[Starbomba]

I've been long interested in RAID technology, and since my mobo supports it (at least 0/1/0+1/5/JBOD), i plan to use it.
But, is there any noticeable performance boost to using it? I plan to RAID two sets of discs, my boot disc using RAID 1, and my data+games partition on RAID 0. I do backups constantly, plus i don't rely on my computer for valuable info, it's all burned on discs, saved on thumbdrives, or on the internet. I'd rather do RAID 1 on my OS boot discs since i kinda wanna save the hassle of reinstalling in case things go awry, tho i wouldn't mind having it on RAID 0 to make it a tidbit faster.
Also, what the heck is JBOD?

 

[Klue22]

JBOD="Just a bunch of disks"
Basically spreads data out over all disks, no redundancy though.

Raid 0 will have linear scaling in performance, no redundancy(ie 2 disks=2x speed, 3 disks=3x)
Raid 1 will mirror all disks (maximum redundancy, only one disk worth of capacity and speed)
Raid 5 will create a distributed parity (parity information is used to recreate "lost" data, 1 disk redundancy)
Raid 0+1 will create multiple raid 0s which will then be mirred using raid 1 (good combo of redundancy and speed)

Lots more information here.

 

[aesthetics1]

RAID1 isn't really going to save you if things go 'awry' if I'm understanding your use of the term.

If you have a hard drive failure, it certainly will. You can slap in another one and be on your way. If you mean software corruption, virus infection, etc, Raid isn't making 'backups' of your data - it is simply mirroring the data on your drives to prevent loss of data in the event of a hardware failure.

My suggestion to you, if I understood you right, is to look into a pair of RAID 0 drives for your OS, and a secondary (whether it be external, or internal) drive with backup images of your drive using something like Acronis TIH. Acronis gives you the ability to make incremental backups on a schedule that you can restore from (from your chosen date/time).

Alternatively, for even more security (which it doesn't sound like you're too interested in) you could set up a second array of RAID 1 drives in your machine for your backup drives, which would ensure that you have redundant backups.

There are really a lot of options for you.

In summary -

You will see a big speed boost from RAID 0, I recommend it!
You can back up more efficiently with drive imaging software if you need an incremental disaster recovery solution (choose your restore point).

 

[UsedPaperclip]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Klue22;13137512
JBOD="Just a bunch of disks"
Basically spreads data out over all disks, no redundancy though.

Raid 0 will have linear scaling in performance, no redundancy(ie 2 disks=2x speed, 3 disks=3x)
Raid 1 will mirror all disks (maximum redundancy, only one disk worth of capacity and speed)
Raid 5 will create a distributed parity (parity information is used to recreate "lost" data, 1 disk redundancy)
Raid 0+1 will create multiple raid 0s which will then be mirred using raid 1 (good combo of redundancy and speed)

Lots more information here.

With 2 hdds in RAID 0 you get about 1.7x-2x speed. With 3 drives you get 2.5-2.8x speeds.

With Raid 1, you get faster reads than 1 disk (probably 1.5x) but your write speed is much slower. Probably around .75x

A Raid 1 on your OS is pretty much as waste if you are constantly backing up imho. Id say go for a raid 0 on both if your constantly backing up. HDDs dont fail that often. I have 2 RAID 0s over 8 years old that are still running. Raid 0 will also extend the life of your hdds because each one has to do less work since the work load is shared. Just keep them defragged and you'll be fine

 

[fluxlite]

Hmm yeah, raid1 decreases write speed due to controller overhead, but I didn't think it was that significant (-25%).

If I were you I'd put 2 500gb drives in raid0 - you hear plenty of horror stories about arrays failing, but in all honesty it's not that likely.

raid5 and 1+0 are a bit too much for myself...I don't have the case space and I'd prefer not to run 4+ (1+0) or 3+ (raid5) hard drives all the time.

If you go for an external controller then large raid0, raid5 or 1+0 arrays scale a lot better.

 

[Aparition]

If what you want is faster program loading, ie: games load faster, I suggest doing what I did. Especially if your only using your Mobo Raid controllers, which are ok.

I left my OS on a regular non striped drive. Then I raided 2 32Mb cache 500Gig drives to Raid 0, and partitioned them equally into ~500 gig drives in my OS. I install all my programs onto these drives, with ~ 1 terabyte of data storage I can have lots of games, with it as 2 drive letters it is easier to manage.

I save all my games data on my OS drive. What this does is if my Stripe fails I still have all my save game data, Ini edits, user preferences, passwords, user names... etc.. and all I have to do is reinstall my games. My games load very fast into memory, with 6 gigs of RAM my drives rarely spin back up after the first load.

No my OS doesn't boot up windows like a magician, but yes my programs run very fast. This is what I care about, I leave my system in sleep/standby so it only takes .1 second to resume my windows session.

This is simple, effective, you don't have to reinstall windows, it is safer, and it give you great performance. If you want to do anything more complex than Raid 0 I highly suggest investing in an actual RAID Controller Card.

 

[Starbomba]

Okay guys, all facts are pretty helpful. Thanks for all the help.

I'm going with 2 RAID 0 arrays, one on my OS (2x 80 gigs), and one on my data disks (2x 1 tb)

Yea, i am interested in not losing data due to a faulty disk, but if it happens, i won't lose anything important. Also, speeds does matter to me.

Think i could handle this with the drivers of this mobo? or would i need to buy a RAID card? the mobo does support 6 disks, but i'm not 100% sure of it's RAID capabilities.

 

[Klue22]

You really only need a dedicated raid card if you're doing a parity raid (5 or 6) otherwise your mobo can handle it fine. I'm currently running two raids over 5 disks on my sig rig no problem

 

[nerdybeat]

I have a raid 0 array with 2x 10k rpm drives, and I enjoy the performance boost (got them for a great deal near black friday) and I constantly run windows backup to my internal 1TB for safety. Boot into your BIOS and check out the raid capabilities - it should support what you want to do w/o a RAID controller.

 

[UsedPaperclip]

Just make sure you use the latest raid drivers and the latest bios. New bios can speed up the raid check during boot. Also I would look into short stroking that 2tb raid 0 for data so that you can keep all of your most used programs on the outside of the disk so they will always be in the fastest spot.

 

[FXTOi7]

Raid 0 will give u 5% increase.... its uber over rated....

 

[Klue22]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikepahl318;13139330
Raid 0 will give u 5% increase.... its uber over rated....

Uh no, if it did for you then you're doing it wrong.

 

[UsedPaperclip]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikepahl318 Raid 0 will give u 5% increase.... its uber over rated....

HAHA wut?

What RAID 0 were you using and how did you have it set up??

 

[PapaSmurf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Starbomba Okay guys, all facts are pretty helpful. Thanks for all the help. I'm going with 2 RAID 0 arrays, one on my OS (2x 80 gigs), and one on my data disks (2x 1 tb)

You might want to rethink the 2 x 80 gig for the OS. Considering how slow most 80 gig drives actually are you will be able to get comparable if not better performance from a Samsung 320gif F4 drive shortstroked to 100-160gig than a pair of slower 80 gig drives. The Samsung 320g F4 SS'd to 100g would have a throughput of app 150mbs and an access time of app. 10ms. I doubt that a pair of 80's would be more than 110 to 120mbs and the access time wouldn't be enough lower to notice.

Just my opinion.