RAID. Should I bother?

[jdkick]

I'm thinking of a new build in the next ~6 months, probably AMD X2 of some sort.

Anyway, i've had my share of disk failures, lost data and odd behaviour/instability to thoroughly distrust computers. So, i'm contemplating some form of a RAID setup on the new system and i'm curious to hear from those who have, are or contemplated running an array.

My first thought goes to RAID5 given price/performance/redundancy and that's it's commonly supported by chipsets these days. But, it appears that 1) chipset based RAID5 controllers are still software based and off-load too much onto the CPU and 2) write performance is terrible (see #1). So, that leaves RAID0 or RAID0+1. I'm not sure either would be worth my time tho (RAID0 due to performance and RAID0+1 due to cost... four drives).

So, that leaves me with a JBOD setup and continuing my current backup practices... arg.

 

[Sqube]

Just use RAID 1.

 

[13Gigatons]

Buy two well known hard drives with decent ratings like the enterprise 7200 drives from western digital and you can raid zero with pretty good peace of mind.

 

[jdkick]

Um, RAID0 doesn't offer me any advantage in terms of redundancy/fault tolerance... which is my goal.

Sqube: I'll look into the details/benchmarks on RAID1. On the plus side, if the CPU overhead is still too high with an onboard controller, I can probably get away with a less expensive controller.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: 13Gigatons
Buy two well known hard drives with decent ratings like the enterprise 7200 drives from western digital and you can raid zero with pretty good peace of mind.

[sigh].....as i look at dead wd hdd on my desk as a reminder to backup 3x week even though i am running "enterprise" scsi hdds....[/sigh]

raid 1 + weekly backups FTW!!

 

[SnoMunke]

Originally posted by: jdkick
I'm thinking of a new build in the next ~6 months, probably AMD X2 of some sort.

Anyway, i've had my share of disk failures, lost data and odd behaviour/instability to thoroughly distrust computers. So, i'm contemplating some form of a RAID setup on the new system and i'm curious to hear from those who have, are or contemplated running an array.

My first thought goes to RAID5 given price/performance/redundancy and that's it's commonly supported by chipsets these days. But, it appears that 1) chipset based RAID5 controllers are still software based and off-load too much onto the CPU and 2) write performance is terrible (see #1). So, that leaves RAID0 or RAID0+1. I'm not sure either would be worth my time tho (RAID0 due to performance and RAID0+1 due to cost... four drives).

So, that leaves me with a JBOD setup and continuing my current backup practices... arg.

What do you consider high overhead? I was using soft-RAID 5 in WinXP and my processor overhead for write parity was around 5%.

Do you have some data you relied on to state "chipset based RAID5 controllers are still software based and off-load too much onto the CPU"?

 

[fire400]

If you have the time and money, go for it. I recommend the best of both worlds, 0+1/1+0

 

[EatSpam]

Only do RAID 5 with Windows if you're willing to fork out for a controller.

Areca's controllers are excellent, but pricey.

Highpoint's are software controllers, but pretty fast. The Highpoint RocketRAID 2310 was just released and should be around $150-$170. It supports 4 drives, RAID 5, etc. Should be a good little card.

Otherwise, just do RAID 1.

 

[13Gigatons]

Originally posted by: bob4432

Originally posted by: 13Gigatons
Buy two well known hard drives with decent ratings like the enterprise 7200 drives from western digital and you can raid zero with pretty good peace of mind.

[sigh].....as i look at dead wd hdd on my desk as a reminder to backup 3x week even though i am running "enterprise" scsi hdds....[/sigh]

raid 1 + weekly backups FTW!!

I think the biggest reason for hard drive failure is heat. I noticed when hard drives are cooled very well the failure rate drops rather sharply. Sadly most people don't think about this and just slam them in their cases and seal them up and don't give them another thought.

Backups are still require even in raid 1 enviroments.

PS: I'm sorry for your loss apparently those scsi hdd aren't as great as they are touted up to be.

 

[Bobthelost]

If you want to keep it simple then get 2 drives and set it so that the computer backs up every night from the primary disc to the secondary one. It won't affect perfromance (except while it's backing up of course). It won't do anything to protect you from viruses or power surges, but then again RAID1 wouldn't either and it's a lot less hastle than RAID1

Down side being that you'd lose a day's work if the primary HD died, such is life.