Should I get a RAID controller?

[davidst95]

Hi,

I have two 512GB Samsung 550 Pro running in RAID 0 and two 4TB WD Black hard drives running in RAID 1. I'm using the Intel RAID that's on my motherboard (Gigabyte GT Z97). Would I see any performance improvements if I get a dedicated RAID controller? Do motherboards RAID setup use the CPU? I'm kind of newbie with RAID controllers. Thanks.

David

 

[l1ghtm4st3r]

I don't think you'll see even the slightest change in performance. For striping, the onboard can handle all your needs and the same goes for RAID 1. Raid controller's are only really helpful for Raid 5, Raid 1+0 or particularly large Raid 0/Raid 1 arrays and general arrays where the data to be stored needs some processing to know where it's going to go before it actually goes somewhere.

 

[davidst95]

Thanks for the information. I'll stick with the on-board controller.

 

[jdcranke07]

One thing not mentioned is that if you ever want to take the storage to another mobo in the future, the RAID controller will allow you to do so. Otherwise, the new mobo will not read the storage devices.