I can get 2x160GB SATA drive for ~$35 more than 1x320GB SATA drive. Since my mobo has RAID anyway, is it worth it to go RAID (striped, not mirror). What's the % gain on performance? Is it worth the small cost, the additional noise, heat, and power consumption, i.e., bigger psu requirement (how much wattage does a 7200 drive suck up anyway?)
Is RAID (striped) worth it?
- Thread starter pctwo
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- May 13, 2003
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If you are using it as your primary, no it isn't worth it. Simply because it's not worth the risk. I'm going to be doing RAID 0, but I have all data backed up on other drives, and other drives store data anyway.... My $.02.
bob4432
Lifer
- Sep 6, 2003
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just get the 320GB, if one of the hdds die in a raid 0 setup then you lose all the data, so you are twice as likely to have a hdd failure. and performance in real world is not much better, small %. i would only run either raid 1(mirror) or raid 5 if i needed a ton of space that i couldn't get with raid 1.
RAID 0 performance in real world situations can be quite high if you are transferring large files.
- May 13, 2003
- 13,704
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I'm using RAID 5 now. I am going to have 6 x 250's in RAID 5, and 2 x 160's in RAID 0. RAID 0 is just for boot. The backups are done automatically, and none of my data is stored on the drive, so I'll be fine as far as that goes. I'm not even doing it for the performance part of it really. I wanted to use 160s, and doing RAID 1 just didn't offer enough space for what I was doing...
This was all very planned out...
This was all very planned out...
A co-worker recently found this out the hard way. He had bought an external drive for backing up, but hadn't gotten around to backing up when one of his RAID 0 drives died.
He had family pictures and such on the drive that he and his wife didn't want to lose, so he sent the drives to one of those data recovery places to get the data back. I think it was around $600-1000 to get the data.
If you're running RAID 0, then it's even more important to do rigorous backups than if you aren't.
thecoolnessrune
Diamond Member
- Jun 8, 2005
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Gamingphreek
Lifer
- Mar 31, 2003
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That is about the only thing it really helps in. Some people report slightly faster loading, but other than that it is worthless unless you are going for it for the education factor (like me, only at a later time).
Everyone talks about faliure. With 2x Drives the odds of a HDD failing aren't too great. I wouldn't worry about it unless you start using 3 or 4 drives (in which case you should be using RAID-5 anyways).
Finally, aside from large file transfers, the larger HDD might be able to make up part of the performance delta. Larger drives generally have more heads and more (and denser) platters than smaller drives. They also consume less power and output less heat than 2x drives.
-Kevin
Originally posted by: tasburrfoot78362
I'm using RAID 5 now. I am going to have 6 x 250's in RAID 5, and 2 x 160's in RAID 0. RAID 0 is just for boot. The backups are done automatically, and none of my data is stored on the drive, so I'll be fine as far as that goes. I'm not even doing it for the performance part of it really. I wanted to use 160s, and doing RAID 1 just didn't offer enough space for what I was doing...
This was all very planned out...
I am think of buying the Areac 1220 RAID card or Promise EX-8350 card...
- May 13, 2003
- 13,704
- 7
- 81
Originally posted by: SnoMunke
Originally posted by: tasburrfoot78362
I'm using RAID 5 now. I am going to have 6 x 250's in RAID 5, and 2 x 160's in RAID 0. RAID 0 is just for boot. The backups are done automatically, and none of my data is stored on the drive, so I'll be fine as far as that goes. I'm not even doing it for the performance part of it really. I wanted to use 160s, and doing RAID 1 just didn't offer enough space for what I was doing...
This was all very planned out...
I am think of buying the Areac 1220 RAID card or Promise EX-8350 card...
If I had PCIe, I would get the Areac PCIe RAID controllers in a heart beat. Damn those things are nice. I can't complain about mine though. And it's happy in PCI-X.
i run RAID-0 on a SiI3114 controller with 2x36gb Raptors. First i would like to say that the performance increase is NOT a rumor, and it is NOT small. the speed difference is quite significant (at least with these drives). i have 2 IDE drives as well where i store basically everything. I keep an image of a clean updated and tweaked OS on a DVD for a 5 minute recovery at all times, if anything were to happen. i've had an issue before, but it all traced back to too many devices on one power cable. hard drives kept spinning up and spinning down randomly. so i did a quick format and reimaged. I dont ever keep any actual important data on my raid-0 array. only the program files and system for fast loading and stuff. and also things like games that can easily be lost without problems but also benefit from loading massive Doom3 levels at ultra quality.
btw, shouldn't RAID-0 be called AID?
Leon.
btw, shouldn't RAID-0 be called AID?
Leon.
AID....yes I had said the same thing in another thread about RAID here @ AT. Should be AID since there is no redundancy.
I run RAID-0. It made a big difference for me. Games/apps load faster. Is it worth the extra money between 2x160 or 1x320? Nah. Reason I do it is cuz I bought a 120 a while ago, then I needed more space and bought another 120. So, I had 2x120. I could either use them as separate drives, or RAID-0 them. Went with the RAID-0. I save everything that's important often, so if 1 did crash, I wouldn't be too upset.
I ran RAID-0 for about half a year last year. I talked to a few people before running RAID-0 and most of them told me that the chance of having a hard drive fail on you if it's new is slim. They were wrong. After 6 months one of my hard drives gave out and I thought I had lost all my data for good (tons of documents, pictures, videos). Luckily I was able to salvage all my data becuase one of the hard drives had one bad sector that I was able to repair using a shareware copy of HDD Regenerator (It only lets you repair one bad sector using the trial copy and I only had one bad sector...I was really lucky). After I got the computer running again, I saved all my data on 2 seperate external hard drives and trashed the RAID-0 setup. I might go back to RAID-0 on a gaming system I am building over the holidays, but I have learned my lesson. I WILL NEVER USE RAID-0 FOR CRITICAL DATA. And I hope you don't either. You have no idea how frustrating it was thinking that all my important stuff was gone forever.
Using RAID-0 without a verified backup is like flying experimental aircraft without a parachute! (c)2003 by Me.
CyberFlas, you only have yourself to blame...
.bh.
CyberFlas, you only have yourself to blame...
.bh.
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