To RAID or not to RAID

[phigamman]

I'm looking for some feedback on RAID. I've read conflicting reports that IDE RAID has no benefit unless you have a ridiculous number of drives (ie, more than 6-10). I can't decide whether or not to ditch my Super Cash Sucking Interface for an IDE RAID. Any thoughts? Testimonials?

 

[edblor]

Well,

IDE RAID is not designed for speed or efficiency based on the IDE port that has been very limited for ...oh, ten years...

SCSI is different as it has grown as the SCSI technology has, almost on parallel with the HDs. IDE has not and as such, is limited still by the very old IDE interface.....hehe

a SCSI to IDE RAID comparison

and the mother of them all comparisons

Good luck bro,

Edblor

 

[SeaHarp]

edblor

and I ask this out of ignorance, if IDE RAID is not designed for speed nor efficiency, what is the RAID designed for as opposed to and IDE port w/out RAID?

 

[edblor]

In my experience, it is designed for functionality!!

RAID 0+1 and the other lower levels of RAID in the IDE environment allow for striping and data redundancy over simple volumes and multiple volumes. Where with only one drive, or even multiple drives (but not in RAID), it would only allow for storage!!

Edblor

Also take into account the SCSI RAID environment...where the controllers have lots of RAM onboard for data caching. IDE RAID has nothing of the sort (AFAIK). With the added RAM onboard the RAID controller, access time is as fast as the SCSI bus can access the RAM, not the physical drive!