RAID question...(similarity of drives?)

[Xylo]

I have a LANPARTY nF4 mobo and am planning on creating a RAID array (most likely just a 2-drive RAID 0+1)...

Just how similar do the two drives need to be? Absolutely identical? Just same size? Or do they need to be even closer?

Thanks!
Xylo

[prometheum]

they dont have to be identical, but if you are gonna stripe them you will only get double the size of the smallest drive, and i assume performance would be like having 2 of the crappier drives

[Vertigo Acid]

Also, you need at least 4 drives to do a 0+1 RAID array ;)

[Ice Czar]

Also, you need at least 4 drives to do a 0+1 RAID array ;)


^ ;)

while they dont absolutely have to be matched drives
it is highly recommended
and personally I wouldnt be striping drives that werent

effciency sucks on a 0+1 array (50% for matched drives, more if unmatched in capacity)
there are likely better ways to get performance and redundancy
by that I mean that its very common for members to overestimate their needs for performance space and they confuse it with storage space

further that most performance space doesnt neeed redundancy as the data it will contain is transitory
and that with multiple drives and channels concurrent access of individual drives can often offset a RAID array access que

one of the exception to large performance space with realtime redundancy would be say video editing professionally
where the loss of a single hours worth of work costs more than the drives and puts deadlines at risk, or something equally critical with large files being accessed and written with real time backup, even then there are other strategies

[prometheum]

on a similar note could you make a raid 0+1 array with 2 identical drives, and one drive that is twice the capacity of the original drive? i'm guessing no?

[The_Mage18]

on a similar note could you make a raid 0+1 array with 2 identical drives, and one drive that is twice the capacity of the original drive? i'm guessing no?

Nope, you have to have 4 drives.

Supposedly DFI created a 0.5 RAID setup that is supposed to give you 0+1 capability with only 2 drives. While this may sound great it's going to be slower than if you had an actual RAID 0+1 array or a regular RAID 0 array.

[Ice Czar]

as The_Mage18 said there has to be a minimum of 4 drives 2+2 (there after even numbers 3+3, 4+4 ect)

of course you could setup a stripped array and image it regularly to a larger drive, but its not "in" the array or realtime and there would be downtime to image it

[Vertigo Acid]

You could do it by striping the smaller disks in hardware and then setting up a software RAID-1 array between the hardware array and the bigger disk....
but I wouldn't recommend such a setup :p

[prometheum]

Nope, you have to have 4 drives.

Supposedly DFI created a 0.5 RAID setup that is supposed to give you 0+1 capability with only 2 drives. While this may sound great it's going to be slower than if you had an actual RAID 0+1 array or a regular RAID 0 array.
that sounds horridly ineffecient if it works the way i think it does

where the information is spanned accross 2 halves of 2 drives and mirrored over the other 2 halves?

[The_Mage18]

that sounds horridly ineffecient if it works the way i think it does

where the information is spanned accross 2 halves of 2 drives and mirrored over the other 2 halves?

Why do you think it never took off? :p

[Ice Czar]

Why do you think it never took off? :p

lack of spin :p

there are plenty of inferior tech examples to prove that point :p