Raid0 + Nvraid + ATA + SATA2

[c0d3r]

Well, i have some serious questions to ask before upgrading, and i cudnt find a simple answer while searching the forum, so please help me:

My System Specs:
Athelon 3500+ OC'ed (939)
MSI K8N Neo4 platinum (NForce4 Ultra + NVRaid + Sillicon Images Sata-Raid)
7900GT Oc'ed
2x 500MB Kingston DDR1
Samsung SATA2 - 80GB
Ata Segate 80GB
Use: gaming
Also, upgrade required, but out of budget

The problem: I want to increase my H/D space and optionally improve game loading times so Raid0 was an option. And buying a Sata2 is the target.

The Questions:

1) Are raid0 really that succeptable to error? I dont want to lose data. Forums suggest error is possible, but no one reporting it...

2) Can we Raid0 Diff capacities of HD? Like my current 80G with a 120G / 200G etc?

3) Does NVRaid controller support SATA2 Raid'ed? It does support Sata2, coz that is what ive been using.

4) NVRaid Controller does support sata + ata133 raided. What is ata133 and what will be the effect on perforance?

5) Is NVRaid a good controller? Or buying an external raid controller is a must? And is it a hw controller or a software?

Thats all folks, sorry for the long post, but i wanted to make clear the data in hand

Waiting for your replies

 

[mike99]

I have same motherboard, and I am using two 80Gb Seagate SATA drives in RAID 0. I get 80Mbps sustained, and 194Mbps burst(HD Tach). Because it is harder to recover from problems with this setup I would reccommend an imaging program to backup an image to external HD for peace of mind. RAID can only use equal amounts from each drive. While the motherboard can RAID PATA and SATA drives, I have no performance figures for this.

Mike.

 

[Chester3000]

1) Yes, in your circumstance it is. Use HD backup/recover programs if your worried. Or Raid 5
2) Yes, but don't.
3) I think your particular board does support Sata2 raid 0. May be only certain ports though.
4) ATA133 = IDE. Don't raid a SATA and IDE drive together. My AthlonXP 1800+ system has a ATA133 Raid 0 setup. Get the picture?
5) It's software. A real Hardware Raid card is out of your budget, if you are saying an upgrade is out of your budget. Refer to mike99 about performance gains in regards to raid 0 on your computer (warning: performance may vary).

 

[mike99]

5) Is NVRaid a good controller? Or buying an external raid controller is a must? And is it a hw controller or a software?

Regarding 5), I am about to fit an XFX Revo card, http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=225506
This does not require drivers, as even the motherboard only sees the RAID array as an IDE drive. It does RAID 3 in hardware, so gives redundancy with 3 drives, or can be used with 2 drives for RAID 0 or 1.

Mike.

 

[c0d3r]

Hmmm, i think ill postpone raid for now ,, ir rather go for a 250 / 320 gb h/d sata2, and expand space .. later on, ill get another 80g and raid it, and get a backup on the other non-raided sata ...

About Backups: Assuming im auto-backing 2x80g raid0, how much space will the backup occupy? whole 160gb (exact drive image), or backup of the data only ... ie size == data...

Ps what software to use, Norton Ghost? or any other suggestion..

 

[mike99]

Ghost can create a compressed image of the data, so if you have 100Gb of data on the array, the image will be 100Gb, or less with compression. Amount of compression depends on the type of data.


Mike.