What are RAID advantages on speed?

[joweyx]

Well.. I really want to know is RAID has more advantage either than loosing data?

I am thinking on buying two raptors to work together. will improve speed?
Or just one is needed?

joweyx

 

[SuperNaruto]

Just 1, only way you'll get speed is to do RAID 0 which has no protection, and barely any significant speed increase for that risk.

If you get 4 and run 0+1 or 1+0.. they'll be a better difference.. of course you'll need a better card that'll take advantage of the smart raid controls

 

[KayKay]

RAID 0 improves sequential transfer rates, mostly for large transfers (unzipping big files, copying big files, writing video streams from a capture device). Seektimes might actually take a hit, although I dont remember