128gb SSD Boot Drive w/ 3tb RAID, Performance Questions...

[dsa420]

So I purchased a 128gb Patriot Torqx to run as the boot drive
for my Mac Pro. I know that the new Intels are coming but I am happy with the Patriots and wanted some instant gratification.

The machine is definetly snappier but doesn't quite have the pep as my MBP running a 256gb SSD as the sole HDD.
I have (3) 1 TB 5400 rpm drives in a striped RAID array. It seems sometimes when I start an application that lives on the SSD boot drive, the other drives begin to run as well (I can hear them spinning).

Any thoughts on what could be done to speed up my system and also make sure that the SSD runs as independent from the traditional Hdd's as possible?
Additionally I will soon be adding my 4th 1tb drive once I get the IDE to SATA adapter to put the drive in the optical drive spot.

I am running a early 2008 Intel 2.8ghz machine, 8 cores, 6gb RAM.

 

[tyr2]

It seems sometimes when I start an application that lives on the SSD boot drive, the other drives begin to run as well (I can hear them spinning). .

Do you mean they are powered down normally but when you start an application they spin up?

What do you have your RAID array mounted as, just another volume, or do you have your home folder on there?

I've found some applications scan the available disks on start up and thus they get spun up, causing a wait period. Turning off the 'put disks to sleep where possible' option helps, but obviously wastes power.

 

[dsa420]

I havent narrowed it down quite yet, but I feel like the RAID drives are spinning when no data is being accessed from them.

I have the RAID array mounted as another volume.

 

[tyr2]

Easy way to find out files are being accessed:

In Terminal type this

$ sudo /usr/bin/filebyproc.d

And they type your password in when prompted

You'll get a bunch of output like this, one line each time a file is accessed

  1  17726                       open:entry bash /Users/username/.bash_login
  1  17726                       open:entry bash /Users/username/.profile
  1  17726                       open:entry bash /Users/username/.bashrc
  1  17726                       open:entry Propane /dev/autofs_nowait
  1  17726                       open:entry Propane /Users/username/Library/Preferences/com.apple.security.revocation.plist
  1  17726                       open:entry Propane /Users/username/Library/Keychains/Microsoft_Intermediate_Certificates
....

You can grep the output for the particular volume name, eg

$ sudo /usr/bin/filebyproc.d  | grep /Volumes/TheVolumeName

 

[rtrt]

a

 

[dsa420]

The terminal code you gave does not work, any ideas?

 

[tyr2]

In what way did it not work, what error did you get?