hard drive RAID upgrades...

[AmongTheChosenX]

well one of my trusty 80GB IDE hard drives can't be picked up by my new 680i SLI.

so... that being said, i need to get either a replacement drive or set some new thigns up.

heres what I have currently.

2 x Seagate 7200.10 ST3250410AS Hard drives in a RAID 0 array, on the Nvidia RAID controller.
1 x 120GB Western Digital 7200 RPM IDE Hard drive, stand alone (for data backup)
1 x 80GB Hitachi Desktar 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive, stand alone (also for data backup) THIS IS NOT PICKED UP BY THE 680i PROPERLY.

I don't know what RAID is the best to use. I'm reading that RAID 5 is really quick, but software RAID 5 is the same as RAID 0. but then again RAID 0 is ALSO off my software controller. I don't really want to fork a ton of cash over for a RAID 5 add in card.

which one is better and why?

moving on, what I can do is either:

buy 2 more identical 250GB hard drives and make a 1 TB array of four drives. I can tehn RAID this into either RAID 0 or RAID 5. then buy a 500GB SATA drive for data backup and sell my IDE drives.

sell all my current hard drives (2 250GB's, both IDE drives), buy two 640GB hard drives for RAID 0, and then a 500GB data backup drive. I can also try to get away with a 250GB drive for backup and sell the other.

simply buy a replacement IDE hard drive

I have almost 200 GB's of backup data, i'm sure it'll get bigger as time goes on (theres about 300-400 GB's of regular data, e.g. my main partition). i'm jsut not sure whats the best option for me to do here. I'd love to sell the 2 IDE drives, get some money for those, buy a 500GB SATA2 backup drive, and then eventually 2 more 250GB drives for a RAID 5 Array.

help?

[Syntax Error]

You're probably better off just getting a good, reliable 640GB WD6400AAKS than messing with RAID. RAID 5 is usually not as fast as RAID 0 in my experience, and any benches you've probably seen only deals with RAID 5 read speeds, as RAID 5 write speeds are much slower due to parity calculations involved in the schemata of RAID 5.

Also, RAID 5 implementation is tricky based on what hardware you have, I personally wouldn't trust RAID with NVIDIA chipsets as all, as its performance is really spikey, so I wouldn't expect decent RAID 5 performance on hardware-assisted software RAID on your 680i. Good RAID 5 arrays are usually offloaded onto secondary RAID controllers (i.e., expensive) or through software means in Linux or Windows Server, whichever also has its pros and cons in implementation.

For the reasons stated above, that's why I would recommend just getting a good 640GB WD6400AAKS and adding more into the equation as your data needs grow, rather than to invest and mess around with RAID. RAID is not backup, it's implementation is primarily for uptime. Always keep backups of your precious data! :)

[dorkbert]

If you want RAID 5, you want dedicated hardware RAID 5. Don't settle for the cheapy "leeching off the host CPU" RAID 5 that is generally slow and unreliable.

[nitrobass24]

just get two WD6400AAKS to replace all the above. One for your data and one for backup.

These drives are fast quiet cool and wont use as much power as what you currently have.

[AmongTheChosenX]

just get two WD6400AAKS to replace all the above. One for your data and one for backup.

These drives are fast quiet cool and wont use as much power as what you currently have.



so no RAID with these? wouldn't RAID just improve performance on these already speedy drives?

[Syntax Error]

so no RAID with these? wouldn't RAID just improve performance on these already speedy drives?

Doubtful you'd probably need the speed benefits of two of these in RAID 0 compared to RAID 1 peace of mind, or hell, two separate drives, where one is a backup of your files or a storage unit. WD6400AAKS's are pretty fast by themselves, no need to complicate things by going into RAID, especially with NVIDIA stripe.

[AmongTheChosenX]

Doubtful you'd probably need the speed benefits of two of these in RAID 0 compared to RAID 1 peace of mind, or hell, two separate drives, where one is a backup of your files or a storage unit. WD6400AAKS's are pretty fast by themselves, no need to complicate things by going into RAID, especially with NVIDIA stripe.

is it possible to get a cheap RAID controller for 2 640GB drives? doesn't need to be RAID 5, RAID 0 is good.

[Syntax Error]

You could always get a PCI or PCI-e Silicon Image-based SATA controller that can do RAID functionality, though I haven't tested personally on how effective those are in data integrity or speed.

Why are you so dead set for RAID, anyways? Is it because of the speed benefits? You stated that you only had 200GB of data, which a 640GB would easily take and have room to spare, and you could always get more than one disk, I'm sure. In my opinion, the risks associated with RAID 0 outweighs the benefits for you, which would be exponential increase in data loss if one disk in the array were to fail.

[AmongTheChosenX]

You could always get a PCI or PCI-e Silicon Image-based SATA controller that can do RAID functionality, though I haven't tested personally on how effective those are in data integrity or speed.

Why are you so dead set for RAID, anyways? Is it because of the speed benefits? You stated that you only had 200GB of data, which a 640GB would easily take and have room to spare, and you could always get more than one disk, I'm sure. In my opinion, the risks associated with RAID 0 outweighs the benefits for you, which would be exponential increase in data loss if one disk in the array were to fail.

no no no... I have 200GB's of BACKUP DATA (including my documents backed up, movies i've ripped, games i've ripped, etc). I have about prolly 300-400 GB's when everything is installed, and i'm always picking up new stuff.

my apologies on that, i edited the post and forgot to put that back.

i just always thought RAID was alot faster. Even on my Intel 915P chipset the JBOD array was faster than single disks, even though those 2 disks did not match (different brands), but still it was faster than single disk. i figured everything can only get alot better since those drives are already fast.

[Syntax Error]

Well, it shouldn't be too tough to set up a RAID 0 or RAID 1 array on your motherboard, since it has an NVIDIA chipset. Personally, I'm not too fond of how NVIDIA chipsets handle RAID striping, doing tests with SSDs in RAID before gave gigantic spikes (like shark teeth) in performance.

Something like this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815124020) or this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816132008) for add-on cards could also do you at a bare minimum of RAID 0 or RAID 1.

You should always be cautions when going into RAID, as I've said before, its original purpose isn't for backup, but for uptime. Always keep good backups of your precious data, and you should have good performance - and peace of mind - when using RAID 0 striped with WD6400AAKS's. :D

[AmongTheChosenX]

ya i'm thinking 640GB drives in RAID 0 will FLY!

and i intend to set a backup schedule of all my p[recious data to the 500 GB drive. who knows maybe I'll just buy 3 640 GB drives and use one for backup :D

[nitrobass24]

so no RAID with these? wouldn't RAID just improve performance on these already speedy drives?


Yes it would....keep in mind you will only see a performance boost on a raid volume when doing large sequential read/writes or something that has a lot of IOPS like a DB server. Raid will not improve your access and you wont notice a difference in booting up, opening programs etc.

I would also like to echo what syntax error has said about NVRaid...it sucks I dont even buy boards that have nvidia chipsets in them. Although i dont game so no need for SLI. anyways I had a bad experience with a nvidia board back in the day that cost me a lot of time and a lot of lost information.
All that said if your dead set on doing a RAID get a decent controller. Cheap software based ones can be found for around $50 not great but better than NV Stripe.
ya i'm thinking 640GB drives in RAID 0 will FLY!

and i intend to set a backup schedule of all my p[recious data to the 500 GB drive. who knows maybe I'll just buy 3 640 GB drives and use one for backup :D

If your doing a RAID0 you better have backup....especially if its an NV Stripe.

[AmongTheChosenX]

Yes it would....keep in mind you will only see a performance boost on a raid volume when doing large sequential read/writes or something that has a lot of IOPS like a DB server. Raid will not improve your access and you wont notice a difference in booting up, opening programs etc.

I would also like to echo what syntax error has said about NVRaid...it sucks I dont even buy boards that have nvidia chipsets in them. Although i dont game so no need for SLI. anyways I had a bad experience with a nvidia board back in the day that cost me a lot of time and a lot of lost information.
All that said if your dead set on doing a RAID get a decent controller. Cheap software based ones can be found for around $50 not great but better than NV Stripe.


If your doing a RAID0 you better have backup....especially if its an NV Stripe.



the question i have is how much better will a $50 RAID controller be compared to Nvidia RAID?

and as i said, I'm going to be getting a 500GB or 640GB Hard drive for backup, it will not be attached to any RAID arrays. if i stick with a 250 i will be doing the same. I'm not looking to get a RAID 5 setup because apparently its about as good as RAID 0, and i would have to buy 2 new smaller hard drives... that'd suck.

[AmongTheChosenX]

ok, so now from what i've read.

CPU's are so fast these days that software RAID is usually as fast as or FASTER than ahrdware RAID. and i save cost. granted i have NV RAID, but i don't really care as i'm going to be doing back ups anyway.

this site is amazing for this: http://www.storagereview.com/

i might consider RAID 01 or RAID 10 if I can come up with that money, but i'll have to buy myself a new case at that point because my mid tower is already packed out.
unless I do a 4 drive RAID 1+0. oh wait NV RAID Doesnt support that :(

one option is:
a 4 drive RAID 0+1 Array, say 4 250GB drives. again i'm not really seeing this to be even useful to me. the money i'd be putting in i'm not getting extra performance, and I can remedy the issue of redundancy with a 500GB or even a 1 TB backup drive and ghost the ENTIRE partition over once a week. then I wouldn't have ANY problems with backup. Drive fails, just destroy the RAID 0 array, and then rebuild it so its blank, then re ghost the backed up partition over to the newly created RAID 0 array, bam. everything back to normal.

and i just basically explained my other option... RAID 0 with weekly partition ghosting to a 500GB drive.\

now should I buy 640GB drives or get something else?

[nitrobass24]

now should I buy 640GB drives or get something else?

Man d00d you need to decide what your ultimate goals are....what risk you are willing to take...how much you want to spend...how much space you need/want etc.

Figure those out and we can give good suggestions and help you figure out how to best meet those needs/wants

[AmongTheChosenX]

Man d00d you need to decide what your ultimate goals are....what risk you are willing to take...how much you want to spend...how much space you need/want etc.

Figure those out and we can give good suggestions and help you figure out how to best meet those needs/wants

well i figure 500 GB and 640 are close in price. I can't afford terrabyte drives.

if I can sell both my 250GB drives for $50 each, and then my IDE drives $40 and $30, that'll give me $170 to work with. I can pick up 2 640 drives, RAID 0 them, break even, then find a 500GB drive for $60-65 ish


that sounds like a decent plan. i dont have alot to work with right now. i will in the next 2 weeks.

[H911]

Go with the 640 since they're really fast considering the price, speed and capacity.
I would suggest a few 640gb raid 5 for storage. Don't recomand that for OS since u don't need that much space for OS unless u wanna partition it.

Then use the smaller HDs raid 0 for OS.Like one of the vraptor =D

[AmongTheChosenX]

Go with the 640 since they're really fast considering the price, speed and capacity.
I would suggest a few 640gb raid 5 for storage. Don't recomand that for OS since u don't need that much space for OS unless u wanna partition it.

Then use the smaller HDs raid 0 for OS.Like one of the vraptor =D

meh i can't spend as much as a velociraptor on a hard drive :/

i think i'll do 3 640 drives, 2 in RAID 0 and one for data backups.
or 2 640's in RAID 0 and a 400-500GB for data backup.