Can I do RAID 0 with 3 drives?

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

I am looking to eventually run my current config of storage as one large RAID 0 drive. All 3 drives are the same. I know RAID 0 isn't the worst thing for storage but they will be mirrored or in a RAID 1 config with a single drive of or about the same size. Can I do RAID 0 with these 3 exact same drive?

 

[LittleNemoNES]

yes
You a increasing the probability of losing data to 3x, though.
If anything, add another drive and make it RAID 10

 

[Nothinman]

You can have as many drives in RAID0 as you want but with every additional drive you increase your chances of a drive failure and losing the entire array.

I know RAID 0 isn't the worst thing for storage but they will be mirrored or in a RAID 1 config with a single drive of or about the same size.

You sure your controller supports that?

 

[LittleNemoNES]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
You can have as many drives in RAID0 as you want but with every additional drive you increase your chances of a drive failure and losing the entire array.

I know RAID 0 isn't the worst thing for storage but they will be mirrored or in a RAID 1 config with a single drive of or about the same size.

You sure your controller supports that?

I guess he means RAID 1e
(2x Hdds in RAID 0 + 1 mirroring HDD
It's is pretty rare -- mostly available in pricey HBAs

 

[Nothinman]

I guess he means RAID 1e
(2x Hdds in RAID 0 + 1 mirroring HDD
It's is pretty rare -- mostly available in pricey HBAs

That's what it sounds like to me too and I know software RAID will do it fine if you have a version of Windows that does redundant RAID or Linux, but I didn't know any cheapo controllers would do it.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

It's probably an awkward setup to most. Currently, it's 1 boot drive, 1 storage drive through mobo SATA ICH9R. The single storage drive is mirrored to a set of 2x500 drives in RAID 0 by a simple program/app that are hooked into a cheap SATA Rosewill RC 209 RAID controller card. The RAID 0 is never on unless I decide to to the backing up which I have to then shut down the PC, unplug the cord to the PSU, plug in the modular cable I have hooked exclusively to the RAID 0 drives, plug back in the PSU cord, and reboot. Then the app will do an auto sync and mirror the drive config. The day I need more space I will just take the single 500Gb drive and back it up to the new drive and then add that drive to the RAID 0 config which will total 1395 or 1.4Tb by then, those size drives should be inexpensive. As it stands, those 500Gb drives are no longer on the market so hopefully I will never need more space than 1.4Tb

But the problem that have or will come are the things I want to get or need room for. I need as of right now, 3 PCI slots. Sound card, SATA card, and NIC card. I know, I know, I have been using the onboard Network devices for a while but something has recently changed my opinion about using them for gaming. So, I have to look ahead at my storage options and inherently my mobo slot options. My current problem is I need to make room for the PCI NIC card and I'm not going to change out the sound card so that leaves the storage card. There are 2 Asus mobo's out there P45's that can accommodate my need. The Asus P5Q and the P5Q Premium. The P5Q has 3 PCI slots but is a low end board with things in places I'm not fond of; The P5Q Premium is a bit expensive and has terrible reviews at New Egg but has multiple onboard SATA controllers. Which also suits my needs, but is nearing a little too expensive considering parts that I just ordered