Is a dedicated RAID card necesarry?

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NleahciM

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Hi there - I'm building up a new mATX system. I want to mirror RAID two Hitachi 7K1000s in it. This system will be a general purpose dev and HTPC system.

Is there a large advantage to using a dedicated RAID card over using integrated motherboard RAID?
 
Toward what end do you want to mirror two disks? What advantage do you imagine this will have?
 
There are some advantages.

You can buy a card to support the RAID modes you want although modern motherboards are getting better so may already have the RAID modes now.

If you ever need to change motherboard, its most unlikely you can transfer the RAID array to a new motherboard safely if using more than just mirroring.
So if you ever have a motherboard failure you have likely lost the data on the RAID array unless you get the same motherboard, BIOS version and Drivers version and configure it the same.

A RAID array on a card is highly likely to successfully transfer to another motherboard.

The above doesnt matter so much with only Mirroring as a single drive will probably still work without the RAID controller.
Be aware that a mirror is not a backup solution as changes made to one drive will also happen to the other.
A mirror is a failover solution so choose a RAID controller that allows this to happen quickly without intervention and allows easy rebuilding of a replaced drive.
 
Nenu said:
There are some advantages.

You can buy a card to support the RAID modes you want although modern motherboards are getting better so may already have the RAID modes now.

If you ever need to change motherboard, its most unlikely you can transfer the RAID array to a new motherboard safely if using more than just mirroring.
So if you ever have a motherboard failure you have likely lost the data on the RAID array unless you get the same motherboard, BIOS version and Drivers version and configure it the same.

A RAID array on a card is highly likely to successfully transfer to another motherboard.

The above doesnt matter so much with only Mirroring as a single drive will probably still work without the RAID controller.
Be aware that a mirror is not a backup solution as changes made to one drive will also happen to the other.
A mirror is a failover solution so choose a RAID controller that allows this to happen quickly without intervention and allows easy rebuilding of a replaced drive.
Click to expand...

Well I don't care about moving to a different mobo... I just want my data to be better protected.
 
RAID doesnt protect your data, it keeps your hard drive system running and/or gives better performance.

If using mirrored drives and you delete some data or a virus does, it goes from both drives.
Its best to back your data up periodically.
 
on-board raid is sufficient for your purpose.

raid card is expensive and for your purpose will see no performance increase.

but take note of the others, raid isn't a backup. Be sure to have other (emergency) backups and do it regularly. raid1 will only help against mechanical failure of one of the two drives.

lose a hard drive - ok
failure of the controller - lose all your data
virus - lose all your data
accidental delete - lose all your data
other software error - lose all your data
 
Guys, he specifically said "I've had a lot of hard drives fail on me". Well, that's PRECISELY where RAID 1 is supposed to help. He didn't mention user error such as getting virii, accidentally deleting everything on his drives, etc.
 
Get a stand alone system independant raid 1 controller.
 
Cyrilix said:
Guys, he specifically said "I've had a lot of hard drives fail on me". Well, that's PRECISELY where RAID 1 is supposed to help. He didn't mention user error such as getting virii, accidentally deleting everything on his drives, etc.
Click to expand...

He said "I just want my data to be better protected" so we explained what RAID could and couldnt do for him.
You dont think he might want to know that then?
 
Nenu said:
He said "I just want my data to be better protected" so we explained what RAID could and couldnt do for him.
You dont think he might want to know that then?
Click to expand...

I guess you're right, even though people mention it in every RAID thread. That said, I think for him, RAID 1 would be just fine.
 
lol I spose it can seem like too much of the same old.
The majority of the posts I make are for questions that have already been answered but its a nice community on the whole so I'm happy to go a bit extra :)
 
I prefer to use a raid controller when possible but for raid 1 onboard should be ok. I'd still recomend going with a hardware controller if possible.

As others have said this is not a backup solution so if the data is important have another device to back the data up to.
 
NleahciM said:
I've had a lot of hard drives fail on me. Mirroring them will give me some protection.
Click to expand...

If you've had a lot of drives fail on you, perhaps it isn't the drives you would be worried about. I'd look at your PSU first.
 
protias said:
If you've had a lot of drives fail on you, perhaps it isn't the drives you would be worried about. I'd look at your PSU first.
Click to expand...

All of my hard drives that have failed were in various external enclosures. I don't know why that kills them - but it sure seems to. This will be my first non laptop computer in years.


With all this said - I'm thinking about leaving one of new new hard drives in an enclosure and instead of doing RAID just backing up manually every day to it, or something like that. Your all's points regarding what RAID 1 does and does not do for you are very valid.
 
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