1. What is a RAID 5 Speed Calculator?

Definition: This calculator estimates the read and write speeds for a RAID 5 array based on the number of drives and single drive speed.

Purpose: It helps IT professionals and system administrators plan storage performance for RAID 5 configurations.

2. How Does the Calculator Work?

The calculator uses these formulas:

Where:

• \( \text{ReadSpeed} \) — Theoretical maximum read speed (MB/s)
• \( \text{WriteSpeed} \) — Theoretical maximum write speed (MB/s)
• \( N \) — Number of drives in the RAID array
• \( \text{SingleSpeed} \) — Speed of an individual drive (MB/s)

Explanation: RAID 5 provides parallel read operations but requires parity calculations for writes, which affects performance.

3. Importance of RAID 5 Performance Calculation

Details: Understanding RAID 5 performance helps in capacity planning, meeting application requirements, and comparing storage options.

4. Using the Calculator

Tips: Enter the number of drives (minimum 3) and the speed of a single drive in MB/s. All values must be positive numbers.

5. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q1: Why does write speed use (N-1)?
A: RAID 5 requires calculating parity information, which reduces effective write performance by approximately one drive's worth of bandwidth.

Q2: Are these real-world speeds?
A: These are theoretical maximums. Real-world performance may be lower due to controller overhead, system bottlenecks, and workload patterns.

Q3: What's a typical single drive speed?
A: Modern HDDs typically offer 100-200 MB/s, while SSDs can range from 500-3500 MB/s depending on the technology.

Q4: Does RAID 5 speed scale with more drives?
A: Yes, both read and write speeds generally increase as you add more drives to the array.

Q5: How does RAID 5 compare to other RAID levels?
A: RAID 5 offers good read performance but slower writes than RAID 0 or RAID 10, with the benefit of fault tolerance.