Help setting up RAID

[alishaan]

I built my system about 4 months back and didn't pay much attention to BIOS setting on my Gigabyte UD4P board. Last week I noticed in BIOS that the Onboard SATA/IDE mode is set to IDE but the HDDs are SATA. But after reading online that OS reinstall is required after changing these values, so i'm planning to reinstall the OS and this is where the next question comes in.

Since I'm reinstalling the OS I thought of putting two extra drives WD Black 640 for OS and WD Black 1 TB for Data (I haven't bought the drives yet). I was thingking of putting OS Drives in RAID 0 config and Data Drives in RAID 1 config. Basically, I want to increase the OS and game performance and make the Data safer. Now this where I want your help.

Since this board has two RAID controllers (Intel ICH10R and Gigabyte) which is the best way to put these Drives in RAID and is it possible to create two RAIDs in Intel chip.

Some of the options I think:

1. OS drives in RAID 0 and Data Drives in RAID 1 on Intel chip (If Intel Chip allows two seperate RAID Arrays)
2. OS drives in RAID 0 on Intel Chip and Data Drives in RAID 1 on Gigabyte Chip (I've heard that Gigabyte RAID is slower and not reliable as Intel)

I would greatly appreciate your help in setting up the right RAID. Thanks in advance.

My System:
Intel Core i7 920
OCZ Platinum 6 GB
Gigabyte UD4P X58
EVGA GTX 275
WD Black 640 GB for OS, Programs and Games
WD Black 1 TB for Data
Antec 900 II
Corsair 650 W
Xigmatec Dark Knight
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit

 

[p55ibexpeak]

1. Most def. All on ICH10R. My buddy has a very smiliar setup. RAID 0 for OS & 1 for data on the same ICH9R. Be sure to enable volume write cache in Intel® Matrix Storage Console.

http://i.techrepublic.com.com/gallery/336288-500-376.jpg

However, I would still not trust the RAID 1 for all my data storage. I'd still back it up to DVD+/-Rs. It's best to have at least 2 copies of data at any given time. The other copy could be off-site. Like at a friend's or even in another country. At the office, I have 3 copies of all my work.

 

[specialk90]

Yes, all on ICH10R.

You could even use Intel' "Matrix" Raid where using 2 identical drives, you can create 2 different Raid arrays. This is what I did with 4 10k rpm Raptors. Raid 0 for the OS and Raid 10 for data. However, a single Intel X25 80GB SSD makes that setup feel 10yrs old.

For 2 drives, you could create a Raid 0 array with the first 80GB and then a Raid 1 with the rest. Depending on how much space you need for data, you could get another 1TB and use both for this Matrix Raid and use the 640GB as a backup (using an external case).

 

[alishaan]

1. Most def. All on ICH10R. My buddy has a very smiliar setup. RAID 0 for OS & 1 for data on the same ICH9R. Be sure to enable volume write cache in Intel® Matrix Storage Console.

http://i.techrepublic.com.com/gallery/336288-500-376.jpg

However, I would still not trust the RAID 1 for all my data storage. I'd still back it up to DVD+/-Rs. It's best to have at least 2 copies of data at any given time. The other copy could be off-site. Like at a friend's or even in another country. At the office, I have 3 copies of all my work.

Thanks for your response, i'll make sure the write cache is enabled. also i've an xbox converted to nas where i backup my data routinely. I'll try to add another location where i can backup my data. Once again thanks.

 

[alishaan]

Yes, all on ICH10R.

You could even use Intel' "Matrix" Raid where using 2 identical drives, you can create 2 different Raid arrays. This is what I did with 4 10k rpm Raptors. Raid 0 for the OS and Raid 10 for data. However, a single Intel X25 80GB SSD makes that setup feel 10yrs old.

For 2 drives, you could create a Raid 0 array with the first 80GB and then a Raid 1 with the rest. Depending on how much space you need for data, you could get another 1TB and use both for this Matrix Raid and use the 640GB as a backup (using an external case).

Thanks specialk90, i'll create both the Raids on ICH10R and probably use the Gigabyte to put DVD and BLU-Ray drive.

As for the Raid setup, i'll try to keep things simple. I'll create a RAID 0 Array with two 640 GB WD Blacks which will be used for OS, programs, games and create RAID 1 Array with two 1 TB WD Blacks which will be used for Data. i'm not planning on partitioning the drives, let me know if that's the best way to go. thanks.

 

[Outlander_04]

you dont need to reinstall the os to activate the AHCI features that you would have if the hdd was in sata mode

head to google and search " enable ahci"

RAID 0 gives a decrease in loading times that will save you a few seconds here and there . It wont increase system performance or file transfer speeds , and it will at least double your chance of catastrophic failure

RAID 1 is data security and might be worth while if you are prepared to get a raid controller card ... or the array dies with the mb if that is ever damaged by power surge etc

I wouldnt bother

 

[alishaan]

Outlander_04 thanks for the heads up. If the performance increase is not that great than i'll probably stick with single os drive. I'll just add another drive for RAID 1 for the data part. I'll do some more research regarding enabling AHCI.

What kind of performance increase can i expect by changing the mode from IDE to AHCI.

Regarding the controller card, let's say the MB dies and i'll be able to bring the array up if the new MB has same ICH10R chip.

 

[specialk90]

Raid 0 will give you at least 30-40% performance improvement for the OS, booting and programs. AHCI will not provide any performance improvement for this situation.

Yes, you can move any raid array to another MB with ICH10R or later (ICH11R when its released).

Actually, Raid 1 for the OS will provide a boost very close to Raid 0 because Intel's ICH10R is able to read from both drives at the same time which is essentially what Raid 0 does during reads. That 30-40% increase in performance I mentioned comes from when I reconfigured my business partner's PC. He had 2 7200rpm drives in Raid 1 for the OS and data, and I installed a Velociraptor for the OS. I unplugged a 7200rpm drive and booted up. It felt far slower and Photoshop and InDesign took a bit longer to open.

If you play games, then Raid 0 should help there also.

 

[alishaan]

specialk90 once again thanks for your reply. I'll definetly look into the RAID options you mentioned. many thanks.