First Foray into Raid array, guidence appreciated

Hello,

I'm looking to build a 4 disk raid 5 array with 2tb hard drives.

I would like to first like to explain that I travel nearly year round, and this is what I travel for my computer:
silverstone sugo sg02
asus rampage II GENE
i7 920
6GB RAM
Radeon HD 4890
and a Mushkin 800W modular PSU.

Currently the system has a 1TB drive for OS and Games, and 1 2tb Drive for storage. As it is nearly full, I am currently considering removing both optical drives, and putting in 4 2tb drives for a raid 5 array. The array would be used for storage only.

I would also be purchasing an SSD for my OS and games and I would just Velcro/zip-tie that somewhere inside. Anything i do needs to all be in the case

I know my motherboard supports onboard RAID, although I have been browsing multiple forums and most more experienced people seem to agree that a add-in card is a better idea.

I Really am looking for some direction/advice from you guys who have more experience than i in building Raid 5 systems. Since this is for storage of media only, Performance is not the most important aspect for me, but i would like at least the levels i have with the 2tb drive.

Should I use and add in card? I currently am not looking to upgrade the Mobo or CPU, as nothing I play seems to be pushing the i7 much, but maybe a little over a year from now I might.

Is there a specific type/class of HD that i should use? What do you think of my plan?

I highly recommend reading this article to better familirize yourself with the Differences between Hardware RAID, HBAs, and Software RAID:
http://www.servethehome.com/difference-hardware-raid-hbas-software-raid/

Showbiz said:

Should I use and add in card?

Click to expand...

Well it's largely dependent on your performance needs and budget: The onboard RAID route would only be about 15Mb/s to 20Mb/s slower than some of the 2TB drives out there. If that's unacceptable to you, then you're gonna have to spring the extra cash for a good true hardware RAID controller. The link I gave above provides a few recomnedations for that.

Showbiz said:

Is there a specific type/class of HD that i should use?

Click to expand...

Yeah just stick to Samsung or Hitachi drives as those drives tend to have better compatibility rates with many true hardware RAID controllers out there.

If you use WD, you should use their RE3 drives (they use TLER) instead of the Green drives. Also, you may want to use RAID 6 if you can since it allows up to two drives to fail without losing the array. Hardware RAID is great, but it is expensive and you may have better luck with software RAID or FakeRAID if your budget is a constraint.

btw, do you take your comp with you? If so, you might want to get hard drive cases so that if it is banged around, physical damage will be lessened.

Yes I do travel the computer with me, for travel i just put it in a carry on roller bag, and then it just sits in the hotel for however long I am in a particular city. I have been traveling this desktop for about 4 years now, and it has treated me very well through its 3 different Iterations.

Here's another question that I didn't think about, Looking at that article that Danny Bui Posted, i noticed that some of the hardware RAID controllers had a battery backup and NAND storage solution in the event of power failure. This brings me to my question of which solution is best considering that i may need to shutdown and reboot this system at least once per week depending on how many jumps I have?

Also What does Serial Attached SCSI mean? Does that mean that i will have to purchase adapters if say I wanted to use this card?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816103097

Showbiz said:

Also What does Serial Attached SCSI mean? Does that mean that i will have to purchase adapters if say I wanted to use this card?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816103097

Click to expand...

No, SATA HDDs will work with a SAS controller, but SAS HDDs will not work with a SATA controller. You should be good, but be warned that some SAS controllers won't enable the onboard memory (write-cache) if SATA HDDs are used, so double check the controller.

Really, if all you are using the drives for is storage (not high performance) then a SAS controller is totally unnecessary and so is hardware RAID.

You could use the onboard SATA ports on your mobo and just setup a software RAID array through windows/linux with RAID5, or even get a FakeRAID controller that supports RAID 5.

Is there a reason you want/need hardware RAID? It seems kind of overkill and overly expensive for just a pure storage solution with desktop-class SATA drives.

Well from what I have been able to gather is that if i upgraded, or if the motherboard failed and was replaced, there's a good chance I would lose the array. This was the main reason that I was seriously looking at a hardware raid solution. I don't mind paying for it, if it is really the best solution.

The reason that I was looking at a raid solution to begin with is that i always seem to be running out of hard drive space, and with HD densities ever increasing, I'm worried that i would lose everything in the event of a single failure. at least with raid 5 i would have the chance to swap in a spare drive in the event of a failure, and i would have ample cheap capacity.

If you did software RAID, then you can just reactivate it with the next windows/linux install since software RAID is OS dependent, not hardware/mobo dependent. What OS do you use?

btw, if you have the money, then definitely get a hardwareRAID controller, but get a SATA controller, SAS is overkill and may not entirely work with the setup. The only reason to get a SAS controller is if it supports hardware RAID 6 and you need SAS drives, imo.

Also, LSI and 3Ware have the best controllers, Adaptec is ok, but stay away from HighPoint.

I'll be using this setup on a windows 7 system.

Found this LSI card that got really high reviews
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816118107

Most of the cards that got decent reviews that seem to be SATA/SAS cards.

Thanks for your help with this, its going to be a lot of hardware in a very small space. I'll Post pics when I build it in May.

Awesome choice, I look forward to the pics! Just make sure to use the TLER-enabled drives such as the WD RE3 drives if you do go with hardware RAID, rather than the Green drives which aren't that good outside of software RAID imo.

Best of luck!

Finally Finished the build, everything was so much easier than I expected

Special thanks to Red Falcon and Danny Bui for their help and guidance.


And as promised, here a some pics of the rig:

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Clearly Cable Management isn't my thing, suggestions are much appreciated.

Also if any of you know of an LGA1366 air cooler that is better than the stock one from Intel that would fit under the PSU, i would also greatly appreciate that.