jay-d

I've never built a computer with RAID and decided I would do it this time around since my business requires backups of files (photographer) and I didn't want to lose anything soo.. I setup my build like this:

1x RAID 1 with two 250gb drives for my OS
1x RAID 1 with two 1tb drives for storage

I thought I was a genius when I got it all up and running but now that I think about it.. why the hell do I need RAID 1 for my OS cause all I have on there is program files, no storage what so ever.

I have a Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P and it supports RAID 5 so I'm thinking of getting rid of my OS RAID 1, using only a single 250gb for that, buying another 1tb drive and setting up RAID 5 and have 2tb of storage.

My question is: AMD Quad Core 3.2, with Mushkin DDR3-1333mghz 8gigs of ram.. if I configure RAID 5, will that slow down my computer or decrease performance and would it be straining my motherboard? I'm heavy into video editing and retouching photos.. this is why I need 8gigs of RAM.. 4 wasn't cutting it for me.

I also play games occasionally, I have a ATI 4870 1gb video card.. I'm just concerned about performance or would it be better to get a RAID controller.. if that's the case, I'll pass cause I don't feel like spending another $300 on top

Syrillian

Hi.

I am not a RAID expert, but perhaps a RAID 10 (RAID 0 + 1) would suit your purposes?

I can't think of any reason that a RAID setup would cause your system wo suffer from performance issues... but take that with a grain of salt as I am kinda noob-ish at RAID arrays.

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jay-d

I'm told that using the Southbridge controller for RAID just passes the calculations to the CPU and that's where I feel the performance decrease might be.

Then, I think, it's a quad core.. it shouldn't suffer right?

I've never looked into a RAID 10.. let me read up on that.. I feel that RAID 5 was exactly what I wanted.. but let me check out RAID 10

EDIT: RAID 10 would require 4 disks.. 2 for mirroring the 2tb and then for striping.. that's out of the question as my mid tower case only has 4 drive slots!

DuckieHo

If the data is important... you should look more towards external backups and/or archiving.

RAID only protects from HD failure. It does nothing for data corruption, viruses, PEBKAC, fires, theft, power surges, floods, ect.

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To answer most of your questions: (1) a fridge cannot cool a PC (2) 64-bit OS for over 3.4GB (3) If a PCIe card fits, it should work (4) Resolution, not screen size (5) If you have a question, it is not news (6) Report, not respond to Spam (7) Single-Rail/Non-Modular PSUs are not always better than Multi-Rail/Modular (8) Sequential does not matter as much as random for OS drives

jay-d

I have that as well, I have two external 500gb hard drives.

When I capture my video files, and convert them to raw AVI, 10 minutes is about 4gb of space.. and I have digital tapes as back ups.

The storage isn't permanent and though I appreciate the suggestions.. that's not what I'm asking in my original post.

I want to know if it would decrease performance using RAID 5 on my motherboard's southbridge.

DuckieHo

Yes, RAID5 write performance is pretty bad with the onboard controller. The issue is that it takes time to off-load the parity calcs for every single sector.

If you check my sig, there's some benchmarks of the ICH9R vs PERC controller. Even though you have an AMD mobo, Intel chipsets traditionally performed better with RAID.

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HTPC Kit: http://www.overclock.net/cases/80731...i-dvd-psu.html

To answer most of your questions: (1) a fridge cannot cool a PC (2) 64-bit OS for over 3.4GB (3) If a PCIe card fits, it should work (4) Resolution, not screen size (5) If you have a question, it is not news (6) Report, not respond to Spam (7) Single-Rail/Non-Modular PSUs are not always better than Multi-Rail/Modular (8) Sequential does not matter as much as random for OS drives

jay-d

Boo.. I was afraid of that.. ok, I think I will leave it as is and in the near future save up for a RAID controller.. thanks!!