RAID Array for Pic Storage & Gaming Box

[Deus]

I'm looking at putting together a ~2tb+ array as I'm tired of losing photos to drive failures and I am quickly finding the need to store large amounts of data and have it readily accessible with better than JBOD performance. Primary use of this box - single user home pc w/ heavy photoshop use, heavy gaming, and plenty of archiving.

I already have:
Areca ARC-1220 8-slot SATAII RAID adapter
6 WD RE2 500gb drives
1 WD SE16 500gb
PC - C2D e6400, 4gb ddr2, 680i SLI, Vista 64 Ult, 7900gt, 650w Antec

How would you guys recommend I setup this array? RAID 5, 6, 10? Multiple arrays? System/Apps on the spare hd? Anything unsual I need to be aware of with this setup?

Any input is much appreciated. I've never dealt with this scale of an array.

 

[jcazes]

I would put those 6 drives in a RAID5, with the sixth being a hot-swap (if your card can do that) so if one fails you have an immediate backup (unless you have hotswappable bays).

You can do whatever you want with that last one, unless you want to throw it in the array as well.


All in all, backup your essential files/images on DVD, as RAID isn't a means to backup your data (even though it is a preventative measure).

 

[hokatichenci]

Single Raid6 of RE2's. The Areca is plenty fast in this form, and you get the added parity. There is no reason really to hotspare a RAID5 when you've got the added safety right there.

As already noted, RAID is not a backup solution, and you should make sure that all critical data is offloaded to CD's, a backup drive that isn't always connected, or something along those lines.

 

[Farva]

I'm just curious, how many drives have failed on you? What models were they? Anything else fail besides your drives? What power supply do you have?

 

[Deus]

I'm just curious, how many drives have failed on you? What models were they? Anything else fail besides your drives? What power supply do you have?

Over the past 10 years I've had 4 drives fail. Not sure on the models but I tend to follow the storagereview.com leaderboard. I use well known power supplies (current Antec NeoPower 650w) and filtered UPS power. Never had anything else fail on me. I think its just my luck.