Thread: RAID Card Suggestions?

Originally Posted by Creeping Death

I would only consider running RAID0 if I was running solid state drives. It absolutely flies under RAID0. Other then that, RAID1/RAID5/RAID10 are probably your best bet.

Man...I don't even want to think about how much 3TB's of SSD's would set me back.....but what a nice thought. (the speed, not the money.)

Originally Posted by Len-Det64

I assume that you are using your raid 0 for editing purposes and video capter. You are not using the raid as your primary drive?

This is correct. The Internal RAID is just my "work" drive.

Originally Posted by Len-Det64

I did not have any extra hook ups from my motherboard to be able to create a raid 0 array so I had to purchase a SATA Raid controller.

Which one did you go with?

Originally Posted by seraphim

Here's your simple answer:


In the end, if you go into RAID, you'll want to have the same sku disks, but from different batches(so you don't get the same batch of lemons Night Shift Sally QA'd), and more HDs. I'd suggest RAID 5, but I'd hate to suggest you stick another $250 into your computer for HD speed if you can upgrade the RAM and processor for the same price: faster computer overall, as opposed to faster HD controller.

good luck

-_Sf

Thanks for the tip on the different batches. RAM is the next upgrade...along with the 2GB Graphics card...but first things first...RAID card.

Originally Posted by EDITMAN2411

Kinda where I find myself. Except I have zero understanding of controller cards. lol I don't know why.

Any suggestions?

As far as is goes with setting up the card or the software RAID it is basically the same. the only difference is the Controller uses it's own resources to control the RAID where the software uses the systems resources.

my suggestion is go with the onboard RAID, it will be the easiest for you. The bigger question is what type of RAID do you want to use?

Originally Posted by EDITMAN2411

Thanks for the tip on the different batches. RAM is the next upgrade...along with the 2GB Graphics card...but first things first...RAID card.

just so you know the Hard drives do not have to be the same Manufacturer or SKU. Although fundamentally a good idea, but not necessary to function. The most important thing is to have the same size and speed for it to work properly.

Originally Posted by RoyalPain

my suggestion is go with the onboard RAID, it will be the easiest for you.

Is "onboard RAID" the same thing as "hardware RAID," ie - PCI RAID Card?

Originally Posted by RoyalPain

The bigger question is what type of RAID do you want to use?

RAID 0 for the 3 Internal Drives, and (for the time being) RAID 0 for the External backing them up. (again only until I can double the capacity of the external to allow for a mirrored RAID instead.)

I guess I could just save myself the hassle and go with two sets of external RAIDS (one for work, and one for backup) but I've heard that having an Internal work RAID gives you better performance. Any truth? Any card suggestions?

Originally Posted by EDITMAN2411

Man...I don't even want to think about how much 3TB's of SSD's would set me back.....but what a nice thought. (the speed, not the money.)

The only drives you want to be RAID0 are your OS/boot drive, your swap file (with enough RAM, you don't need a swap), and if you have your programs installed on a different drive. You would probably want 2 x 120GB SSDs. Then you have a 2nd array running 4 drives in RAID10 that stores all of your data and an image of your RAID0 array.

Originally Posted by Creeping Death

The only drives you want to be RAID0 are your OS/boot drive, your swap file (with enough RAM, you don't need a swap), and if you have your programs installed on a different drive. You would probably want 2 x 120GB SSDs. Then you have a 2nd array running 4 drives in RAID10 that stores all of your data and an image of your RAID0 array.

Have you seen issues with certain HDD's and RAID cards? The last system I built with nvRAID and Western Digital Black isn't 100% perfect. The SATA drives (even the Black ones) have some longer timeouts than the RAID, and cause the system to either 1) report an error or even better 2) BSOD (occaisonally). I did notice WD did pull the TLER utility from the webz.