Setting up Raid

[lldsgt]

Okay so Im looking to upgrade my rig a little bit, perticularly my storage. I currently have a WD Blue 500gb 16mb and was looking for another but i have a few questions i wanted to make sure of:

1. Im aware that to set up raid both ahrd drives must be of the same size, which isnt an issue for me since i was looking for another 500gb, but will i have to get one with the same cache? or can i pair up say a 16 and a 32 or 64, will it just stick with the lower 16 cache if i grab a 32mb?

2. What would be the best raid setup? My MOBO supports raid 0/1/5/10 and Ive done some research and see it seems raid 5/10 are out since ill have 2 drives but what are the main differences between raid0 and raid1? is it simply that raid1 makes a duplicate and raid0 splits the data into 2 parts and throws half on each drive?

3. im currently booting off of the WD500gb and am planning on putting in a SSD as well for boot and switching my current to go in raid for storage. Any suggestions on a good SSD for the money, budgets around 120 for it, im only expecting a 64gb, maybe a 120 if the deal is good. Ive looked up some and see the Crucial M4 and Samsung 830 to be at the top of the list for SSD's right now, anyone know of any issues with these 2 or anything to back them up?

4. Whats up with the Hybrid drives? Are they something worth looking into? from what ive read basically its a SSD in with a HDD, whats good and bad about these? i havent been able to find a lot of good information about them.

 

[Mu33rto]

RAID 0 does split the data between both drives so if one drive goes down so does the raid and the data. RAID 1 will mirror the data to the second drive. Its good for parity but will not be as fast as RAID0.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-review-benchmark,3139-2.html

I haven't ran across a hybrid drive my self. But from what I read the ssd part is small maybe a few GB's. Not enough for the whole system to benefit from it.

 

[foscooter]

1. If mismatched, even just the cache size, both drive will default to the smaller/lower drive. This shouldn't be a big issue.

2. RAID 0 = speed, but HDD don't scale very well, only 30-40% increase in reads/wrires. SSD do however, alomost 100% increase in speeds. You are right on the money about 0 & 1.

3. SSD limiting factor is your budget. For $120.00, a 60-64GB is well within reach. Intel 520, OCZ Vertex 3, Samsung 830, in that order. Note that a 60GB SSD will not perform as well as a 120GB, same for 120GB to 256GB. The bigger, the better.

4. NO on the hybrids, out of your budget.

What I'd do in your case is this:
1-SSD - OS Programs and such. Most should fit even in 60GB.
1-HDD - Data/Media Libraries (My Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, and Videos)
1-HDD - Back Up (either Windows, Norton, or whatever). Yes, RAID 1 does a copy of the drive, but this is not a viable backup. It only saves you in the event of a drive failure.

Now what you could do, depending on your motherboard, is set up an SSD as a cache drive for a HDD. This is like your own hybrid drive: Speed of SSD (most used programs/boot ups) and Size of HDD. If you have a Z68 mobo or higher, the chipset will seet it up through Intels Rapid Storage Technology software. But I've hear that this is really not that fast, even though I have it for my data/media drive.

 

[lldsgt]

1. If mismatched, even just the cache size, both drive will default to the smaller/lower drive. This shouldn't be a big issue.

2. RAID 0 = speed, but HDD don't scale very well, only 30-40% increase in reads/wrires. SSD do however, alomost 100% increase in speeds. You are right on the money about 0 & 1.

3. SSD limiting factor is your budget. For $120.00, a 60-64GB is well within reach. Intel 520, OCZ Vertex 3, Samsung 830, in that order. Note that a 60GB SSD will not perform as well as a 120GB, same for 120GB to 256GB. The bigger, the better.

4. NO on the hybrids, out of your budget.

What I'd do in your case is this:
1-SSD - OS Programs and such. Most should fit even in 60GB.
1-HDD - Data/Media Libraries (My Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, and Videos)
1-HDD - Back Up (either Windows, Norton, or whatever). Yes, RAID 1 does a copy of the drive, but this is not a viable backup. It only saves you in the event of a drive failure.

Now what you could do, depending on your motherboard, is set up an SSD as a cache drive for a HDD. This is like your own hybrid drive: Speed of SSD (most used programs/boot ups) and Size of HDD. If you have a Z68 mobo or higher, the chipset will seet it up through Intels Rapid Storage Technology software. But I've hear that this is really not that fast, even though I have it for my data/media drive.

ah great this was helpful, as far as SSD im not looking for a big drive or anything, only expecting a 60/64gb and ill just end up picking up another WD Blue then for this and set up raid later in the week, thanks for the help!

 

[lldsgt]

Best answer selected by lldsgt.