Thinking about setting up a RAID on my pc...

[s0lesurviv0r]

Currently my pc has an 80gig(for vista and essential stuff) and a 250gig(games, media, pron etc).  But I've been contemplating taking the larger drive out and setting up a 2 drive raid(the egg is selling hitachi 500 gigs for 55 after rebate, WD640's look tempting also but a tad more expensive), then after transferring stuff from said drive to raid using it as an external (already bought an antec enclosure for cheap).  I'm wondering what I should know before I venture into this,  my 650 power supply won't buckle under the pressure will it, will transferring files be as easy as swapping the original drive in the enclosure and drag+dropping in windows?  Please enlighten me.

[Mission Difficult]

Do you want redundancy or higher bandwidth?

[s0lesurviv0r]

I'm going for bandwidth (um, that would be striping, right?) since I'll be using the 250gig as an external/backup.

[zaneyard]

I'm going for bandwidth (um, that would be striping, right?) since I'll be using the 250gig as an external/backup.

raid 0

[CaffeinePowered]

I'm going for bandwidth (um, that would be striping, right?) since I'll be using the 250gig as an external/backup.

Raid 0 = bandwidth
Raid 1 = redundancy
Raid 5 = both

Go for 5 if at all possible

[HeK]

Raid 0 = bandwidth
Raid 1 = redundancy
Raid 5 = both

Go for 5 if at all possible

There is also RAID 2, 3, 4, 6 and various levels of nested arrays.

RAID 2, 3, and 4 are pretty much pointless with RAID 5 and 6.

RAID 6 is similar to RAID 5 (striping with parity) but employs two copies of the parity information.
The idea is that when a RAID 5 array is in a degraded state, you suffer an immense performance hit.
Additionally, due to manufacturing tolerances, by the time a single drive fails in a array, the other drives are close to their limit as well. I've read that there is a 70% chance of a second drive failing while rebuilding a RAID 5 array, corrupting all data.
RAID 6 addresses that by giving you a two-disc failure tolerance.

Really with the price of discs, a nested RAID 1+0 is the best design.  It's basically a stripe of mirrors.

[s0lesurviv0r]

I thought you would need more than 2 drives to do RAID 5.

[Mission Difficult]

I thought you would need more than 2 drives to do RAID 5.

You need at least 3.

[copulatingduck]

Currently my pc has an 80gig(for vista and essential stuff) and a 250gig(games, media, pron etc).  But I've been contemplating taking the larger drive out and setting up a 2 drive raid(the egg is selling hitachi 500 gigs for 55 after rebate, WD640's look tempting also but a tad more expensive), then after transferring stuff from said drive to raid using it as an external (already bought an antec enclosure for cheap).  I'm wondering what I should know before I venture into this,  my 650 power supply won't buckle under the pressure will it, will transferring files be as easy as swapping the original drive in the enclosure and drag+dropping in windows?  Please enlighten me.

omg don't get hitachi's! idk what other people's experience with them is, but they're not nicked "hitachi deathstars" for nothing.

Go with wd or seagate. Your data sounds like it's important to you, don't cheap out on one of the most important pieces of hardware. :-\

Also, just emphasizing the obvious: if you raid larger drives with smaller ones, it's going to look like you have [b]n of the smallest drives, ie the smallest drive is going to be your limiting factor.

[Mission Difficult]

RAID's perform best if they're homogeneous, i.e. all drives are the exact same make and model. A heterogeneous RAID will work, but will take a performance hit. I also second Seagate drives. Had some bad experiences with Hitachi.

[Dave]

gay computers work better.

wat?

[Mission Difficult]

[quote author=Mission Difficult link=topic=1364.msg37336#msg37336 date=1220906024]
gay computers work better.

wat?
[/quote]

Kind of like how ancient Greek armies would use the gay relationships between soldiers to boost their moral and bravery.

[KorJax]

[quote author=Dave link=topic=1364.msg37337#msg37337 date=1220906288]
[quote author=Mission Difficult link=topic=1364.msg37336#msg37336 date=1220906024]
gay computers work better.

wat?
[/quote]

Kind of like how ancient Greek armies would use the gay relationships between soldiers to boost their moral and bravery.
[/quote]

Fuckin' hot