Official WoW Gaming Laptop

[kj]

Dell have release this new World of Warcraft themed laptop. It's a Dell XPS. I have one and they are pretty good laptops but slightly on the pricey side. This is the updated one with a dual graphics setup.

• Intel Core 2 Extreme X7900 CPU at 2.8GHz
• 2GB dual channel DDR-667 memory
• 2 x 200GB hard drives, set up as a 400GB RAID 0 array
• 2 x Nvidia 8700M GT GPUs in SLI configuration (each with 512MB of video memory)
• AGEIA PhysX 100M physics processor
• Integrated HD audio with Creative Labs Audigy software stack
• Intel 802.11 a/g/n wireless networking plus integrated gigabit Ethernet for wired connections
• Windows Vista Ultimate Edition preinstalled

The Dell site doesn't seem to have much information on it yet, which is strange, but you can find more information here: Dell XPS Laptops for World of Warcraft Fans

[humndislocation]

Why the fuck would a laptop for gamers have its hard drives set up in a RAID configuration? The mind boggles.

[kj]

It's a good point. I guess the more impressive looking the spec the more people are going to buy it without actually thinking. I'm not sure what advantage, if any, a RAID setup would provide on a gaming laptop.

[AlanG]

Originally Posted by humndislocation

Why the fuck would [any pc] have its hard drives set up in a RAID 0 configuration? The mind boggles.

fixed.

RAID 1 would make sense, especially with 2 quite fast drives - maybe 15k rpm or so. But the ones with this are 5400rpm or 7200rpm depending on size selected.

RAID 1:
"Mirrored set without parity. Provides fault tolerance from disk errors and single disk failure. Increased read performance occurs when using a multi-threaded operating system that supports split seeks, very small performance reduction when writing. Array continues to operate so long as at least one drive is functioning."

[Rebelius]

I run all my programs off a RAID0 array and it makes a huge difference compared to just the drives on their own. I don't give a poop about the fact that it's more likely to fail because it's only programs on the array, all my pictures, music, videos, documents etc are on big slow storage drives and backed up on a NAS.

RAID0 is good because I don't lose any of the capacity, has huge bandwidth.

I don't see the problem you guys seem to have with it.

[kj]

I think the question is why would it have a performance increase in game? I'm not an expert by a any means when it comes to hard drive and data access technology, but to me in game I don't think it would make all that much difference. Sure it'd be nice to have, but it is a costly option that may not make the huge difference that some people might expect.

Some information on the different types of RAID with pros and cons for each.

[AlanG]

Originally Posted by Rebelius

RAID0 is good because I don't lose any of the capacity, has huge bandwidth.

I don't see the problem you guys seem to have with it.

I just don't see the point of going to RAID if its only to RAID0. If you have 2 *200GB drives and have them non raided you can have 400GB of data. If a drive dies you still have half your data. If you have them RAID0 you have the same amount of data storage with the bonus that if one drive goes, all your data is screwed.

I just figured as a gaming rig the drives would be faster than 7.2k rpm and raided as RAID1. Mainly so if a drive dies you can still do your guild raid that night earning DKP whilst popping to the shop for a replacement/ordering online without losing any nights of WoW action. Cos ltes face it, anyone buying a dedicated WOW themed laptop is gonna be raiding all night every night and poop socking his way to victory.

[Rebelius]

With RAID0 you get faster loading times, all the time though. The only times your way would be any better is when a drive fails, and I don't know how often that happens to most people but it's never happened to me.

[xdavidx]

by bumping this post you are encouraging people to get hooked on warcrack, stop it now

[humndislocation]

Originally Posted by Rebelius

RAID0 is good because I don't lose any of the capacity, has huge bandwidth.
.

I wasn't aware there was a RAID mode that allowed you to use the whole capacity of the two disk drives. I don't really have a problem with that, other than the fact that your data is more vulnerable, but if your data is that important to you, then you're probably backing it up to some external storage anyway.