Thanks,
Ian

[ctay 0]

If you're referring to the fix of renaming or deleting hptpro.sys, then yes, that method did indeed work for some folks (I forgot about that one), but it didnt work for a few of us. I dont even play the game anymore because of stutter. Glad it worked for you, if that was the fix you used.