Intel Matrix question

Aurhinius · 30 May 2007 at 20:52

Thinking of getting 3 x 320 gig drives, 7200.10's or AAKS's either or..

I want to use the bulk of the drives i.e 200 gig of each drive in raid 0 ( so raid 0 across 3 drives)

The other 120 gig I want to mirror.

What I don't want to do is end up wasting the space on one drive so is it possible with intel matrix to set up 2 drives 120 gig parts as RAID 1 with the other drives 120gig part as a hot spare?

mole90 · 30 May 2007 at 23:38

Have a look at http://support.intel.com/support/chipsets/imsm/sb/CS-020681.htm

I think it might be better using 4 smaller disks and doing a RAID5 (min 4 disks) and a RAID0- then you get the max size on the RAID5 array and dont lose the data contained in it if a disk fails.

skanky · 31 May 2007 at 06:48

Aurhinius said:
Thinking of getting 3 x 320 gig drives, 7200.10's or AAKS's either or..

I want to use the bulk of the drives i.e 200 gig of each drive in raid 0 ( so raid 0 across 3 drives)

The other 120 gig I want to mirror.

What I don't want to do is end up wasting the space on one drive so is it possible with intel matrix to set up 2 drives 120 gig parts as RAID 1 with the other drives 120gig part as a hot spare?

raid arrays dont work that way, its all or nothing when creating different types.

best advice is to got raid5, you'll have 640gb or so (minus what you normally lose) of redundant storage, or at a push go for xfx's revo64 which is a cheap raid3 card.

edit: i wouldnt bother with software based raid either, hardware all the way.

rpstewart · 31 May 2007 at 09:29

skanky said:
raid arrays dont work that way, its all or nothing when creating different types.

Intel Matrix RAID is different, it does allow the creation of RAIDed partitions.

Aurhinius · 31 May 2007 at 12:59

I know matrix can almost do it I was more interested if it would accept raid1+hot spare across the 3 drives or just force me to use 2 drives for raid1.