Raid Configurations Questions

[rundotcmd]

I am planning on purchasing some extra storage space. Another WD Velocirapor HDD 1TB to match the one I have, and two Samsung 840 EVO 1TB SSD's and I am wondering what would be one of the best or at least more preferred raid configurations I can use. I am new to raid but want to expand the space, stability, and speed of my system storage. Can anyone give me some tips, pointers and possibly direct me to some good guides?

 

[USAFRet]

Read this before you go down the SSD-RAID path:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-raid-benchmark,3485.html

 

[rundotcmd]

Well. I am a musician. I record and use multiple programs at once. I game a lot too. I also you some photo and video editing programs. I need ample space and speeds. A single drive at this point doesn't necessitate my needs in those terms. Granted its a single HDD at 10,000 rpms. Will one SSD be enough? I need more space but not in a huge sacrifice of speeds. The statistics seem to show from that guide that a raid will still be pretty solid even for gaming especially when compared with my current HDD. At that point. Would it just be better to switch to SSD's entirely or could I still go for the setup of components I listed.

 

[rundotcmd]

I really don't see that as a solution to my question, which was a question of opinion and not statistical advice. I really don't care what the benchmarks say, I've read all about it. I want to know what other people personally think of ssd raid configurations. So thanks for pointing out that this site has no real desire to actually answer my question.

 

[USAFRet]

I really don't see that as a solution to my question, which was a question of opinion and not statistical advice. I really don't care what the benchmarks say, I've read all about it. I want to know what other people personally think of ssd raid configurations. So thanks for pointing out that this site has no real desire to actually answer my question.

You want an opinion? I'll give you mine:
Outside of a very few specific circumstances, SSD + RAID for normal use is unneeded, and more fail prone than a single, large drive. Stability decreases, and performance does not increase.

Can you do it? Sure. What I would do with that is this:
A 1TB SSD containing the OS and applications. Another SSD for working files. Your music files, for instance.. RAID 0 the two 1TB HDD's. Or RAID 1 if you want the drive redundancy.
Game performance, aside from level loading times, does not really benefit from being on the SSD, RAID or no RAID. Once a level is loaded, the GPU and CPU take over.

As always, have actual backups.

 

[rundotcmd]

Thank you. That is definitely more of a solution. If I use one SSD for OS and applications and one for working files, would that be more likely to become unstable then just a single drive as well?
I can go without raid, you have answered quite a few questions about it I have never really gotten straight. So again thank you. But as I asked, would two SSD drives;one for os and one for files. Become unstable?

 

[USAFRet]

Thank you. That is definitely more of a solution. If I use one SSD for OS and applications and one for working files, would that be more likely to become unstable then just a single drive as well?
I can go without raid, you have answered quite a few questions about it I have never really gotten straight. So again thank you. But as I asked, would two SSD drives;one for os and one for files. Become unstable?

No it won't. Two independent SSDs work quite well. That is what my main system runs (2 x 128GB SSD's). One for the OS and applications, one for working files. Large things (games and backups) live on the 2 and 3 TB HDDs.

In the unlikely event my OS drive dies, simply reinstall everything. Back up and running in 24 hours. If the other SSD dies....all of that is contained in a backup location. Nothing really lost.

With a RAID 0, if one drive dies, all is lost from both.

 

[rundotcmd]

That doesn't sound very fun at all. Haha, I will probably stick with the individual drives as suggested. What do you think of hard drive partitions? I would like to install Mac OS X onto my system for music programs that run more steamlined on mac. I am not to familiar with hard drive partitions though. What would you suggest?

 

[USAFRet]

That doesn't sound very fun at all. Haha, I will probably stick with the individual drives as suggested. What do you think of hard drive partitions? I would like to install Mac OS X onto my system for music programs that run more steamlined on mac. I am not to familiar with hard drive partitions though. What would you suggest?

If you're going to have a second OS (OS X), then yes, you have to partition, or have it on its own physical drive.

 

[rundotcmd]

How stable is it to do hard drive partitions? Or would it be better to give it, it's own independent drive?

 

[USAFRet]

How stable is it to do hard drive partitions? Or would it be better to give it, it's own independent drive?

Quite stable. My preferred way is different drives , but I have a laptop with two partitions...Win 7 and Win 8.1. Has been running that way for quite a long time.

 

[rundotcmd]

How stable is it to do hard drive partitions? Or would it be better to give it, it's own independent drive?

Quite stable. My preferred way is different drives , but I have a laptop with two partitions...Win 7 and Win 8.1. Has been running that way for quite a long time.

Right on. That will help out a lot. Thanks for all your help and info.

 

[rundotcmd]

This is a new question I posted pertaining in part to this question but is not relative to raid any longer. I would greatly appreciate your input @USAFRet. I am now wondering how to actually go about installing the OS'. I was recommended to use EasyBCD for managing my boot settings? I would however like your opinion, adn if possible if you could direct me to some good tutorials?

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1990557/multiple-operating-systems.html#xtor=EPR-8809

 

[rundotcmd]

And on another raid question I have. What if I had say six samsung mlc ssd drives and put them in raid. would that give much of an increase? haha, I watched a 24 ssd raid video and that was pretty amazing

 

[MrJohnnyLy]

RAID isn't more reliable, it just provides redundancy in case of a failure, and should NOT be the only means for protecting data. Regular backups are still recommended. A six drive RAID configuration is not much more reliable than a 2 drive configuration, it just provides more redundancy depending on your RAID configuration. 2 Drives in a RAID configuration usually calls for a RAID 1 setup. 6 Drives can call for a RAID 6 + 2 hot spares, RAID 5 + 3 hot spares, etc.