Raid 5 for video work/VMs or should I just go solid state?

K

Kirika

Gawd
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Aug 10, 2006
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I have a Areca 1120 with 4 320 gb seagates Raid 5 as my current array which is getting old and I can't use it in a new workstation anyway because no more PCI-X slots.

I'm looking at either going with a 4 drive raid 5 again with Western Digital Blacks or should I just be getting solid states like the 480 gb Crucials are down to $220. Is it worth the risk to raid the SSDs?

Is Areca still the raid card to get? Looking to get a pcie raid card with onboard memory.

Also whats a inexpensive card pcie to put a raid 1 on for my data? currently have a highpoint rocket raid for that. Was told not to use Motherboard raid.
 
or should I just be getting solid states like the 480 gb Crucials are down to $220.
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Just get a single SSD and make backups onto an external hard drive. No need to raid the SSD. You will not notice a performance difference between raid0 and a single drive that is unless you read and write large files all day sequentially. Most software (including games) does not read or write in chunks large enough to notice that is unless you get a RAID optimized SAS card like the LSI megaraid + fastpath for $400+.

Edit: You said you do video work and VMs. Both of these will benifit from raided SSDs + fastpath.

currently have a highpoint rocket raid for that
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I recommend rebranded LSI sas cards from eBay.
 
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How much storage do you need? SSDs are pretty reliable, I would just recommend regular backups.
 
Definitely SSDs for that kind of workload. Crucial M500 is a good choice because of the enterprise features and good GB/$. I wouldn't worry about striping SSDs if you need the performance and don't mind a little downtime in case of a hardware failure. Just keep your OS and programs on a separate SSD and set up automated backups to spinning rust.
 
Thank you.

@descherjm
I was thinking go with 2 Crucial 480 gb in raid 0 would be much better in performance then 4 x western digital blacks in a raid 5 but I would not have redundancy and less space. Cost is about the same. My current array is 900 gb. I have about 640 gb on it right now between VMs and my current video project files and some game video clips. Would like to add some more VMs in the future when I get a new box.

So which LSI Megaraid card you recommend for a SSD raid? I think I paid about $400 for my Areca 1120 so $400 is fine.

What are the LSI rebrands to look for?

@silk186
current array is about 900 gb. Two 480 gb ssd would give me about the same amount where 4 1tb wd blacks would give me about 3 gb big difference in space. Don't see myself working with 4k any time soon so.
 
Western Digital Blacks are not designed for Raid. Either the "RE" drives or the "Raptors" are set for Raid use. The plain Blacks will drop out of the Raid configuration on a regular basis. The LSI cards that are CV (Cache Vault) models are a little more expensive but do away with the need for back-up batteries so are actually cheaper in the long run.
Almost any brand SSD will work very well with the LSI cards. Sansung Pro's (MLC) are top notch but the Samsung Evo's (TLC) are a lot cheaper and give almost the same performance.
 
Thank you Solid state raid 0 it is then.

@jrweis
First that I heard that WD blacks have problems in raid. I have had 2 WD blacks in raid 1 for my data array on a highpoint rocket raid for years and I never had a problem. First 1 tbs now 2 tbs. No issues.

What about the red NAS drives? Can get a 4 tb for what a 3tb black costs.
 
I believe you will lose TRIM support if you have SSDs in raid 0 but I haven't look into it too much.
 
@silk186
That depends on the RAID controller. TRIM should work with 6-series and newer Intel chipsets.
 
jrweis said:
Western Digital Blacks are not designed for Raid. Either the "RE" drives or the "Raptors" are set for Raid use. The plain Blacks will drop out of the Raid configuration on a regular basis. The LSI cards that are CV (Cache Vault) models are a little more expensive but do away with the need for back-up batteries so are actually cheaper in the long run.
Almost any brand SSD will work very well with the LSI cards. Sansung Pro's (MLC) are top notch but the Samsung Evo's (TLC) are a lot cheaper and give almost the same performance.
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Yes and no, you can use black and even green but the issue with being kicked out of a RAID array is due to Time Limited Error Recovery (TLER) being disabled. TLER is a feature available on Western Digital's premium, higher-priced range of RAID enabled drives, and can be enabled on green/black drives. WD has release the utility called WDIDLE3.EXE which can be used to turn TLER on and off.

Personally I only use RE Western Digital drives but primary for the higher MTBF ratings and the 5 year warranty.
 
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