Why do I want RAID?

[smithlc]

OK, I'm giving up on DDR and will likely go with 1GHz+ AMD with 512MB SDRAM (vs. 256 DDR I was going to get) on a KT133A, but now I see an opportunity for a RAID MB.

I plan on getting a new 30 or 40 GB HD (IBM) and then move my existing 10GB and 8GB drive to the new system. I'll be running Win2K (will ask about VIA+win2k later) and maybe boot to Win98 for games.

So... what does RAID give me? Can I configure this partitions on separate unmatched HD's to use striping for increased performace? Can I configure redundant backup on unmatched HD? Will I lose the advantage of ATA100 on the new drive if I use RAID?

Thanks in advance,
Chad

 

[Guest]

RAID in IDE is a joke. Actually, IDE is the joke, but it's so cheap these days, that ppl just see the space they can be getting, and not the performance hit they take because of it. If you want performance, get SCSI. No, you can not use unmatched drives in RAID. They MUST be matched to work optimally. Using mismatched drives will either make you loose alot of space or just loose alot of the performance advantages you would have gotten from RAID. If you have no choice, too poor to afford SCSI, then IDE RAID is better than plain IDE.

 

[bw37]

ATA-100 may be a joke (no better than ATA-66 from what I've gathered), but the price difference between an IDE RAID pair vs. a single SCSI disk is fairly large, GB for GB, Enough to make IDE RAID quite appealing. Where would one find information on the actual speeds of various drive setups? For instance is a single SCSI faster (and which type, ultra, ultra 160...) than an ATA-100 RAID-0 pair, and under what conditions? If I'm spending more than twice the money , I'd need to see some pretty impressive numbers to justify it. No doubt SCSI is faster, and technically superior, drive for drive to ATA-100, but I bet I AM too poor (or cheap?) to afford it. Besides, cheap is good, just ask all the overclockers around here! SCSI IS nice in my CAD workstation and the servers at the office where somebody else is paying for it.