Raid 0 or separated?

[Mike]

Hi,

I woul like to speed up my pc and gain some some space, so I bought a second hdd
from the same type: Maxtor DiamondMax Plus D740X 6L080L4. But will I gain speed
by using a Raid 0 or by using them separate?

I use the pc not for video but mostly for games, office, internet etc.

Thanks for any help,
Mike (from The Netherlands)

Windows XP Pro SP1
Gigabyte GA7VRXP 2.0
AMD Athlon 2000+ (FSB 266)
512 MB DDR (333MHz)
Maxtor D740X on ATA133

 

[Jim]

Mike,

RAID0 is stripping, which does improve performance significantly. I use two
WD 160GB HDs in RAID0 configuration w/ a Promise FastTrak100 TX2 PCI RAID
controller card. Standalone, each HD gets ~25MB/sec. In RAID0, they get
~40MB/sec! That's a big difference (60% improvement). The only caveat is
that when configured in RAID0, your files are split across both drives
(obviously), so should one or the other HD fail, you loss ALL the data on
both drives. Btw, the total HD capacity remains the sum of the two HDs, in
your case, 2 x 80GB = 160GB. You can then use these HDs as if they were
simply one, big 160GB HD, it's exactly the same, only it's performance will
be *much* better!

The only means to protect against the data loss I mentioned is by adding two
*more* drives (4 x 80GB total) and implementing RAID0+1 (stripping +
mirroring), thus your speedy RAID0 config is now mirrored as well. When any
one HD fails, the system keeps humming along, no sweat. In the meantime,
you get a replacement. Perhaps extravagant, but if your RAID supports
RAID0+1, it one more possible configuration.

HTH

Jim

 

[Mike]

Hi Jim,

Thanks for your answer. I know of the limitations of Raid 0 but I guess they are
the same as just 1 hdd... Is your Promise FastTrak onboard or PCI? ANd are there
any differennces? Because I just saw a ATA133 controller with Raid for $15...

TIA
Mike

 

[Jim]

My Promise controller is PCI, I picked it up on eBay for ~$35. Frankly, I
wouldn't trust any other brand, not PCI-based anyway. There are a couple of
very low-end RAID cards floating around (just can't recall the brand names
at the moment), but they've always had mixed reviews. Considering that your
valuable data depends on this thing, at least *I'm* very leery about going
too low-end. Promise controllers always seem to work, and work well.

As far as on-board vs. PCI, I don't see any practical differences. I
believe even the on-board solutions still use the PCI bus. At least the PCI
solution implies additional ports. Of course, w/ on board RAID, you're
getting it for very little additional cost. Many newer mobo's are now
coming w/ SATA RAID (only).

As far as risk, *statistically* your risk does goes up. Think of the
extreme case, if you could have 100 HDs in RAID0 (theoretically), and I told
you that if any one failed, you'd lose all your data, would you be more
concerned? Of course you would, since *statisically* the odds of at least
one among the 100 failing within any given period is pretty high. So while
using two HDs doesn't increase the risk a lot compared to one HD, it's not
zero either. I'm not suggesting you *do* use RAID0+1 (even I don't), only
that you are aware of the increased risk, if only slight. There *are* some
people who do shy away from RAID0 for this reason.

Jim

 

[Mike]

Hi Jim,

Thank you for this very extensive answer. I made up my mind now: I'm gonna buy a
new processor which fits on my mobo with Promise controller *onboard*. And with
the new hdd I will make a RAID 0. Risks are being neglected.

Thanks,
Mike