RAID help!!!!!!!!!

[TheoPetro]

ok so heres the specs of a system im building

AMD Athalon 64 3200 939
Gigabyte GA-K8NSNXP-939
CASE RAIDMAX ATX MID
ANTEC TRUE430 ATX
2x 512MB PC3200 PNY
ATI Radion 9600SE
2x Western Digital 160GB IDE
1x Maxtor 120GB ATA
Windows XP Pro
DVDROM
CDROM
Floppy

This is a first time build for me so im pretty new to all of this. I want to put the 2 WD hard drives into a RAID 0 config but I was wondering if they would work with the Maxtor drive (Maxtor=Master 2xWD=Slave....can i do that???). I am also at a huge loss as to what controler card to get. My mobo supports SATA raid I think but I thought that was something totally different than IDE. Please help explain this to me and if you could offer some insight on what card to buy id appreciate it.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Click the "Storage" tab at the top of the page for some articles on RAID.

Easiest to do if you really think you want RAID is to have the Maxtor be out of the RAID as the OS / boot / C: drive (plus more partitions if you want), then RAID the 2 drives using a cheap IDE RAID card. Like you say your onboard RAID is for SATA drives not IDE/PATA.

If you decide against RAID, you can just have 3 separate drives. You can pick up a Promise non-RAID IDE controller for around $20 in the FS/T forum, or for $30-40 at newegg.com

 

[TheoPetro]

what should i look for when buying a PATA RAID card??? SATA is the new one right? so are there any newer good PATA cards out there?

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Not to be a jerk here, but ... okay, I am being a jerk.

"If you have to ask about RAID, you probably don't need it."

RAID0 offers pretty much zero benefit to a desktop role, and puts your data at a huge risk.

Don't use it.

- M4H

 

[MercenaryForHire]

And after looking at your system config, there's something that screams "Does Not Belong":

ATI Radion (sic) 9600SE

For your own good, ditch one of those 160GBs and use the change to buy a real graphics card.

- M4H

 

[TheoPetro]

i got the 160GB HDDS for $30 each so it wasnt a big investment and the 9600 for $90 (im on a bit of a budget) the whole system is costing about 700. i know about the different raid types like 0,1,5,1+0 and how it works but ive never done it before

 

[imported_TimJ]

RAID 0 is worthless for 99.9% of applications. If anything you should RAID 1, or better yet don't use RAID at all.

 

[jvarszegi]

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire
Not to be a jerk here, but ... okay, I am being a jerk.

"If you have to ask about RAID, you probably don't need it."

RAID0 offers pretty much zero benefit to a desktop role, and puts your data at a huge risk.

Don't use it.

- M4H

No, it doesn't put your data at a huge risk, although you might think so if you believe everything you read on the Dell website. And your data is always at risk, so it should always be backed up on long-term storage media if you really care about it.

 

[jvarszegi]

Originally posted by: TimJ
RAID 0 is worthless for 99.9% of applications. If anything you should RAID 1, or better yet don't use RAID at all.

Wrong. More than 0.1% of computer applications are used for video and other media editing, where RAID 0 offers huge benefits. Not only that, but the gain from RAID 0 is not nil for all other tasks! Gotta love those broad generalities... You have to remember that not every user uses Excel exactly like an Anandtech benchmark, or is solely concerned with game load times.

 

[JoshRtek3]

What about RAID 0 for desktop video editing?

 

[imported_TimJ]

Originally posted by: jvarszegi

Originally posted by: TimJ
RAID 0 is worthless for 99.9% of applications. If anything you should RAID 1, or better yet don't use RAID at all.

Wrong. More than 0.1% of computer applications are used for video and other media editing, where RAID 0 offers huge benefits. Not only that, but the gain from RAID 0 is not nil for all other tasks! Gotta love those broad generalities... You have to remember that not every user uses Excel exactly like an Anandtech benchmark, or is solely concerned with game load times.

And how many people really edit media enough to take advantage of RAID? Very few.

 

[jvarszegi]

Originally posted by: TimJ

Originally posted by: jvarszegi

Originally posted by: TimJ
RAID 0 is worthless for 99.9% of applications. If anything you should RAID 1, or better yet don't use RAID at all.

Wrong. More than 0.1% of computer applications are used for video and other media editing, where RAID 0 offers huge benefits. Not only that, but the gain from RAID 0 is not nil for all other tasks! Gotta love those broad generalities... You have to remember that not every user uses Excel exactly like an Anandtech benchmark, or is solely concerned with game load times.

And how many people really edit media enough to take advantage of RAID? Very few.

But every person who captures digital video can get lots of benefit from RAID 0. Not everyone is a simpleton Office user or a hard-core gamer; just admit it if you're feeling fair. Saying RAID has no place but on the server is absolutely ridiculous.

 

[halfadder]

A few comments:

The only Radeon 9600's anyone should consider is the Radeon 9600 Pro or 9600 XT. And even then, don't spend too much on it. Anything less is a waste of money. You want the full 128 bit ram interface.

RAID 0 is a data loss risk, but it's fast. It's handy for video editing, but if your videos are really important, it may not be worth the risk. A better alternative may be to use several individual drives, each on their own channel. Perhaps one for Windows, one for your applications, and one for your video files. There are lots of ways to do it.

 

[imported_TimJ]

Originally posted by: jvarszegi

Originally posted by: TimJ

Originally posted by: jvarszegi

Originally posted by: TimJ
RAID 0 is worthless for 99.9% of applications. If anything you should RAID 1, or better yet don't use RAID at all.

Wrong. More than 0.1% of computer applications are used for video and other media editing, where RAID 0 offers huge benefits. Not only that, but the gain from RAID 0 is not nil for all other tasks! Gotta love those broad generalities... You have to remember that not every user uses Excel exactly like an Anandtech benchmark, or is solely concerned with game load times.

And how many people really edit media enough to take advantage of RAID? Very few.

But every person who captures digital video can get lots of benefit from RAID 0. Not everyone is a simpleton Office user or a hard-core gamer; just admit it if you're feeling fair. Saying RAID has no place but on the server is absolutely ridiculous.

The number of programs that don't capture video FAR exceed those that do and the number of people who actually capture and edit video is very, very small. Yes, RAID can offer some performance benefits. In most situations it doesn't.

Obviously you don't grasp the concept of 99.9%. It's not an exact percentage or anything like that, it's the concept that says a very vast majority. How would I have arrived at that number? Maybe when you get down off your high horse you can realize that not everyone is a video encoder and a lot more people are hardcore gamers and simpleton Office users that would find RAID 0 worthless.

 

[jvarszegi]

Originally posted by: TimJ

Originally posted by: jvarszegi

Originally posted by: TimJ

Originally posted by: jvarszegi

Originally posted by: TimJ
RAID 0 is worthless for 99.9% of applications. If anything you should RAID 1, or better yet don't use RAID at all.

Wrong. More than 0.1% of computer applications are used for video and other media editing, where RAID 0 offers huge benefits. Not only that, but the gain from RAID 0 is not nil for all other tasks! Gotta love those broad generalities... You have to remember that not every user uses Excel exactly like an Anandtech benchmark, or is solely concerned with game load times.

And how many people really edit media enough to take advantage of RAID? Very few.

But every person who captures digital video can get lots of benefit from RAID 0. Not everyone is a simpleton Office user or a hard-core gamer; just admit it if you're feeling fair. Saying RAID has no place but on the server is absolutely ridiculous.

The number of programs that don't capture video FAR exceed those that do and the number of people who actually capture and edit video is very, very small. Yes, RAID can offer some performance benefits. In most situations it doesn't.

Obviously you don't grasp the concept of 99.9%. It's not an exact percentage or anything like that, it's the concept that says a very vast majority. How would I have arrived at that number? Maybe when you get down off your high horse you can realize that not everyone is a video encoder and a lot more people are hardcore gamers and simpleton Office users that would find RAID 0 worthless.

So your 99.9% is what I call an "ass figure", as I figured. You should just shut up when you're out of your depth. You even idiotically counselled the poster to use RAID 1, which even fewer people need than need RAID 0. wotta maroon

 

[TheoPetro]

thanks for the info ne thoughts on which brand or specific card to get?

 

[PumpActionWalrus]

You can get a SATA to ide adaptor for a decent price and use that instead of buying an actual card

 

[tweeve2002]

If you are looking or a PCI RAID card...I like my High point rocket 133 card, and a friend of mine has a High Point Rocket 100 card, both are nice and fast...

Yes you can use an adaptor for SATA if you can find one, and your board supports SATA RAID...



As for the people saying RAID 0 is worthless I am going to have to disagree...In gamming, if you are just playing a single player game, sure RAID 0 might not help that much, but as soon as you start hosting mulitplayer games over a LAN setting, I have seen BF:1942 take 800+megs of RAM while hosting a game and two to three times that amount in virtural memery. Sure I could just do a deticated server and I do have a deticated game serve. but its down most the time for one reason or another. So that leaves my computer to do most the hosting.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: tweeve2002
If you are looking or a PCI RAID card...I like my High point rocket 133 card, and a friend of mine has a High Point Rocket 100 card, both are nice and fast...

Yes you can use an adaptor for SATA if you can find one, and your board supports SATA RAID...



As for the people saying RAID 0 is worthless I am going to have to disagree...In gamming, if you are just playing a single player game, sure RAID 0 might not help that much, but as soon as you start hosting mulitplayer games over a LAN setting, I have seen BF:1942 take 800+megs of RAM while hosting a game and two to three times that amount in virtural memery. Sure I could just do a deticated server and I do have a deticated game serve. but its down most the time for one reason or another. So that leaves my computer to do most the hosting.

Oh, you mean when you start a server?

- M4H