Setting up RAID on main box for mp3s

[lung]

In the next month or two, I am looking at doing a major upgrade to my system. I have been trying to figure out exactly what to do and it hit me, I want to have my mp3 collection on my box. Seeing as how I have roughly 350GB, I will need to setup RAID. As I have never done this before, I am looking to get some input on whether or not what I am thinking of doing is correct. This box will be my main computer, just with the RAID array to have all my mp3s on there as well. This is what I am thinking of having in the box:

- Antec Sonata case and upgrade PSU to the 480W Truepower
- Abit IC7-G
- P4 2.6C overclocked as far as it will go..
- 2x256MB (maybe 2x512) Corsair CMX512 PC3500
- Maxtor 80GB (for system, games, programs, etc.)
- 4 x Maxtor 120BG SATA 7200rpm drives (for mp3 RAID)
- ATI 9700 Pro
- SB Live Platinum 5.1
- Yamaha 20x CRDW
- Acer 10x DVD

I am looking at buying the case, proc, mobo, ram, and SATA drives. The rest is in my current box.

A couple minor changes might include a WD Raptor for the main system disc, leaving the 80GB for misc storage, as well as ditching the Live for an Audigy 2.

My main concerns are will I be able to have this sort of configuration with that motherboard? Will I have to be adding considerably more cooling to the case because of all the harddrives?

Thanks for any input you can throw my way.

 

[Nebor]

WHy do you think you need RAID to store your MP3s? Access time isn't really an issue w/ mp3s... why not just get get 2 200gb hds? Why is raid needed?

 

[lung]

I would like to have it as one big partition. It isn't exactly necessary, but I would prefer it that way. Although I guess in a way it would be better as a couple seperate drives so that if one dies, I don't lose all of it.... Hmm... things to think about..

 

[Tripleshot]

I have my mp3's on a raid 0 array, ide hdds on a promise card. If I had it to do over, I think Iwould opt for one large hdd just for music storage. RAID can lose data bits, and that affects music quality.

 

[lung]

Well that I definitely didn't know about. I guess I will opt for a couple of large drives then. Thanks.

 

[SexyK]

If you want one partition, you can setup a couple 200 Gigers in a JBOD RAID array. That's not as risky as RAID 0, and makes it look like one disc.

 

[Nebor]

Actually, if you adjust your raid controller, you can turn of the onboard cache, and make the drive confirm that data is written before moving to the next... I just read about when I was trying to figure out what "Write through" was in my Promise Array Management Utility.

 

[Kremlar]

RAID can lose data bits

Where is that from? RAID loses data during normal operation? Not that I've ever heard of, makes no sense at all.

I would go with a RAID5 setup - did the same recently for my MP3/video storage server. It's expensive to back that amount of data up regularly, and you want some kind of redundancy. Otherwise if a drive dies - POOF - that's a lot of data.

 

[StraightPipe]

I think RAID w/ striping (0, 0+1, 5)will help on large video files, but the speed doesnt really pick up on small files like mp3's.

Data loss? Is this true?

Does it happen even when a parity drive is used? (1, 5, 1+0)

 

[Kremlar]

I can't imagine it's true. Any kind of data loss that would affect MP3s would obviously affect other applications.

I'm just curious where a rumor like that comes from.

 

[Viper0329]

I think I read somewhere that XP can take two disks and make a "single" partition out of it, or did I just make this up?

 

[charlie21]

You don't need to set up RAID for this. A JBOD setup would do just fine. Unless you want to have some sort of redundancy in case of drive failure, then you should go with RAID 5. RAID 0 would offer no performance benefits over JBOD for this case. Plus if one drive pukes, your whole collection is toast. Either way, make sure you have a backup.

 

[lung]

Well it sounds like either just a couple of big disks or a JBOD might be all I need. So how do I setup the JBOD? I'm tryign to find info on it, but I just can't seem to find out how to simply set it up in XP. Thanks.

 

[charlie21]

Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Disk Management

JBOD is just when your computer treats 2 or more physical disks as one big logical volume. It's referred to as spanning under XP. I can't remember exactly how to do it, but it was relatively straightforward. Right click on an unallocated partition, and follow the options from there.

 

[mechBgon]

I believe you'll need to have Windows make the drives into Dynamic Disks first. Right-click on "Drive 0" or whichever, and the option will be listed (assuming NTFS format).

Incidentally, if you have lots of data you don't want to lose... yeah. Overclocking "as far as it will go" is probably not the best way to preserve it long-term.

 

[lung]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
Incidentally, if you have lots of data you don't want to lose... yeah. Overclocking "as far as it will go" is probably not the best way to preserve it long-term.

I really don't see why so many people are so paranoid about overclocking. I have had my 1.6A @ 2.4 for quite a long time now with no problems whatsoever. No instability, no random crashes, no data loss. Just free speed.

 

[beatle]

Is there any combined risk associated with a JBOD setup? It's my understanding that windows will write to one disk until it is full, then write to the next. Can files be "split" across disks? If so, I assume that those files would be toast in the event of a disk failure. Is there risk to any data other than split files?

 

[charlie21]

Originally posted by: beatle
Is there any combined risk associated with a JBOD setup? It's my understanding that windows will write to one disk until it is full, then write to the next. Can files be "split" across disks? If so, I assume that those files would be toast in the event of a disk failure. Is there risk to any data other than split files?

There's no redundancy with JBOD. If a disk dies, everything on that particular disk is gone. Files can be split across disks, that's all done transparently by the OS. Naturally, any files that were partially stored on a dead disk are going to be gone as well.

 

[StraightPipe]

Originally posted by: Kremlar
I can't imagine it's true. Any kind of data loss that would affect MP3s would obviously affect other applications.

I'm just curious where a rumor like that comes from.

From an Elite member.
No offense intended, I just find it ironic