Raid 0 questions

Brookert

Brookert

Brookert

Soldato
Joined
13 Dec 2010
Posts
4,219
Hello all. Just pondering over a possilbe hdd upgrade for my rig.

With a raid 0 config, would the volume be the two hdds combined, so 2x 250 drives would be 500gb?

Also, can you set one drive to store a backup of all data of the raid 0 drives?

and last but not least, would this be too taxing on the mobo or cpu etc

cheers
 
from my understanding raid0 will make the 2 drives act as one, so yeh would be 500GB in total, but will read and write to both at the same time, so therefore quicker speeds.
i think raid5 is the one that uses 2 drives like raid0 but also has a 3rd drive so if one dies it can recover the dead parts, but might be wrong on that one.
 
The simplest HDD upgrade is to get a SSD. They are much faster than too regular HDDs in RAID 0.

Answers below..

With a raid 0 config, would the volume be the two hdds combined, so 2x 250 drives would be 500gb?
Yep - but remember, if one fails you lose all the data

Also, can you set one drive to store a backup of all data of the raid 0 drives?
I believe so, although you may need some other software to auto back-up / image the raid

and last but not least, would this be too taxing on the mobo or cpu etc
No - most mobos have raid capability built in (check your manual)
 
Thanks for the answers. I think the only thing stopping me going solid state is just the price. I want at least 500gb of storage, and my mobo doesn't support 6gb/s, so It be a bit wasted.
 
Brookert said:
Thanks for the answers. I think the only thing stopping me going solid state is just the price. I want at least 500gb of storage, and my mobo doesn't support 6gb/s, so It be a bit wasted.
Click to expand...

Only the most recent SSDs support 6gb/s (with backwards support to 3gb/s). I believe that in real use, SSDs don't routinely worry the 3gb/s standard yet anyway.

Have you considered a smaller OS drive (say, 128GB SDD) and a large storage drive (Samsung F3 for example)? You then have great storage capacity and a lightening fast OS drive (+ a few games etc)
 
As paradisiac said, you can use raid 5 to get a redundancy disk, or use raid 10 (or possibly 01, I forget) to copy your raid 0 across to another raid 0 pair (ie, it is raid 1 of a raid 0). Backup software won't be affected by the raid as long as it works at the file-system level.
 
wilko49 said:
As paradisiac said, you can use raid 5 to get a redundancy disk, or use raid 10 (or possibly 01, I forget) to copy your raid 0 across to another raid 0 pair (ie, it is raid 1 of a raid 0). Backup software won't be affected by the raid as long as it works at the file-system level.
Click to expand...

01 is where you mirror a RAID 0 array onto another set of disks. It's arguably pointless because having the backup of your mirror elsewhere (NAS/ external drive) is much safer.
 
Thanks for the answers all, I might go for a SSD with windows on it and a few other things, then keep the crap on my hdd.

Any pointers when looking for a ssd?
 
i was under the impression that hybrids werent too good?

ive decided im not going SSD until sizes reach 300GB+ for £200 as id see no benifit if my games were not on it [personally]
 
al4x said:
i was under the impression that hybrids werent too good?

ive decided im not going SSD until sizes reach 300GB+ for £200 as id see no benifit if my games were not on it [personally]
Click to expand...

Same. Good for a boot drive after about 3-4 boots (I believe they store 'most frequently accessed data' on the solid state bit), but random access times are still rubbish.

SSD imo is the best upgrade anyone can make for their system. It's a bit expensive per gb but I think that's a bad way to look at it when you can actually feel the benefits of the upgrade every time you boot or open an application/game.

@OP
The small SSD boot drive is a nice idea :). Sandforce controllers (Vertex 2/Corsair) are good, or the Intel ssds (more expensive). 40GB is plenty as a boot drive + few apps.
 
Brookert said:
Thanks for the answers all, I might go for a SSD with windows on it and a few other things, then keep the crap on my hdd.

Any pointers when looking for a ssd?
Click to expand...

OCZ Vertex 3.

It won't be out till later this month, but it should be slightly cheaper than the Vertex 2 and much faster (have a look at this review).

Even on a standard 3Gbps SATA connection it is mighty fast and you could always add a SATA 6Gbps card to your PC like this one.
 
BAppleton said:
Is raid0 something you have to set or do you just simply connect both hdds to the raid0 socket on your mobo and it works?
Click to expand...

It's really easy to do. Most boards use the Intel storage manager: once it's been installed along with all the other motherboard drivers, tou hit a key at boot (F7? Can't remember - look at your motherboard manual), select which drives you want to RAID, then press enter. You'll lose all the data on the drives but no other configuration needed.
 
infernox said:
hybrid drives are only a tiny bit slower imo.
Click to expand...

I own one these drives and would have to agree with Infernox.

Previously I had my OS on a 60Gb SSD and my games on a 120Gb SSD.
Both drives eventually ran out of space, so I moved the OS onto the 120Gb SSD and my games onto the 500Gb hybrid.

After a couple of plays, the game files are all loaded onto the hybrid's cache and it takes only a fraction longer to load from the hybrid than the SSD.
 
Tonester007 said:
I own one these drives and would have to agree with Infernox.

Previously I had my OS on a 60Gb SSD and my games on a 120Gb SSD.
Both drives eventually ran out of space, so I moved the OS onto the 120Gb SSD and my games onto the 500Gb hybrid.

After a couple of plays, the game files are all loaded onto the hybrid's cache and it takes only a fraction longer to load from the hybrid than the SSD.
Click to expand...

That sounds like a really good idea for games storage. Any idea if the hybrid cache works properly in RAID 0?
 
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