Replace my SCSI raid with SATA RAID? Benchmarks

[hombrewdude]

I need more space in my SCSI RAID configuration.
It seems cheaper to go to SATA RAID, but I don't won't anything slower.
I use this for video, digital imaging and stuff.

Here is my current 4 disk SCSI 160 RAID 5 setup:

HD Tune: MEGARAID LD 0 MEGARAID Benchmark

Transfer Rate Minimum : 42.0 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Maximum : 48.7 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Average : 46.0 MB/sec
Access Time : 8.0 ms
Burst Rate : 50.3 MB/sec
CPU Usage : 2.8%

 

[folken]

How big is your current array?

<A HREF="http://www.folken.net/myrig.htm" target="_new">My precious...</A>

 

[RichPLS]

Dude, Raid 5 is secure and the way to go.

<A HREF="http://www.bestpricedv.com/SubCat/Storage/Internal SATA" target="_new"> Netcell RAID is in my future tho... </A>

A hybrid of RAID 3, giving security of RAID 5 with speed of RAID 0!

<pre><font color=red>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

 

[hombrewdude]

It is just 4 36gig drives in RAID 5
They are Atlas III SCSI 160 drives

 

[folken]

That is definatly faster than most sata solutions. The only thing comparable would be to get all raptors, but that wouldn't increase your storage space much as the biggest one is 74gb. If you want a rediculous amount of space and are willing to drop a little speed go for 5 250+gb sata drives on a 3ware raid5 controller. It wont have quite the I/Os of scsi but it will most likely have comparable transfer speeds.

<A HREF="http://www.folken.net/myrig.htm" target="_new">My precious...</A>

 

[hombrewdude]

Here is my benchmark on my RAID 5 array.
These drives are older... and not the fastest
The problem is that I need more space, SCSI drives are rather expensive. I really don't need RAID anyway.
I am not looking for speed on the data drive.
Just on the OS and programs drive (raptors)

HD Tune: MEGARAID LD 0 MEGARAID Benchmark

Transfer Rate Minimum : 42.0 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Maximum : 48.7 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Average : 46.0 MB/sec
Access Time : 8.0 ms
Burst Rate : 50.3 MB/sec
CPU Usage : 2.8%

 

[folken]

For a fast boot drive just get a raptor or two and hook them upto your motherboards onboard controller (if you have one).
You will want redundancy for a data array. I've lost to much data to not advocate redundancy, lol. I highly recomend 3ware controllers but about the only way to get them at a decent price is to score on ebay. Next down the list would probably be either promise or adaptec, they are much cheaper but not many of them offer true hardware raid.
For hard drives I'd go with drives as close to 250+gb as possible so that it lasts a decent ammount of time. Optimum raid5 arrays use 3-5 drives. Just go with what ever drive brand you trust. In a redundant array it doesn't matter too much though I highly recommend seagate

<A HREF="http://www.folken.net/myrig.htm" target="_new">My precious...</A>

 

[hombrewdude]

I plan on having 2 separate harddrives for redundancy.
I am also going to back-up photos on a separate PC on the network and archive on DVD.

When the price of 250gb drives drop, I will probably consider enough for a RAID setup.

My current MB is too old to have SATA
I bought a PCI SATA II card (4 port)