quick question about RAID controller card vs. mobo raid controller

[Matt]

I'm building a computer for video editing and I'll be using a Areca ARC-1220
controller card for my video RAID but should I also run the system drive and
blu-ray burner off it or should I just run those on the mobo's (Intel
DX58SO) RAID controller instead? I'm shooting for maximum performance on
this system with minimum amount of headache

 

[Paul]

I'm building a computer for video editing and I'll be using a Areca ARC-1220
controller card for my video RAID but should I also run the system drive and
blu-ray burner off it or should I just run those on the mobo's (Intel
DX58SO) RAID controller instead? I'm shooting for maximum performance on
this system with minimum amount of headache

The Southbridge ports are the "most transparent" on the computer.
If you want to do an install of an OS, without any fancy drivers and
F6, then the Southbridge is where you want the boot drive. If you need to
use diagnostics, run Ghost, or a myriad of other things, then
transparency and compatibility are the things you should be
aiming for.

The RAID card gets the RAID drives.

Paul

 

[Rarius]

I'm building a computer for video editing and I'll be using a Areca ARC-1220
controller card for my video RAID but should I also run the system drive and
blu-ray burner off it or should I just run those on the mobo's (Intel
DX58SO) RAID controller instead? I'm shooting for maximum performance on
this system with minimum amount of headache

I would suggest putting the OS and any optical drives onto mobo SATA
ports and keep them away from RAID. Don't use the RAID features of the
mobo controller. Keep it simple and you'll have a LOT less trouble in
the future!

What RAID level are you going to use? RAID0 is fast but offers no
redundency. If you are only using these for work in progress, RAID0 is
OK, but if yo will store stuff long term I'd suggest looking at RAID5, 6
or 10.

In my experience RAID is almost always more trouble than its worth. I
have lost count of the number of systems I have had to rebuild from
scratch because someone though it would be a good idea to make the boot
drive a RAID 0 for speed. Once one drive dies (and they do) you have to
rebuid the entire system.

I remeber having to rebuild an entire server because although they had
RAID1 (mirrored drives) they never bothered to check the disk status.
One drive died without being noticed and when the second one died a year
later they lost everything...quess who didn't think they needed backups
because they had a RAID system!

Rarius

 

[Matt]

I would suggest putting the OS and any optical drives onto mobo SATA ports
and keep them away from RAID. Don't use the RAID features of the mobo
controller. Keep it simple and you'll have a LOT less trouble in the
future!

What RAID level are you going to use? RAID0 is fast but offers no
redundency. If you are only using these for work in progress, RAID0 is OK,
but if yo will store stuff long term I'd suggest looking at RAID5, 6 or
10.

In my experience RAID is almost always more trouble than its worth. I have
lost count of the number of systems I have had to rebuild from scratch
because someone though it would be a good idea to make the boot drive a
RAID 0 for speed. Once one drive dies (and they do) you have to rebuid the
entire system.

I remeber having to rebuild an entire server because although they had
RAID1 (mirrored drives) they never bothered to check the disk status. One
drive died without being noticed and when the second one died a year later
they lost everything...quess who didn't think they needed backups because
they had a RAID system!

Rarius

Thanks for the info... that's pretty much what I was leaning towards but I
wanted to be sure. I'm going with RAID 10 for a combo of speed and backup.
I've read on a lot of video forums & Toms and most people are saying that
RAID5 just isn't providing enough speed on larger projects.

I'm going to run a WD Raptor drive for the OS so that should help a little
on speed. Unfortunately when working with HD footage and larger projects you
just can't get enough speed.