I Need A Raid Card

[AgaBoogaBoo]

I'm going to be running Raid 1 but I want a card that will give me close to the read speed of a Raid 0 setup. I know it won't be exactly the same, but it will be close to its read speed. I'd prefer the cheapest possible so I don't have to scarifice speed on the rest of the parts.

 

[ScrapSilicon]

Originally posted by: AgaBooga
I'm going to be running Raid 1 but I want a card that will give me close to the read speed of a Raid 0 setup. I know it won't be exactly the same, but it will be close to its read speed. I'd prefer the cheapest possible so I don't have to scarifice speed on the rest of the parts.

highlighted some contradictory terms... the best

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Umm... their cheapest the 7000-2 is $147 at newegg.com

I was looking for something preferably under $50

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Do any of the drivers, here, do what I want? Once again, I want near-Raid 0 performance for reads and at the same time get the Raid 1 mirroring with 2 drives.

Does the Koutech one on theredo it for $20?

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

The real need is because I'm trying to stay away from the DFI Canterwood board simply because its not as big of a company that has proven itself over the long run unlike Asus. Personally, I don't mind getting it, but my dad doesn't like to take as many risks as me. The DFI board has what they call "Raid 1.5" which does exactly what I want. I even love the lighting on the board.

Newegg Link for the Board

Raid 1.5

 

[ProviaFan]

I doubt you'll find any other RAID cards offering that proprietary technology for the price you're wanting. It's pretty much impossible, AFAIK.

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: jliechty
I doubt you'll find any other RAID cards offering that proprietary technology for the price you're wanting. It's pretty much impossible, AFAIK.

Yup. You're asking for a Ferrari at a Kia price. Not going to happen.

 

[Zepper]

DFI has been around for lots of years. I know I was using their stuff at least since the early-90s.
. Their 386/486 and Socket 5/7 mobos were also reliable for me. But for a cheap RAID card, about the best you're going to find will be a Silicon Image based card. www.compgeeks.com has one for $20.+sh. From personal experience I stay away from Kouwell/Koutech. I once bought a Koutech Vesa multi-I/O and HD controller and the length of the edge card connectors weren't in spec, so I ended up having to put a shim in the card slot. And I had to replace a lot of their stuff when I worked as a tech at Computer Renaissance. Never again... EDIT: Oops, I just discovered that the card Geeks is selling is the Koutech (not mentioned at all in the listing), so look elsewhere
They should read just about as fast as a stand-alone drive - maybe even better than your on-board IDE channels.
.bh.
:sun:

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

What do you mean by pretty much impossible? What has DFI done to their chip that others can't do?

So basically, for what I want I should just go with the DFI motherboard?

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

bump

 

[sharkeeper]

There is no such specification as RAID 1.5. Pure marketing gimmick, pure rubbish! :|

-DAK-

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Originally posted by: shuttleteam
There is no such specification as RAID 1.5. Pure marketing gimmick, pure rubbish! :|

-DAK-

I'm not really worried about their marketing, but will I get the read performance of a similar Raid 0 setup?

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Also, if I just end up going Raid 0, and since I have an old 5400rpm 60GB drive, is there any easy way to backup to that nightly? I couldn't find any scheduling feature for Norton Ghost.

 

[sharkeeper]

It gets complicated when you throw RAID 0 or 5 in the picture. If space is of concern RAID 0 is your answer. Backups are recommended regardless of what disk configuration you use! Ghost MUST be run outside of Windows if it will be creating an image of the OS drive. A program such as Veritas Backup Exec (they make a desktop version) comes in handy. Speaking of handy, there is a cheap program called Handy Backup that will back your stuff up to just about anywhere. (via FTP)

-DAK-

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Originally posted by: shuttleteam
It gets complicated when you throw RAID 0 or 5 in the picture. If space is of concern RAID 0 is your answer. Backups are recommended regardless of what disk configuration you use! Ghost MUST be run outside of Windows if it will be creating an image of the OS drive. A program such as Veritas Backup Exec (they make a desktop version) comes in handy. Speaking of handy, there is a cheap program called Handy Backup that will back your stuff up to just about anywhere. (via FTP)

-DAK-

Space is not of any matter to me. Basically, I'm looking for Raid 0 performance (for reads atleast) and Raid 1 mirroring so I don't have to backup every night. Otherwise, I'll go with Raid 1 and use on eof the programs you mentioed which can go on a schedule. What do you think of the Raid capability the DFI board claims? Should I just try it out and see how it is? Or just go straight to Raid 0 with it?

 

[sharkeeper]

Go with RAID 0.

RAID1, 0+1, 10, 5, 50, etc. is NOT AN ACCEPTABLE substitute for backup!!! Just remember that!

Onboard ATA RAID is ok.

-DAK-

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Originally posted by: shuttleteam
Go with RAID 0.

RAID1, 0+1, 10, 5, 50, etc. is NOT AN ACCEPTABLE substitute for backup!!! Just remember that!

Onboard ATA RAID is ok.

-DAK-

Ok. Thanks a lot. :beer:

 

[Woodchuck2000]

Originally posted by: AgaBooga

Originally posted by: shuttleteam
It gets complicated when you throw RAID 0 or 5 in the picture. If space is of concern RAID 0 is your answer. Backups are recommended regardless of what disk configuration you use! Ghost MUST be run outside of Windows if it will be creating an image of the OS drive. A program such as Veritas Backup Exec (they make a desktop version) comes in handy. Speaking of handy, there is a cheap program called Handy Backup that will back your stuff up to just about anywhere. (via FTP)

-DAK-

Space is not of any matter to me. Basically, I'm looking for Raid 0 performance (for reads atleast) and Raid 1 mirroring so I don't have to backup every night. Otherwise, I'll go with Raid 1 and use on eof the programs you mentioed which can go on a schedule. What do you think of the Raid capability the DFI board claims? Should I just try it out and see how it is? Or just go straight to Raid 0 with it?

RAID 1.5 certainly isn't an official standard and it's almost certainly pointless having it. Architecturally, it makes little sense if you think how raid 1 works - The controller would have to request sequential reads from two identical drives and then concatenate the data to get increased read performance and that would be a bitch to implement.