Hi Everyone,
I'm ready to setup my computer for RAID (redundant array of independent disks) and I'm trying to figure out what is the best route to take. I'm a multitasker and have many other programs running in the backround and I don't like to wait... Anyway to make programs load/save faster is a plus for me.

I currently have two 74GB WD Raptor SATA harddrives dedicated to running my OS and programs and two other large SATA drives for backup and video/file/image storage. I'm currently stuck as to which RAID configuration will give me the most bang for my buck. RAID 0 (striping) looks faster but RAID 1 (mirroring) looks safer. I can theoretically backup everything once a week on my larger drives if I run RAID 1,,, Right? There is also RAID 0+1 but that requires 4 drives I think. My current MOBO only supports up to RAID 1+0 but I could go to RAID 5 or other configurations with an SATA PCI adapter. Plus the fact that that my MOBO only supports up to 4 150GBPS drives not the newer 300GBPS with 6 plugs. Maybe just upgrading the MOBO makes sense but I have all PCI accessory cards and the new boards run mostly PCI Express.

Sheesh! too many choices for me.

Any help in making my computer faster would be greatly appreciated!

Here are some system specs:

K8N Neo2 Platinum MOBO
AMD 3500+ 64-Bit
2GB RAM
Windows Vista 64-Bit

Thanks!
Adam

__________________
Current Stable:
01 ML55 AMG
92 500E (a few mods)
87 300E (lots of mods)
00 Chevy 3500HD Diesel Box Truck
68 18' Donzi Marine
06 GT i-Drive7 1.0 Mountain Bike (with GPS!)

PREVIOUSLY OWNED:83 300SD, 87 420SEL, 88 420SEL, 90 420SEL, 86 560SEL, 86 190E 2.3-16V AMG, 94 E320

Raid 5 Friend!

I have 3 WD Raptor 10k 74 gig drives. I have about 145 gigs of space, and if one drive goes, i have all my data, and can back it up. I can also replace it, tell it to rebuild, and all is good once again.

__________________
-Justin

91 560 SEC AMG - other dogs dd
01 Honda S2000 - dogs dd
07 MB ML320 CDI - dd
16 Lexus IS250 - wifes dd

it's automatic.

0+1 works with two drives, and (usually) gives better read speed than a simple mirror. 5 is wasted effort for less than three.

Here are some Hardware RAID choices:

RAID 0 - STRIPING - this is the highest performance but the HIGHEST RISK! Don't use this unless you don't mind losing all of your data. If one drive fails you lose everything. (2 or more drives needed)

RAID 1 - MIRROR - this is a very safe configuration for your data because the 2nd drive contains an exact copy of the first. It is very ineffecient because you have half the capacity since everything is mirrored. (2 or more drives needed)

RAID 5 - This is a good choice if you want high security and high storage capacity since it is very efficient. It uses parity to rebuild a lost drive. But, you really need a dedicated RAID controller to run RAID-5 well. The built-in RAID on most motherboards don't do RAID-5 well...they're too slow. (3 or more drives needed)

RAID 0+1 (10) - this is a combination of RAID 0 and 1. Basically, a set of striped drives are mirrored to another set of striped drives. (4 or more drives needed)

__________________
Bill Wood - Retired Webmaster
My Personal Website
1998 Mercedes E430
2010 Toyota Sequoia
My Photo Albums

First Raid 1 is a misnomer, it is NOT redundant, although it does provide slightly better performance.

RAID 0 also can provide slightly better read performance as it can read from either drive to satisfy a request. So two diff programs can read different data at the same time. metoforically (??) speaking. And does provide Redundancy, if one fails your data is still intact on the other.

Now for the real question, WHY ?????

First, with limited exception, if you REALLY want RAID go RAID 5 or 10 (1+0).

Again though why, RAID makes sense in data critical corporate environments.
But was invented back in the days when HDs died regularly, they have become MUCH more (100 or 1000 times compared to just a few years ago) reliable.

For most people here's what I recommend.
Some performance gains can be created by increasing the # of spindles (Physical drives). So lots of little drives (tough in todays 500 gig standard) can solve that some.
Put the OS on one drive, swap on another, and 2 or ?? for your data.

THEN REPEAT THEN
to protect your data backup daily, Acronis would be my choice.
Image your HD to an external USB regularly, preferably 2 or 3 of them that you rotate through. One on-line, one in a fire proof safe, and one OFF site.

Remember, even though you multitask, I'd bet you rarely tax the IO system on your computer beyond 5 or 10 %, so making a 10% improvement in it won't really help.

__________________
KLK, MCSE

1990 500SL

I was always taught to respect my elders.
I don't have to respect too many people anymore.

Weekly or semi-weekly backups give me all the piece of mind I need.

Get yourself a NAS and setup the backups to automatically run, then forget about it. I'd probably backup the NAS too, at some point.

__________________
-justin

1987 300TD, 1987 300TD
2008 R32, 2000 Passat Wagon

PLEASE Don't get a NAS, for a single user setup I never understood their purpose. Even for a network, just as easy to slap a HD in a box and share it out, or nowadays plug in a USB / Firewire drive.

And in a business the security issue's with a NAS are mind numbing.

FYI, setup Acronis to Image nitely, it gives you a real peace of mind.
You can restore individual files, or the whole box.

__________________
KLK, MCSE

1990 500SL

I was always taught to respect my elders.
I don't have to respect too many people anymore.

Thanks for the input guys! Right now I'm stuck between RAID 0, 5, and 10.

If I run 0, can I backup to another drive and be safe?

If I run 5, can I use my two Raptor drives and a slower larger drive and make it work without deluting the performance?

If I run 10, is running 2 drives worth it?

Thanks Again!
ADam

__________________
Current Stable:
01 ML55 AMG
92 500E (a few mods)
87 300E (lots of mods)
00 Chevy 3500HD Diesel Box Truck
68 18' Donzi Marine
06 GT i-Drive7 1.0 Mountain Bike (with GPS!)

PREVIOUSLY OWNED:83 300SD, 87 420SEL, 88 420SEL, 90 420SEL, 86 560SEL, 86 190E 2.3-16V AMG, 94 E320

I do quite a bit of video editing. My HD's are always clickin away.

__________________
Current Stable:
01 ML55 AMG
92 500E (a few mods)
87 300E (lots of mods)
00 Chevy 3500HD Diesel Box Truck
68 18' Donzi Marine
06 GT i-Drive7 1.0 Mountain Bike (with GPS!)

PREVIOUSLY OWNED:83 300SD, 87 420SEL, 88 420SEL, 90 420SEL, 86 560SEL, 86 190E 2.3-16V AMG, 94 E320

Before I ran raid 5, I had a raid 0 array. I made it so that my My Documents folder was on another hard drive by redirecting it, so that whenever I saved it, it would automatically go to another drive.

__________________
-Justin

91 560 SEC AMG - other dogs dd
01 Honda S2000 - dogs dd
07 MB ML320 CDI - dd
16 Lexus IS250 - wifes dd

it's automatic.

That's what i'm currently doing minus the RAID.

If I run RAID 0 for only the OS and programs will I notice a worthwhile improvement?

Can I backup the two RAID 0 drives on one large drive?

__________________
Current Stable:
01 ML55 AMG
92 500E (a few mods)
87 300E (lots of mods)
00 Chevy 3500HD Diesel Box Truck
68 18' Donzi Marine
06 GT i-Drive7 1.0 Mountain Bike (with GPS!)

PREVIOUSLY OWNED:83 300SD, 87 420SEL, 88 420SEL, 90 420SEL, 86 560SEL, 86 190E 2.3-16V AMG, 94 E320

The biggest difference that I saw when creating a raid 0 with my two 74 gig drives was a lower amount of time when I was compiling my applications, and when I did some video editing. I also saw a faster load time on bigger apps and games, but nothing that made a jawdropping change.


If you do video editing, it should be worthwhile to change to a raid 0, but just keep a backup of your data.... For example, you can create a ghost schedule so that every other night at midnight, it creates a ghost image of your computer on another, larger drive. I have raid 5, and I still do this... Why you may ask... Why not.

__________________
-Justin

91 560 SEC AMG - other dogs dd
01 Honda S2000 - dogs dd
07 MB ML320 CDI - dd
16 Lexus IS250 - wifes dd

it's automatic.

There is another configuration of 0+1, which stripes and mirrors across two drives, but apparently isn't available on all controllers. I've seen it, but don't recall who supported it.

In this configuration, the even RAID sectors are at the beginning of drive 0 and the end of drive 1. The odd RAID sectors are at the end of drive 0 and the beginning of drive 1. Reading uses both drives simultaneously for faster read access. Writing is just as slow as always.

This isn't striping. There's no performance improvement to this at all, but only the advantage that you cite. There is also less risk than raid 0. You only lose the drive you lose. With RAID 0 (striping), if you lose any disk in the array, you lose all of the data.

RAID 5 does have a performance improvement, assuming that your controller has enough CPU power to put everything back together as fast as it is read off of the disks.

Huh?? I had my two raptors in raid 0, and then I had a Western Digital 250 gig drive that ram off a PATA controller. I did all my editing and compiling on my raid, and then copied it over when I was done.....

__________________
-Justin

91 560 SEC AMG - other dogs dd
01 Honda S2000 - dogs dd
07 MB ML320 CDI - dd
16 Lexus IS250 - wifes dd

it's automatic.

Apparently, I completely misread what you wrote. Sorry about that.