Newbie question about software vs. hardware RAID

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Parafly

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May 3, 2012
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Hey guys,

I have a rig I use for video editing and some light gaming. Specs:

Corsair HX750 PSU
Asrock Z77 Extreme4
Core i7 3770k @ 4.4Ghz w/ Coolermaster cpu cooler
Zotac GTX970
32GB Ram
Samsung 830 240GB boot / os drive
120GB SSD for editing scratch drive
500GB hdd for misc storage
2x2TB RAID-1 WD Black for media storage and working folder.

All this gets backed up to a 2x3TB Synology NAS (WD Red) and also another 4tb hdd in my office that I take offsite.

Anyway. right now my 2x2TB drives are in Win7 Software RAID-1. That is all I have ever done as far as RAID is concerend. However, I noticed my Mobo has RAID capabilities as well. Am I better off using my mobo RAID? Or, does the mobo RAID only work for boot drives and not for additional storage drives (i.e., I would need a dedicated controller?)

Eventually I would like to picku p a 3rd 2TB Black and switch over to RAID5 so I get some throughput improvement also during video editing, and I know that once I go past RAID-1 there are no more software options in Windows to handle.

Thanks in advance!

 
Solution
F
Like "negativkarma" saying. HW raid is always better then software RAID when comes to RAID5/6 (parity raid)
You can have a PCIe HW RAID card like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Areca-ARC-1214-4i-4-Ports-Low-Profile-Controller/dp/B00BNHT67W/

Or something simple like this:
http://www.amazon.com/multiplier-hardware-RAID0-CLONE-Controller/dp/B004JPUZWU/

Both does not taxing the host CPU when RAID engine due to embeded I/O Processor
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junkeymonkey

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Nov 11, 2013
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im no expert on this but being windows it may not matter cause you cant transfer the array as you can under Linux so I may be wrong on this but the only time I seen this is with a Linux rig in windows you set it up in the bios as your manual states or you buy a raid card and do it as it says to

in the end windows is allways tied to the computer it was installed on and will not boot if transferred to another rig

ttheres some to look at on this if you google it around
 
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negativkarma

negativkarma

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Apr 17, 2013
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Hardware RAID via your motherboard is technically always the superior choice in terms of raid options and raid performance.

That being said,even though a software raid setup within windows does put the work performed by a raid controller onto the cpu, this load is very small by today's performance standards and your i7 3770 wouldn't blink an eye at the extra workload.

You can use the hardware raid for boot or for storage, makes no difference.

My opinion would by all means use the hardware raid if your motherboard supports it. Especially if you plan on going to something more complicated than a basic mirror or stripped array. If you want to maximize performance, you can go so far as dictating the size of the stripes on hardware raids. This level of control along with no cpu overhead makes a hardware raid a win win.
 
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F

FireWire2

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Oct 30, 2006
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Like "negativkarma" saying. HW raid is always better then software RAID when comes to RAID5/6 (parity raid)
You can have a PCIe HW RAID card like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Areca-ARC-1214-4i-4-Ports-Low-Profile-Controller/dp/B00BNHT67W/

Or something simple like this:
http://www.amazon.com/multiplier-hardware-RAID0-CLONE-Controller/dp/B004JPUZWU/

Both does not taxing the host CPU when RAID engine due to embeded I/O Processor
 
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