OverVolt

Lifer
Aug 31, 2002
14,278
89
91
a RAID controller (some boards have then onboard). And at least 2HD's of (close to)equal size.

RAID 0- almost double transfer rates, faster loads, same seek time
RAID 1- no performance gain, almost failsafe, mirrors the data for an exact copy on the other drive.

It's up to you yo decide if it's worth the money or not. There's some more RAID options but the controllers for that cost some big $$$.

 

bjc112

Lifer
Dec 23, 2000
11,460
0
76
The only problem with Raid 0 is, if god forbid you lose a hardrive... You lose everything.

BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP.
 

Codyz28

Member
Sep 11, 2003
141
0
0
Wouldnt you lose everything on a single hard drive as well? Or are you more apt to lose info with two? And would it be better to have a bigger processor with two HD'S, or would it matter? Forgive me for asking another question on your post amd, but since we are on the subject =)

Cody
 

StraightPipe

Golden Member
Feb 5, 2003
1,676
0
71
RAID is like slapping 2(or more) HD's together to woork as one, it can provide different effects depending on the raid type

in raid 0 the controller card writes info to every other drive, so all the even stripes of data will be on one drive, and the odds on the other. this allows the drives to work (theoretically) twice as fast.

breakdown of raid types:

RAID0- writes every other stripe of data on each drive,
the idea is to strap 2 hard drives together so they can
go 2 times as fast (they dont actually perform THAT
fast). if you lose 1 drive than you lose all info on
both drives(ie: have to reformat)
50G+50G=100G

RAID1- writes exact same thing on 2 drives. gives you a
copy incase one drive crashes. (if partition is damaged
again it will probly happen on both drives. dsnt
improve performance, but gives you a backup.
50G+50G=50G

RAID5-takes 3 drives. it's like best of both worlds.
stripes of data rotate on 2 drives and 3rd gets a
"parity note" it allows you to take data from any 2
drives and recreate the data on the 3rd.
50G+50G+50G=100G

you could also just set up the drive independent of
each other and you wouldnt have to worry about
anything, you get regular performance, and no backup,
will show as 2 drives
50G+50G= 2 50G drives

RAID 1+0 takes 4 drives. it's exacly like it sounds.
take 2 drives in raid 0 for performance, and uses 2
more drives to make a copy of each to give you back up.
50Gx4 = 100G



you can find out more info in the Anandtech FAQ's

or if you have a specific question post it here.