Want to give RAID 0 a try.

liamliam
edited March 2009 in Hardware
Hi,

I currantly have a 500GB HDD with Windows and all my files/programs on. I have a backup drive which I have everything on aswell incase anything goes wrong.

I want to give RAID 0 a try. Now I since I have a 500GB HDD, should I buy another one and make an array? Or would it be better with 2 250GB HDDs/

The 500GB HDD is http://www.ebuyer.com/product/141471
I understand the risks, advantages and disadvantages of RAID 0 and I dont mind if it goes wrong in a few months because I back everything up anyway.

I also saw these "RAID edition HDDs. http://www.ebuyer.com/product/144340

They have smaller capacity and a higher price. What is the benifits of these or are they just a marketing scam.

Basically, whats the best thing for me to do for a RAID 0 array.

Thanks.

Comments

  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited March 2009
    If you buy another 500gb drive then that will give you about a 1tb raid 0 array. If you buy 2x250gb drives that will give you about 500gb raid 0 array. If speed is your goal then the more drives and the smaller the drives you have the better speed gain. So if you have 500gb of data and you are hoping to see some kind of speed gain then you'll want 2x250gb.

    Do you have a raid controller of some sort? Otherwise you'll have to rely on software based Raid 0 which is A)defeating the potential speed gain of Raid ) and B)greatly increasing the chance of your raid failing and any chance of recovering it.

    If you are just experimenting and understand the risks that's fine. But is there some gain you are trying to see with Raid 0? Because I can tell you now you're not going to notice it.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited March 2009
    If you are just experimenting and understand the risks that's fine.
    Agreed. If you want to play, have at it. If you are looking for a real gain at desktop level, ha ha. Nothing wrong with the 'play.' It is fun. Just understand though, that with RAID 0 for most desktop systems, you at least double the probability of data loss versus an ordinary single drive configuration.
  • liamliam
    edited March 2009
    I am looking for a speed gain and i have an asus maximus II formula and that has a raid controller.
  • BuddyJBuddyJ Dept. of Propaganda OKC Icrontian
    edited March 2009
    Onboard controllers are wonky, even on a nice board like that. Get a dedicated RAID card and go to town.
  • liamliam
    edited March 2009
    will i see more performance useing a card. and can you recommend one?
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited March 2009
    You aren't going to see a significant performance gain no matter what you do. Raid 0 on a hardware card is technically faster then onboard raid, which is faster then software raid. However none of those methods are still going to be noticeably faster then not using Raid at all.

    So to some up Pro's of using Raid 0 over no Raid. Insignificant speed gain that you'd only notice if you are lucky in a few circumstances.

    Con's of using Raid 0, extra cost, extra complication in configuring it, highly increased chance of permanent data loss, loss of flexibility if you need to reconfigure and upgrade your system.

    If you want to do Raid 0 correctly to see a speed gain. You need several nice fast and small 36gb raptor drives in a raid 0. Using regular 250gb drives in a raid 0 you aren't going to see any gain at all.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited March 2009
    Great hardware raid card:

    http://icrontic.pgpartner.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=7675562/search=3ware/st=product/sv=title
  • BuddyJBuddyJ Dept. of Propaganda OKC Icrontian
    edited March 2009
    Yes you will.

    Something like this should be good. I'm no RAID expert though.
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816115047&Tpk=rocketraid%203120
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