RAID 5 or RAID 0+1?

[fowen]

I have 3 160GB 7200.7 Seagate IDE HDD's and I am looking at building a workstation with them. The motherboard I have supports RAID 0+1 but I would need to purchase a new drive. ($30 +/-).

Would I be better off buying a used RAID card (like this one - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816116020) and run RAID5 or should I buy a second drive and run RAID 0+1?

[DougLite]

For a workstation? RAID 0+1, definitely. RAID-5's random write performance, even with a hardware accelerated RAID card, is pretty weak.

[jay2472000]

Just food for thought, and my humble opinion. Why not run all 3 of those 160's in a raid 0 stripe, buy one of these http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136298 to back up to, and youll see a nice increase in speed all around.

[Syntax Error]

RAID 5 is unnecessary, as DougLite has stated. Introduces unnecessary costs and not enough tangible benefit, especially if it wasn't for long-term data storage, but rather, as a scratch pad for your workstation.

RAID 10 would be good due to its redundancy and speed, though it's not totally redundant in the sense that if a drive in both stripe sets were to fail, your data is lost.

Also remember to always keep backups...RAID does not and has not ever substituted for backups.

[fowen]

Well, I bought the RAID card (it was $30.00 shipped). It sounds like RAID5 isn't the right config for a workstation. I was just looking for a bit more speed then one single drive (since I have the extra drives) but more redundancy then RAID0. Two of these drives were previously in a RAID0 array.

Will I see a large benefit of using all three drives in RAID 0 over using just 2 in RAID 0? Also will i see a benefit in using the 3ware card over the onboard controller for RAID 10 or RAID 0?

Also, backups are a must, I know that. I am also in process os building a WHS to handle the backups for the machines on the network as well as hold my DVD collection.

[fowen]

Anyone?

[DougLite]

Well, I bought the RAID card (it was $30.00 shipped). It sounds like RAID5 isn't the right config for a workstation. I was just looking for a bit more speed then one single drive (since I have the extra drives) but more redundancy then RAID0. Two of these drives were previously in a RAID0 array.

Will I see a large benefit of using all three drives in RAID 0 over using just 2 in RAID 0? Also will i see a benefit in using the 3ware card over the onboard controller for RAID 10 or RAID 0?

Also, backups are a must, I know that. I am also in process os building a WHS to handle the backups for the machines on the network as well as hold my DVD collection.3Ware cards don't have a reputation for being fast. RAID throughput scaling with additional drives has improved in recent memory, although you will need to test for yourself to see how big the boost is in your configuration and decide if it is worth the costs.