New to RAID Need advice on new build.

[tsageek]

ok I am wondering if I should implement raid. I have been wanting to "fool" around with it for years, just haven't yet. My new system build is nothing fancy or expensive...it is not "cheap" either. I want to use an SSD as a boot drive. I will be using Windows 7 Professional. I store music, CAD projects, CS4 Master Collection, Solidworks, 3D Home Architect Pro. Some pc games, etc. I was wondering if I should raid my ssd? I read somewhere I could partition the ssd and set it by itself into a raid configuration to boost speeds?

I would like not to spend money on 4-5 hd's. If I have to I will though.

Here is my build:

CASE-NZXT M59 - 001BK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

CPU-AMD Phenom II X4 3.0GHz Socket AM3 80W Dual-Core Processor Model

MOBO-ASUS M4A79XTD EVO AM3 AMD 790X ATX AMD Motherboard

PSU-CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX 850W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91

MEMORY-OCZ Gold 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel

BOOT HDD- SSD Have not bought yet. Any Idea's?

OS- Windows 7 Professional

RAID HDD-Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"

Current Graphics Card:
SAPPHIRE Vapor-X 100283VX-2L Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card w/ Eyefinity


Please help me!!!!!

Thanks

 

[gtvr]

Pretty sure you can not partition/raid the drive into itself & increase speed at all.

If you don't have any irreplaceable data on your boot drive, just image it once in a while & don't worry about raid, imo. It's already pretty fast, so unless you want to spend a fair amount of cash to get redundancy, without getting yourself more storage space, raid 1 is not hugely helpful for you.

raid 0 would get you more speed, but it's already pretty fast, and less redundancy. For me, SSDs are not as proven for long term reliability as HDDs, so I wouldn't raid 0 anything unless there was a critical need for speed there.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[foscooter]

Here is information overkill: RAID - Wikipedia

RAID is for multiple drive. Depending on the array, 2-4+ drives.

Sorry, no RAID for you.

As for the SSD as a boot drive, absolutely! Get one large enough for your OS and Programs, and keep everything else on a HDD:

"I store music, CAD projects, CS4 Master Collection, Solidworks, 3D Home Architect Pro. Some pc games, etc."

I recommend an Intel X25-M 80GB here: $229.00

You could get 40GB, but that would be cutting is close, even on my system. The 40GB is a stripped down version of the 80GB, and 80GB beats it in all benchmarks. Still, any SSD will be alot faster! ----------------------------------------------------------------\/