Critique a SATA RAID solution to replace my IDE drives.

[fuzzybabybunny]

I currently have 8 IDE hard drives, all attached to the mobo or a controller card (which is acting real fruity on the primary channel). The round cables are driving me up the wall because I can't work on anything inside the case with them all over the place.

I also do a lot of photo editing, and have hundreds of gigs of photos that I don't want to lose, but I also don't want to spend the money for tape backups. I'd like to be able to rebuild my data should a hard drive collapse. (I will be doing DVD backups though)

I was thinking about something like this:

Buy 4x320GB 7200.10 Seagates and RAID 5 them. These will be my photo and general storage drives. Since these drives are for the most part static, apart from the occasional ripping, burning, and reading of DVD ISOs, I don't think I need a $300 RAID 5 hardware solution.

How about something like this? I heard that HighPoint uses Hardware-assisted software RAID?

As for my primary, I'm just going to RAID 1 two of my existing IDE drives, probably 2x160GB WDs or Maxtors.

Comments?

 

[Rommel44]

Best solution will be those 320GB seagates in raid 5. Ohh and by the way you dont need that raid controler if you have decent MB like this - ASUS M2N-E, nForce570 Ultra - it supports RAID 0, 1, 5 and JBOD.

 

[iamtrout]

I heard Nvidia RAID sucks, and is software to boot.

 

[1N0V471V]

Originally posted by: iamtrout
I heard Nvidia RAID sucks, and is software to boot.

Have you ever used NVIDIA RAID? Didn't think so.

 

[iamtrout]

Originally posted by: 1N0V471V

Originally posted by: iamtrout
I heard Nvidia RAID sucks, and is software to boot.

Have you ever used NVIDIA RAID? Didn't think so.

Key word here. But I assume the people who I heard from did...

 

[Old Hippie]

Have you ever used NVIDIA RAID? Didn't think so.

You really don't have to when there are charts like this.

 

[GrammatonJP]

Software raid often suck big time compared to hardware. The highpoint card isn't that great, your best bet is areca. The 2310 is similar to 1820, has XOR but no IOP.. read these articles to determine whats good for you

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/918/1/page_1_introduction/index.html its almost as good or slightly better than nvidia raid

http://tweakers.net/reviews/557/1 - 2310 is very similar to 1820, which has similar problem

The RocketRAID 1820A is a direct successor to the RocketRAID 1820. The RocketRAID 1820 never got a good reputation, largely thanks to complaints regarding bad performance and even stuttering mouse cursors. On the hardware level, the RocketRAID 1820A differs from its predecessor by the addition of the HighPoint HPT601 chip, which, according to information provided on HighPoint?s website, has to its disposal an optimized XOR technique and an advanced Intelligent Cache Algorithm. A fully fledged I/O processor is not present, so most instructions are handled by the CPU. As can be seen in the upcoming pages, the lack of an I/O processor can lay a considerable burden on the resources of a single processor system in the case of parity calculations.

http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/24609792/m/661008636731/p/1

 

[Quasmo]

I am here to inform you that the nVidia RAID solution BLOWS! I'm running 5-500GB Seagates in a raid5 and it is terrible, I get no where near the transfer rate I do to a single hard drive. I now have to purchase a hardware raid card, so I've done alot of research. The best one out there for a PCI-E solution (what I need) Is the Areca series of cards. They're a bit pricey, but apparently worth every penny. I'm getting the Areca ARC-1220, it's an 8 port solution so you might want to look at the ARC-1210, a 4 port solution. They support RAID 0,1,3,5,6, and 10.

 

[GrammatonJP]

Originally posted by: Quasmo
I am here to inform you that the nVidia RAID solution BLOWS! I'm running 5-500GB Seagates in a raid5 and it is terrible, I get no where near the transfer rate I do to a single hard drive. I now have to purchase a hardware raid card, so I've done alot of research. The best one out there for a PCI-E solution (what I need) Is the Areca series of cards. They're a bit pricey, but apparently worth every penny. I'm getting the Areca ARC-1220, it's an 8 port solution so you might want to look at the ARC-1210, a 4 port solution. They support RAID 0,1,3,5,6, and 10.

Yeah. totally.. i switched to areca out of my adaptecs (came with server)...

If you think running r5 on nvidia sucks, wait till you pull a drive out to simulate drive failure.. rebuilding will eat your cpu cycles.

I only use the onboard nvidia for my 8gb iram boot drive... areca does not suppose the irams... apparently a lot of controller doesn't work with iram..

 

[Quasmo]

Originally posted by: GrammatonJP

Originally posted by: Quasmo
I am here to inform you that the nVidia RAID solution BLOWS! I'm running 5-500GB Seagates in a raid5 and it is terrible, I get no where near the transfer rate I do to a single hard drive. I now have to purchase a hardware raid card, so I've done alot of research. The best one out there for a PCI-E solution (what I need) Is the Areca series of cards. They're a bit pricey, but apparently worth every penny. I'm getting the Areca ARC-1220, it's an 8 port solution so you might want to look at the ARC-1210, a 4 port solution. They support RAID 0,1,3,5,6, and 10.

Yeah. totally.. i switched to areca out of my adaptecs (came with server)...

If you think running r5 on nvidia sucks, wait till you pull a drive out to simulate drive failure.. rebuilding will eat your cpu cycles.

I only use the onboard nvidia for my 8gb iram boot drive... areca does not suppose the irams... apparently a lot of controller doesn't work with iram..

What motherboard are you running? I have yet to get my Areca card yet (boss won't shell out the cash, but he knows damn well he needs it) I just want to make sure my motherboard is compatible.

 

[GrammatonJP]

I have it in a 1u server, its a serverworks mobo. I had it in my a8nsli to test the irams so it works with that also.

 

[Madwand1]

Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
Buy 4x320GB 7200.10 Seagates and RAID 5 them. These will be my photo and general storage drives. Since these drives are for the most part static, apart from the occasional ripping, burning, and reading of DVD ISOs, I don't think I need a $300 RAID 5 hardware solution.

How about something like this? I heard that HighPoint uses Hardware-assisted software RAID?

As for my primary, I'm just going to RAID 1 two of my existing IDE drives, probably 2x160GB WDs or Maxtors.

Sounds like a good plan to me, and possibly higher-end than what you state your needs to be. I'd suggest looking at the 2320 as well, because the 2310 would be full, and if you need to expand further in the same array, you'd have to get something like the 2320 then.

I'd further suggest keeping the old server around as a secondary backup as long as it lasts; perhaps reconfiguring it to be more stable with just enough capacity for your most important directories.

I assume you're going to be using gigabit; otherwise this controller would be a waste.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=27&threadid=1900942&enterthread=y

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

I guess if I do it right I'm going to have to shell out $340 for an Areca.

Since this is going to take time to get the money, and I need the drives now, can I first get the 4 drives, and RAID them later when they already have stuff on them?

BTW, how is Nvidia IDE RAID 1? Is it even worth it to implement for my two remaining IDE drives?

 

[GrammatonJP]

Drive prices drop all the time.. I would wait..

ie barracuda 750 - 550 first day out... now its around 362... that was only in april/may

 

[Madwand1]

Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
I guess if I do it right I'm going to have to shell out $340 for an Areca.

$340 for an Areca sounds like a good deal compared to $260 for a HighPoint, but the HighPoint is 8-port and the Areca 4-port. A 4-port HighPoint is $145, and an 8-port Areca is $580. Don't get me wrong -- an Areca is almost certainly better for the long run. But I believe that a HighPoint could be fine.

There's a fair amount of bias against software-assisted RAID cards, but they're there just as a means for a price-perfomance tradeoff, and in some cases, perform very well. I don't have a HighPoint, but I have a Broadcom, and it's just fine in my experience for such applications.

The linked Ars Technica thread also showed some people having good results with HighPoints. CPU overhead is a concern in some cases, but for a separate dedicated file server running a modern CPU, it's not really a concern.

Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
Since this is going to take time to get the money, and I need the drives now, can I first get the 4 drives, and RAID them later when they already have stuff on them?

Even if your hardware/software supprts this, which it probably doesn't, it's very risky. You should not plan on doing such a thing without a full backup.

Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
BTW, how is Nvidia IDE RAID 1? Is it even worth it to implement for my two remaining IDE drives?

nVIDIA PATA RAID 1? Does it exist?

If you keep the OS drive clean, and the data on a separate array, then you can recover access to the array data with a new OS installation/etc. on a new drive. I probably wouldn't bother with PATA RAID in this case. If you had a need for high uptime capability, then RAID 1 might be a good idea, but manual periodic backup of the OS to an external drive could still be better.