Best RAID setup for gaming + backup

Skute · 15 Oct 2006 at 11:51

Hi, I have a lot of files on my PC that I would like backing up, and even with DVD it's a pain in the backside copying back and forth. So, I'm thinking about upgrading to RAID in my next PC, but as I play a lot of games, I'm concerned about read speeds etc.

After reading up a bit on RAID I think that RAID 1 might be the best choice (I was originally opting for RAID 5). Can anyone make any recommendations?

Thanks,

snowdog · 15 Oct 2006 at 12:50

1st of all this is a thread suppsoed to be in the hdd section i think.

I personally would find it a total waste of my money to go for raid 1 as you pay double for the size and the write speed isnt faster at all and read seed is just a bit faster, i'd just go for raid 0, the only downside is if one hdd dies the other one does too so doubled chanse of drive failing, but if you get a 7200.10 baracudda i expect it personally to last at least 3 years, i have 2 very old hdd's in my pc at the mo (4+ yrs) and they still work ok so i dont expect any of my hdd's to die within 5 years tbh even not a 2 hdd raid array.

If you really want to keep data with a single hdd dieing (if you really wnat to have some kind of backup) , use raid 0+1, wich combines raid 1 and raid 0.

wikipedia said:

EDIT: must have been blind, you just want a backup, yeah raid 1 is ok, it wont decrease performance in gaming will just increase read speed by a bit.

Mr. Brightside · 15 Oct 2006 at 13:55

Thought I'd explain my drive setup, might be able to take ideas from it. I originally had a Raptor 36.7gB and Caviar 200gB, however, ran out of space so had to upgrade. I upgraded with a pair of Caviar 250gBs. This is how I have them set up:

Caviar 250gBs in RAID0 on ICH5R controller, two partitions, Windows & Data
Raptor on Silicon Image controller used solely for a 4gB page file and nothing else (bit of a waste I know but as I mentioned I already had it and have no other use).
Caviar 200gB on Silicon Image controller, one partition only, used as backup drive.

Backup is run daily using Syncback free http://www.2brightsparks.com/downloads.html. Of course I don't keep backups of everything because I don't have room, but all the important stuff fits. I prefer this setup because it means changes aren't instantaneous - if I change my mind about a change to something/deletion etc. I can undo it so long as I do before the backup runs. My point is that RAID isn't necessarily the best solution for backup, it depends what your needs are - backups don't need to be fast so you save money, and get the convenience of being able to rollback unwanted changes.

Hope this helps, null

Skute · 16 Oct 2006 at 08:47

How long do your backups take? I was a bit concerned that my PC would be unusable for 2 hours every night while it backed up...

daven1986 · 16 Oct 2006 at 08:58

try raid 5, it is similar to raid0+1 but with fewer disks.

daven

rpstewart · 16 Oct 2006 at 09:22

daven1986 said:
try raid 5, it is similar to raid0+1 but with fewer disks.

daven

Without decent add on hardware RAID5 write speeds are dire (15Mb/s with mobo solutions). RAID1 write speeds also tend to be pretty poor which can be a real pain if the swapfile is on the array.

I'd be looking at a solution similar to null's, if you're dedicated to taking backups it's probably the best bang for buck setup.

Skute · 16 Oct 2006 at 15:37

The other concern I have with RAID is that if the RAID controller dies, I have to get another controller before I can read any info from my discs. Which means if I have onboard RAID, having to purchase the exact same motherboard, which 1 or 2 years down the line can often be next to impossible!

So I think the spare HDD / backup procedure is going to win the day over RAID for me. Just need to find some good backup software now!

Thanks

smids · 16 Oct 2006 at 15:44

Acronis True Image - good backup software and actually works with RAID's properly unlike Norton Ghost.

Durzel · 16 Oct 2006 at 19:51

Skute said:
How long do your backups take? I was a bit concerned that my PC would be unusable for 2 hours every night while it backed up...

Back it up overnight?

rpstewart · 16 Oct 2006 at 19:54

Skute said:
How long do your backups take? I was a bit concerned that my PC would be unusable for 2 hours every night while it backed up...

Any decent backup software should allow you to do backups online. My external HDD is currently chugging away nicely backing up stuff while I type this.

daz · 17 Oct 2006 at 13:40

Unless you want to invest in a hardware RAID card, I'd say forget about it.

Just buy an extra hard disk to back your stuff up onto. You may want to consider going for an external one to cover you for eventualities such as your PC catching fire and the like.

Mr. Brightside · 17 Oct 2006 at 22:16

Skute said:
How long do your backups take? I was a bit concerned that my PC would be unusable for 2 hours every night while it backed up...

The program I use, Syncback, doesn't operate at a low level - it just reads the files with the disk online. It also does a differential backup (only copies changed/new files), so hardly takes any time at all usually. I have it running overnight so that it backups all the days changes - any other time and there would be changes after the backup had run.

null