Quick question for RAID setup...

[Maximus22]

I already have 1 Maxtor 20gig 5400RPM and I was just wondering if I should get another just like it for RAID 0 or should I get 2 7200RPM drives.. money could be a problem so I want to save as much as possible. I just want the extra speed.

 

[xtreme2k]

i wont consider raid-ing a 5400rpm drive myself

consider IBM 15G 75GXP and raid them

 

[Vegito]

RAID does not equal to SPEED!
Especially mirroring and ides!
Hardware real scsi stripe raid get you speed.

 

[Xenon14]

Pardon my stupidity, but what's RAID and how does it work?

 

[DarkRipper]

On the contrary, IDE striping, especially ATA100 drives, gets you nice benchmarks.

Mirroring isn't for speed, you know that.

DR

 

[Maximus22]

Yeah but does Striping really increase real world performance, ex; loading games, large files?

 

[skull]

Xenon14
RAID means Redundent array of independent disks. Basically you can hook hards drives up in differnet arrays like RAID 0(striping)which is 2 or more disks hooked up to a special controller where half the data is writen to one disk and the other half to the other disk at the same time...it increases speed alot not double but pretty close. Theres other ways like RAID 1(mirroring)which just takes one drive and copies it to the other at the same time so if one drive goes bad you have the data on the other. RAID 0 is mostly used around here because of speed.

heres one of the controllers FastTrak 66

 

[Brig]

Maximus22,

Here's some real world numbers for you. I timed these on a watch, not using benchmark software.
Time from pressing the power on switch, until computer was ready at desktop screen with W98:

C300A@374, BH6 (1) WD 5400 - 120 secs
P3700@933, BX133Raid (2) 75gxp's ATA100, Raid1(mirror) - 32 secs
P3700@933, BX133Raid (2) 75gxp's ATA100, Raid0(stripe) - 15 secs


Xenon14,

Basically, Raid uses 2 drives as 1. In raid1 (mirror), what's written to the first drive is also written to the second drive, giving you automatic backup. In raid0 (striped), half the data is written to one drive, half to the other. Writes are done at same time, so time is cut in half.

 

[utopia]

<< Redundent array of independent disks. >>



No, its Redundent array of inexpensive disks.

 

[Kill_Phil]

i thought it was
redundant array of inexpensive drives...

edit: same deal really =P

but which raid setup is striping?
is that raid 1?

edit: hehe, im not reading before i post.. its raid 0 =P

 

[skull]

It can go either way but RAID was orginally made for SCSI..not really cheap.

 

[Brig]

hehe

Actually, everybody's correct
From the manual: &quot;RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive/Independent Disks) technology.......&quot;

 

[Maximus22]

What kind of benefits would I get from IDE RAID 0+1?

 

[Sukhoi]

I don't know much about RAID, but if you got 2 new Maxtor 20 GB 7200 RPM drives, couldn't you run RAID 0+1 with the old 5400 RPM drive as the backup drive?

 

[Dravic]

RAID 0+1 is the best of both worlds. But expensive, because it takes 4 drives for the config. raid 0+1 requires the 2 drives for striping, and then more 2 drives to mirror those striped drives.

 

[thorin]

RAID = Redundant Array of Independant (or Inexpensive) Disks.

? Lvl 0: Provides data striping (spreading files out across multiple disks) but without any redundancy. This improves performance but does not deliver any fault tolerance.

? Lvl 1: Provides disk mirroring, where data is written to multiple disks, thus if one disk fails the system can instantly switch.

? Lvl 3: Same as Level 0, also uses one dedicated disk for error correction data. It provides good performance and a low level of fault tolerance

? Lvl 5: Provides data striping at the byte level and stripe error correction information. This provides excellent performance and high fault tolerance.

Thorin

 

[Hardware]

? Lvl 5: Provides data striping at the byte level and stripe error correction information. This provides excellent performance and high fault tolerance.

BS raid5 is low like hell!

 

[thorin]

&quot;BS raid5 is low like hell! &quot;

What about Raid5 is &quot;low&quot; ?

Thorin

 

[JaiKnight]

Is there an ATA100 RAID PCI card available right now? Also, if you do use an add-on card like the FastTrak can the drives on it be seen as the primary drive (and bootable) by your motherboard? I was always under the impression that IDE1 on the motherboard was always seen as the primary drive no matter what.

 

[Dameon]

Jedi, most systems have an option to set &quot;bootable add-in cards&quot; as your primary boot device. A PCI SCSI or IDE RAID card would suffice as such a card. Even OEM systems will have such... nicer units will name the device in BIOS and offer a list to choose from. (in case you have a SCSI and an IDE card, for example)

 

[JaiKnight]

Ah cool, I've got a BH6 v1.0x and I think I remember seeing that option, not totally sure though...I'll have to check on that...

BTW: You're one of the only people that has related Jai to Jedi, impressive

 

[Sunner]

&quot;BS raid5 is low like hell! &quot;

Care to elaborate?

 

[thorin]

Wow Hardware another stunning and insightful comment.

Thorin

 

[arthurb1]

WTF about RAID 5 is low and what is it supposed to mean?

 

[JaiKnight]

Just need some clarification, how does the RAID 0+1 setup work? From what I understand you have two striped drives, and each of those drives are mirrored. So when does the mirroring occur? AS the data is written, or just in drive downtime when it's not being accessed? If it's when the data is being written isn't the entire process just as slow as RAID 1? (because it has to send out the data to the mirror before it receives anything else) Or does it just send 2 copies of the stripe data down the pipeline at the same time, one to the Stripe drive and one to the mirror?