RAID 0 vs Raptor

[Vinny]

Ok, I know very little about any sort of RAID.. I am a little bit intrigued by RAID 0 though (I do know that RAID 0 isn't really RAID) even if there's a bit of a risk. I'd like to learn more.

In my quest for both speed (gaming, OS, etc.) and space (videos, music, etc), I decided that I would have a 74GB Raptor and a 250GB Caviar 7200RPM (both SATA150s).

Now, I've been hearing a lot about how RAID 0 improves performance. I always thought that RAID 0 only doubled 2 HDs into one virtual drive (like 2 300GB HDs into one 600GB HD).

1. In what ways does RAID 0 improve performance? Will two 7200.10s in RAID 0 be able to come close to matching a 74GB Raptor?

2. I know that if one HD in RAID loses the data so does the other one. So, does that mean that if one HD becomes fried somehow and completely unusable, will the other one suffer the same fate? Or will the other one still be usable minus the lost data?

3. Is it hard to set up RAID 0?

Thanks in advance to anyone who helps.

 

[lrai]

Raid 0 read/write data from both drive simultaneously so the same file is on 2 hdd at once. This makes RAID 0 a risk if you lose 1 hdd you will lose 50% of EVERY file.
Also RAID 0 is vulnerable to array corruption especially if you have drives with large cache and the power goes down ( 2 drives with 8 MB cache = 16 MB data that is not write on power failure and the RAID array will be corrupt )
RAID 0 only increase the transfer not the access time.
Raptor will have better access time, but RAID 0 will probably have better transfer.
Most RAID 0 controllers are software so the increase in transfer comes at a price ( CPU utilization ).
I recommend against RAID 0.

More on RAID here

 

[kizuki]

Just for the sake of safety, you should just go with a raptor. I really don't see much of a difference for the average user.

 

[borandi]

I came across this question recently.

I decided to go with the raptor - it takes the hassle out of RAID, and doesnt have the problem of it all going tits up like RAID does.

Then, in the future, when you want faster and have some more $$$, get another raptor and RAID them after you've read lots and lots of info.

I've had my WD 150GB a month, and would recommend to anyone with the money.