1 x SSD & 3 x HDD Best Setup

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Clarky-boy

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May 6, 2013
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I'm fairly new to all this.. and have recently built my first pc. :)

I have a Intel 520 120GB SSD - running my OS and Program Files...

I have a 1TB WD Blue at the moment for data, (getting low on space) and have just ordered another 1TB blue & a 2TB Green.

What would you say the best set up for these drives would be..? (mainly used for media)

I was thinking maybe just creating a spanned volume with the 2 x 1TB blue's, and using the 2TB Green for backups.

Or... using Raid 0 with the blue's, and backing up on the Green.

Not interesting in mirroring as I need the space.

Backing up from Raid 0, I hear can be a pain - however my OS is separate, so it shouldn't be to tricky right..?
Just replace faulty drive, re-set up Raid & format - then restore from backup.. does that sound right..?? (this option is tempting me, as long as it is that simple..?)

Or should I just run them as independent drives, using the Green for back ups.

I'm basically looking for something reliable, with speed being and advantage. As long as I can backup easily enough.

(I know I should backup to something external - however I've gone down the internal road for now)

Any good advice / suggestions is appreciated.



 
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Clarky-boy

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May 6, 2013
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10,510


Thanks for your input...

Will the mirroring affect performance..? being the green runs slower..?

If I didn't go down the raid road then - should I run the blues as independent drives or jbod/spanned
 
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wanderer11

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Jun 11, 2012
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The load speed doesn't bother me for data so I would just run them independent. If your data is important then you could backup to the green. I'm no RAID expert, but I would think that the write times would suffer due to having to write to the green and the blues. Read times shouldn't be affected since you would be reading from the blues. Hopefully someone else can help you more.
 
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RetiredChief

RetiredChief

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Feb 22, 2007
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I'm going to be short as I have to leave shortly.
1) Skip raido with the drives you have. WD Green, blue, and yellow-with-red PokaDots are not reliable Raid0 canidates. Infact I do not even recommend them for Normal use. For Raid0 use enterprise drives, lowest-end consumer drive is the WD Black or the Samsung F3.

2) Caution on using raid0 with a SSD as OS + pair of HDDs in raid0 - you do not want to lose TRIM support. With an Intel Chipset (as you did not identify your MB), You can use raid in Bios, and as long as the SSD is NOT a raid member drive, and you use Intels iaSTor (must be version 10.6 or later) driver TRIM will be passed to the SSD. With the Newer MBs AND with the 7 Series Intel Chipset and the Version 11+ Intel RST driver trim is also passed to the SSD even if it is a member drive of a raid0/1 configuration.

3) Raid0 only speeds up large sequencial file performance, does NOTHING for the 4 K random performance, not does it decrease access time. Raid0 is good gor working with large video files and if often editting large jpeg/bitmap photos (ie YOUR media files when editing, or re-encoding them as it does NOT improve playback)

Personnally, I would just leave it set up with 4 drives and Bios set to AHCI. Your call on joining the two Green 1 TB drives, I'm for simplicity.
 
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