Is RAID 0 Beneficial for NT?

[BrandonLG83]

Hi, my motherboard has a RAID controller on it and I'm wondering if setting up RAID 0 would improve the performance of NinjaTrader. I read that RAID 0 improves read and write speed but I'm not real sure how that pertains to NT. I am using NT for live trading only...no backtesting of strategies or anything like that. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your help!

[NinjaTrader_RyanO]

Hi BrandonLG83,

Thank you for your post.

I can not say if those settings would make a difference for NinjaTrader, but if those result in general PC performance improvements then you should see those same improvements within NinjaTrader, as well.

However, if your PC meets the minimum PC requirements then changes such as modifying the RAID value should not make a noticeable improvement within NinjaTrader.

Although, perhaps other users who have done the same thing can contribute if their setup has resulted in having the tangible benefits you mention.

[BrandonLG83]

Okay, thanks. In that case, I'll probably just set up RAID 1. If anyone else who has RAID 0 setup wants to chime in and let me know how it's working for them, I'd be more than happy to hear about it.

[mrlogik]

Brandon,

RAID 0 improves overall computer speed. You will see an overall improvement in your computers use, and how quickly the OS loads, and other programs within the OS load.

Unless you have an SSD, I wouldn't run any HDDs in any other setup other than RAID 0 or some setup thereof. Be aware though, if one disk drive goes down you lose all of your data. You can do RAID 0+1 or another raid that supports Striping + mirroring for drive redundancy.

[BrandonLG83]

mrlogik,

Hi, thanks for the reply. So unless I have an SSD, you would advise against RAID 1? For my own curiosity and computer education, can you explain why?

Thanks!

[Antraman]

I would advise against setting up a RAID array just for using NinjaTrader, its just not needed. RAID involves multiple identical disks arranged together (the array) to allow either faster read/write speeds (at the operating system level - RAID 0)), or greater redundancy (protecting against disk failure).for systems that need to be up 24/7/365 (RAID 1), and if you experience the rare instance of a hardware or software failure, it is very complicated to re-establish a RAID array if you don't have a back-up image.

RAID setups also use special RAID drivers which are installed before the operating system is installed, so you are creating a dedicated machine from the start. Most RAID setups are "software RAID" which means your motherboard supports it and is controlled by the RAID drivers you install. This form of RAID is not as effective or as fast as installing a dedicated RAID card on your motherboard, but RAID cards are *very* expensive.

Even with a RAID 0 setup you are not really going to experience any speed gains with NT because you will be limited by your market data connection speeds as well as the speed of the tick or bar displays on your charting program. You will probably notice an increase in speed if you do large backtesting tasks using large amounts of data, etc. but its benefits are really only noticed in high end gaming, video, image, or audio processing applications, and running databases.

You would be much better off building a system based around a 64bit quad core processor using the latest chipsets that allow triple channel memory, higher amounts of RAM (>4GB) and higher motherboard transport speeds.

The same story will be for SSD's. They are incredibly quick (faster than a 10,000RPM hard disk RAID 0 array), but their speed gains will be lost on NT for the reasons mentioned above.

If you've got money to burn, I suggest getting extra video cards, and extra monitors for a multi display setup, it would be much more productive.

[mrlogik]

I agree with Antraman,

If you're doing this ONLY for NT, its not worth the money. However, if you want your overall computer experience to be faster, I suggest RAID 0. RAID 0 has read / write speeds at approximately 2 x than using a single drive.

Please keep in mind all of what Antraman said as well.

[BrandonLG83]

Thank you both for your replies. Right now, it's not about spending money because I've had my machine for about 2 years. But I have two 500 GB HDDs and one is just wasting because I have nothing to do with it, so i figured I'd utilize it somehow. Most of my rig is overkill I think, especially the graphics cards. A gamer helped me build it and I think he was building his dream rig through me haha. My specs are as follows:

Mobo: EVGA nForce 780i SLI
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4 GHz
Graphics: EVGA GeForce 9600GT 512 mb X 2
HDD: 500GB Seagate Barraccuda 7200 ST3500320AS X 2
RAM: 8GB OCZ Gold DDR2 800
OS: Windows Vista 64-Bit Business

I also am running 4 Dell monitors.

Aside from charting and executing trades, I also keep very detailed notes and statistics from my market studies and trades. These are very valuable to me, so I back up often. That's one reason i thought about RAID 1 because it would save me the hassle of backing up my files, correct?

Antraman, you mentioned it's difficult to re-establish a RAID array if a disk fails. But what about simply recovering the data from the drive? Is that difficult?

Thank you guys for your help!

[Antraman]

hi Brandon, your PC is a pretty good spec already, there isn't much you could do it to improve performance, except maybe a faster speed RAM (1066) or faster CPU if your motherboard supports them, but for non-gaming or video production stuff you wouldn't notice much of a difference.

In RAID 1, if a disk fails, you take it out and replace with an identical disk, and reestablish the array by trasferring the file structure from the good disk to the new disk. This is all done within the RAID environment. You can't just extract files from a disk out of a RAID setup and copy to another drive, because, sure, your data is there and are the same, but the file structure will be different to a normal drive. RAIDing saves data under a totally different file structure to normal setups. You could extract data from a RAID disk using a sophisticated data recovery software that can handle RAID installations, but do you want to go there?

Since you have 2 disks, I'd suggest have your operating system and only a few important applications only on one disk, then have other less used applications and your data installed/saved on the second disk. Then have a large cpacity external drive (1TB or more) and simply perform regular backups to the external drive using backup software.

Anyway, its already too late for you to set up a RAID array, as your machine is running as a normal setup already. You'd have to wipe everytthing, setup, and reinstall everything again. I'd rather go to the dentist and have him remove all my teeth with a hammer than do an operating system reinstall...8-)

[BrandonLG83]

Antraman, I know what you mean about reinstalling Windows being a hassle! Nice analogy! haha. But I'll be getting getting Windows 7 in the mail this week so I won't have much a choice. I'll do as you say for putting the OS on one drive and my files on another. You're the second person who has suggested that so I think it must be sound advice. Thanks again for your help