Which RAID option is best for me?

[Rufio]

I have:
2 WD 80GB SE (8mb cache) HD
1 WD 80GB regular (2mb cache) HD
1 Seagate 80GB regular HD.

I want to do a raid setup. but i wnat speed as well as keep data integrity.

What is the best RAID for me? I've done a lot of RAID reading and I have a huge headache now.

Thanks.

 

[OverVolt]

Is your comupter used as a server or something? Since other than that i wouldn't be concerned with losing a HD.

Plain ole RAID 0 should be fine for data transfer speeds, RAID 1+0 is too pricey for just a home PC, a DVD burner n some disks is a better backup option.

And RAID 5 can only be done by expensive cards since they need some extra stuff for the parity data.

So what are you looking for, speed or reliability?

 

[Rufio]

well, a balance of both.

i am sick and tired of my crap always dying on me.

it's for a home computer. i don't do much other than play CS.
hahhaha

 

[Insidious]

CS huh.... (man of my own heart!)

anyway, It's hard to imagine really needing 320GB of storage and you will need one beefy PSU to spin all 4 of those up.

I'd suggest doing a Raid-0 with the two WD800JBs and install one of the remaining HDs as a single and copy the array to it every once in a while (I like Norton Ghost for this). you can unplug it (the power connector) the rest of the time to protect it's contents
Then for the really important stuff..... that's what CDs are for.

-Sid

 

[VTrider]

Wait did I miss something? Rufio you said you want speed as well as some protection? Why don't you just build yourself a 0+1 array, how can it be pricey when you already have all the drives, right? Throw those 8MB cache WDs together and mirror it w/the other WD drive and Seagate one - viola!! Or did I miss some obvious error w/that logic again?

-VTrider

 

[Rufio]

by using a combo of the 8mb and 2mb cache drives, will myh performance be decreased?

 

[Tripleshot]

When you build a raid array, you should use identical drives. You don't have that luxury. Believe it or not, at therr speed of todays drives, you aren't getting that much advantage(and definately not with the mix you have) t ojustify the raid overhead. You have plenty of storage. Use the 80 with 8 as main drive(partition at will) and save the 80 at 2 for data and ghosting an image of the 80 and 8.