Which RAID do I need?

D

Deathwish238

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 11, 2006
Messages
313
I'm thinking about running RAID, but I'm not sure what I need. I want improved performance and data security.

What will my setup look like? I currently have a single WD Caviar Black 640GB WD6401AALS and would buy more as needed. Full system specs in sig.
 
Speed / performance = RAID 0 , Data redundency = Raid 1, 5, 10, etc.

I don't know how well your on-board RAID works, but it looks like you 5 SATA ports can do RAID 0,1,5, & 10.

For raw speed you are going to want short stroked RAID0, like a pair of WD6400AAKS short stroked to 200 MB, or so, for your OS & Programs, For your Data you can use pair of 1 TB WD Greenies or Blacks in a RAID 1 config. Rumor has it that your AALS drives have problems with RAID.

Your other option is to put your OS on an SSD, or two, and really speed things up.
 
Thanks for the replies

sgrinavi said:
Speed / performance = RAID 0 , Data redundency = Raid 1, 5, 10, etc.

I don't know how well your on-board RAID works, but it looks like you 5 SATA ports can do RAID 0,1,5, & 10.

For raw speed you are going to want short stroked RAID0, like a pair of WD6400AAKS short stroked to 200 MB, or so, for your OS & Programs, For your Data you can use pair of 1 TB WD Greenies or Blacks in a RAID 1 config. Rumor has it that your AALS drives have problems with RAID.

Your other option is to put your OS on an SSD, or two, and really speed things up.
Click to expand...

Where did you read that my HDD might have issues with RAID?
 
"Improved Performance" and "Data Security" usually does not bode well...I suppose the best compromise between those demands would be either RAID 10 or RAID 5. RAID 10 would provide you data security (mirror of stripes), but it requires a minimum of four drives to implement, not to mention a horrible overhead of 50%. RAID 5 would provide increased read speeds, and depending on the controller, increased write speeds as well, but the disadvantage to that would be that you would most likely have to invest in a quality controller to achieve that.

Just get a fast drive and be done with it...unless your sequential read/write demands are extraordinary, if this is just for faster load times, a good hard drive will do you well.
 
Well I already have my 640GB and I don't think I want to get rid of it. I guess I don't really have anything that important that can't just be burned off. I have an external HDD, but it messes up all the time after less than a year of use.

I will have to figure out if I really need RAID or not
 
Start with one drive, you can always add a second one later, and if that doesn't work out you can use it as a storage drive still.

Definitely short stroke it raid or not. My 640 black is just a 100gb partiton at the edge of the platters, rest blank. Access times in windows is OUTSTANDING, and I hover in the 90's seqWrites and 113-120 seqReads. Not bad for a 75 dollar hdd. In raid 0 the raw read & write speed is basically doubled, its a very noticeable increase in hdd perf.
 
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