What would be the best RAID configuration for my setup?

[kornkid4032]

Hey, I'ma noob to the forum....

I gotta question.

I have 2 raptor x's in raid 0 (279GB after format) and a maxtor 300GB (also 279GB after format)...

I was wondering what the best raid config would be given these drives (the other hardware is in my sig) or if raid is even necessary....

I was thinkin' along these lines: keep the raid 0 raptor x's, but somehow maybe add the 300GB in for backup, wouldn't that be raid 5???

Thanks for the help in advance.

 

[Andhrimnir]

no, RAID 5 can survive the death of any drive in the array. The way you have it is not equivalent - your backup drive is half the size of your RAID 0 array since each drive is of equal size. Thus you can only back up half your data, so you could lose data if one of the two main drives crashed.

You could do real RAID 5, which would allow you to reconstruct lost data should any of the drives fail. But back up data first, as changing RAID types will wipe your disks.

 

[4745454b]

What do you do that requires AID0/RAID? I personally would undo the AID0 array, sell one of the raptors for a larger drive, and move the 300GB to an external backup. This way you have speed for the OS, a nice "large" 500GB+ for data, and an external backup for all your important documents. This is great for home users, not so good for 1080p video editing.

 

[Andhrimnir]

oh, whoops. Just googled 'raptor x', realized I misinterpreted your request. the raptors are 150 GB each and the third drive is double, right? In that case, maybe a JBOD array to get the full 600GB out of the drives? or maybe the way it is, with 300 GB for OS/programs and separate 300GB for media?

 

[marcellis22]

RAID-0 is just trouble waiting to happen, RAID-5 demands a minimum of three drives in the array, four plus a hot swap is the usual server model. I've run RAID-1 for the last 14 years, and although I've lost a drive at times, I've NEVER lost data. What you should do, with any RAID setup, is use a separate RAID controller from the on board controller. That way, if you need to upgrade or replace the motherboard, the OS will still boot... The other concern you may have is speed, I play Crysis and other games at full tilt, don't worry about the RAID-0 is best for games crowd...

 

[Andhrimnir]

^ are RAID controllers not standardized? I would think that if you have a mobo with RAID 5 support, and you upgrade to a new mobo with RAID 5 support, that your system would still boot from the same array. Is this not the case?

 

[4745454b]

Nope. Like any other driver, you have to have the same chip for it to work. You can't use the Intel matrix raid driver and have it still work when you switch over to a board with a Jmicron raid controller. Or an Nvidia raid controller.

 

[BuzzardT]

RAID-0 is just trouble waiting to happen, RAID-5 demands a minimum of three drives in the array, four plus a hot swap is the usual server model. I've run RAID-1 for the last 14 years, and although I've lost a drive at times, I've NEVER lost data. What you should do, with any RAID setup, is use a separate RAID controller from the on board controller. That way, if you need to upgrade or replace the motherboard, the OS will still boot... The other concern you may have is speed, I play Crysis and other games at full tilt, don't worry about the RAID-0 is best for games crowd...

"RAID-0 is best for games crowd... " I had a friend ask me about doing a Raid Configuration on his new computer that is being built at this time. Can you or anyone tell me what is the advantage of using a Raid Config when gaming. I understand not loosing your data, I do not consider gaming data that important. So in On-Line Gaming. Is there an advantage of disk access over not having a Raid Config?

 

[goobaah]

You could see faster level loads. Online gaming is more about pings and frame rates. RAID will not help this.