First let me explain what this new box will be used for:
I run a photo business and store lots of image files on my machine. I use Photoshop for image processing. I also do some video and audio editing and encoding. I'll play an occasional game here and there but not that much anymore.
Anyway...
I've always mirrored my OS drive and used other drives in a non RAID configuration.
I have 4 WD 250 SATA-II SE drives. I'm thinking of creating 1 big RAID 5 array then partitional off the various logical drives as follows:
OS - C: - 50 GB
Data D: - 250 GB
Data E: 250 GB
Data F: 180 GB
Windows Swap S: 10 GB
Internet Temp files I: 10 GB
I usually like having my swap file and Internet temp files on a separate physical drive as well as my Photoshop Scratch disks. With the RAID 5 these swap areas, while spread across 4 physical drive will still be on one logical drive. I'm a little concerned about that.
Besides 100% fault tolerance and overall speed improvement, what would be the pros and cons of this setup vs. the mirror of the OS and non RAID for the rest?
According to ASUS, using the Silicon Image RAID controller will give better performance with a RAID 5 than the nVidia RAID (they said the NV RAID is better for RAID 0 & 1). Has anyone tested or proven this?
I run a photo business and store lots of image files on my machine. I use Photoshop for image processing. I also do some video and audio editing and encoding. I'll play an occasional game here and there but not that much anymore.
Anyway...
I've always mirrored my OS drive and used other drives in a non RAID configuration.
I have 4 WD 250 SATA-II SE drives. I'm thinking of creating 1 big RAID 5 array then partitional off the various logical drives as follows:
OS - C: - 50 GB
Data D: - 250 GB
Data E: 250 GB
Data F: 180 GB
Windows Swap S: 10 GB
Internet Temp files I: 10 GB
I usually like having my swap file and Internet temp files on a separate physical drive as well as my Photoshop Scratch disks. With the RAID 5 these swap areas, while spread across 4 physical drive will still be on one logical drive. I'm a little concerned about that.
Besides 100% fault tolerance and overall speed improvement, what would be the pros and cons of this setup vs. the mirror of the OS and non RAID for the rest?
According to ASUS, using the Silicon Image RAID controller will give better performance with a RAID 5 than the nVidia RAID (they said the NV RAID is better for RAID 0 & 1). Has anyone tested or proven this?
