Os raid 1?

[ColKurtz]

I'm building a new HTPC, trying to keep it as cool as possible to cut down on fan requirements. Plan on an i3/H55 build with 8GB RAM, and a single SSD for now... most data will be hosted on a NAS in another room.

Do I need to worry about hardware-level RAID1, in the event I splurge for another SSD down the road for RAID1? A lot of the H55 mobos I'm looking at don't have on-board RAID... I do have a couple of highpoint cards sitting around, but those are only going to add heat and/or impede airflow.

I OS RAID 1 sufficient these days (this will either be 64-bit Ubuntu 10 or Win 7)? What are the real downsides/risks (rebuild time/impact, etc)?

Thanks for any info.

 

[MedicBob]

Why not back up to a Windows Home Server?

I am guessing you want RAID 1 for the redundancy. Correct?

 

[Nothinman]

I OS RAID 1 sufficient these days (this will either be 64-bit Ubuntu 10 or Win 7)? What are the real downsides/risks (rebuild time/impact, etc)?

For Linux, I prefer software RAID to virtually all other options. Combined with LVM, it's much more flexible and capable than the onboard crap and most hardware RAID as well.

With Windows I'm not so sure. It's not nearly as capable as Linux software RAID and I'm pretty sure the redundant levels of RAID are only available in certain SKUs so you might not even have the option.

 

[ColKurtz]

Why not back up to a Windows Home Server?

I had been looking at the Synology 210j for the NAS....good price and features. I knew little about WHS but ended up reading about it the past couple days and am on the fence... looking at the 2TB Acer easyStore WHS. I like the expandable disk pooling, but ultimately I'll probably go with simple RAID1 NAS for the same reason I got away from RAID5... the risk. A RAID1 drive isn't proprietary to any controller, and more "mobile".

If I had more than 2 or 3 PC's I needed backed up, WHS would probably be a good investment. But with the low cost of HDDs now I could do full ghost copies to the NAS and still have plenty of space.

I am guessing you want RAID 1 for the redundancy. Correct?

Correct. This is the first server I've built that won't have RAID1 for the OS drive. With the reported reliability of SSD's, I'll probably just back it up to the NAS and stick with the single SSD... but was just wondering if I should be looking for a RAID1 mobo in case I change my mind down the road. I'll file it under nice-to-have but won't make it a requirement for the board.[/quote]

Thanks for the info!