Can someone explain RAID ?

[Morbius]

I just bought a new motherboard (GA-8IRXP) and one of its features is RAID capability.

Can someone explain what RAID does and why it would be desirable to run in that configuration?

Thanks in advance for the information.

 

[KillerCow]

I was going to give an overview of RAID... but Ars has a full skinny on RAID page that does a better job than I could. Enjoy.

P.S. Your board (4megs) supports RAID 0 and RAID 1 (pg 55).

 

[TallBill]

See that lil FAQ button up top on the right?

Faq = frequently asked questions.

Anandtechs answer to the FAQ about Raid

 

[TallBill]

Also.. no offense... but, this isnt highly technical for future use of this forum. its gonna get locked. it would belong in general hardware

 

[Rand]

God I hate the software RAID solutions commonly integrated on motherboard.... I'd as soon use NT's built in software RAID support. :disgust:

 

[ynotravid]

Amen.

 

[Evadman]

Originally posted by: Rand
God I hate the software RAID solutions commonly integrated on motherboard.... I'd as soon use NT's built in software RAID support. :disgust:

Well, I don't know about everyone else, but I look at the extra controller just for extra drives, not raid backups. But for us cheap people ( like me ) who run an e-mail and web server and are worried about cost more than speed, then that crappy software raid is usually enough. For $200 I can get data redundancy. Just nice insurance for the moron who leaves his e-mail on the server or does not backup his web design.