Newbie to RAID

bitterSTAR · 26 Aug 2008 at 21:15

I'm new to RAID arrays. My motherboard is the Asus P5E which uses the Intel ICH9R chipset. I currently use a Raptor X as a system drive,and a Samsung 500GB as a storage drive.

I intend to purchase four 1TB F1 Samsungs, to setup a RAID 10 array. I want improved performance, and redunancy.

However, is it advisable to partition it so that one partition is for the system drive, the other partition is for storage? Or do I use it all for storage, and use one of my previous drives as the system drive? What is advisable?

I could keep on using my Raptor X as the system drive, but it is a bit noisy and I was thinking that having a system partition on the RAID setup would reduce noise while providing good performance. What would you advise?

Can I use single drives, as well as having a RAID array?

Also, is it advisable to buy a RAID controller card? Or is the motherboard chipset ok?

Pandobear · 26 Aug 2008 at 22:48

There are lots of choices in how to do this, but what is best really comes down to your usage. The controller on your mainboard is quite up to the job of managing a RAID 10 array as you propose. Whether this will be quicker than your Raptor X or not depends on your usage, for access time your Raptor will be much quicker, but for sequential reads the Samsungs will be faster. Noise wise your Raptor will always lose, Samsungs are very quiet.

If it were me, I would set a pair of Samsungs in RAID 0 or four in RAID10, with only one partition, and keep everything on 'C', if you go with a pair then backup, if you go with four then still backup, but only the important stuff, use the 500GB drive in a USB caddy for this. Just leaves the Raptor X to find a home for.

bitterSTAR · 27 Aug 2008 at 18:38

I don't want to have only one partition, as I want to keep the system and storage data seperate so as to make it easier to do a format and clean install of Windows when I need to.

Thanks for your advice

Pandobear · 27 Aug 2008 at 21:26

Ok, then have a second partition, when you install windows then select only a portion of the overall space to use. I have tried to get away from reinstals of Windows, and find Vista much more resilient to problems, but you are quite correct to pick the setup that suits you best.