Raid Install

[Priesy]

Hi all
I'm in the final stages of a PC build and am now considering setting up Raid edging toward raid 5
My motherboard supports this and I have installed an AMD phenom 9950 x4 processor
What would be the best way to go on installing raid, via the motherboard or by using a seperate controller due to processor dependancy
Or as I've read on several links should I leave raid well alone
Also what kind of likelihood is there of HDD failure
Any advice appreciated
TIA

 

[Messa]

Hi all
I'm in the final stages of a PC build and am now considering setting up Raid edging toward raid 5
My motherboard supports this and I have installed an AMD phenom 9950 x4 processor
What would be the best way to go on installing raid, via the motherboard or by using a seperate controller due to processor dependancy
Or as I've read on several links should I leave raid well alone
Also what kind of likelihood is there of HDD failure
Any advice appreciated
TIA

I have 4 x 1T drives in two RAID0 arrays. Performance is blistering but obviously I have no redundancy for when things go wrong.

To combat this I use 'Sync Toy' which is a microsoft powertoy that backs up predetermined folders to another location. Periodically I backup all my user settings and the documents and settings folder to the two raid arrays and also to an external caddy.

I know this sounds like overkill but I have had drives fail on me and I have learned my lesson.

I know some people will advise you to mirror but for me I don't see the point of copying every single thing on my pc item by item, I mean for example I download lots of stuff but if I lose it I just download it again I don't need one for one copies all the time.

Performance wise RAID0 is superb, once you have used a striped array you wont go back, it was one of the biggest performance increases I ever saw for a relatively small outlay.

If you have 3 drives and can afford to lose one then RAID5 is probably a good idea, but if you only have 2 I would recommend RAID0 but backup externally.

Messa

EDIT : to answer your other point, onboard is fine for RAID0 but for any redundancy an addon card with its own processor is recommended I believe.

 

[Priesy]

I was planning to go with 6 drives eventually as that's what my motherboard allows
I have very little data that really needs backup ( about 2 dvd's worth ) so i'm not bothered about data loss
As I mentioned before my main thought is between a motherboard or PCI based set up
BTW how many drives have you had fail ?
I'd like to know more about failure rates B4 I take the plunge

Cheers

 

[hatab]

ill just add my wieght to Messa's points if you can afford it raid5 is the way to go imho, and if you are going to do it properly go with a seperate card.

raid 5 seems expensive when you have a 3 drives as you loose the capacity of a 1/3 of your total but as you expand the cost reduces, if you have 8 drives you loose 1/8 as the effective capacity is n-1 (n=number of drives)

not sure what disks you are looking at but the new sas interface boxes are looking good on some of our servers, we have hot plug sata drives.

 

[Priesy]

I currently have 2 western digital 500gb sata 2 drives
Having looked more into the controller costs I'm gonna start with the onboard set up first I'll just buy another couple of matching drives to start
I'll see how much impact this has on the cpu then if needs be I'll buy a controller card.........damn those things can be expensive
Cheers

 

[Messa]

BTW how many drives have you had fail ?
I'd like to know more about failure rates B4 I take the plunge

Cheers

I have had many many drives over the years pal and the failure rate using RAID has been no more or less than 'normal' usage, but people quote a 50% higher failure rate which can be misleading. They get this figure from the fact that you lose both drives in the array if one of your striped drives fail but it doesn't mean you are 50% more likely to have a drive fail, if you get me.

I have also had drives fail one after the other of the same make/model which was just down to a known manufacturing defect, but again not due to the array.

Hope this helps,

Messa

 

[Munkey]

Onboard raid including Intel raid is ok for home users but doesn't perform as well as a dedicated raid pci express card.

I never use onboard raid any more, pci express is the way to go.