RAID question

[novice]

I know that RAID improves the HDD performance. However, does it have any disadvantage? Should I go for it or not? If so, which one is a good ATA/100 RAID controller card? Thanks a lot!

 

[novice]

Come on people! I know you are good at this! Answer me!

 

[camieabz]

RAID means more drives.
Means more money.
Means more likelihood of drive failure.
Can mean more performance/less data integrity.
Can mean more data integrity.

What do you want to run RAID for?
Performance or Peace of mind.

Either way it will be more expensive, but can be worth it.

<b>
"Now drop your weapons or I'll kill him with this deadly jelly baby."
</b>

 

[Guest]

It depends on your RAID setup.

RAID 0 will boost data transfer rate, but increase the likelihood of failure.

RAID 1 will (usually) not affect performance, but give a high reliability at the cost of double price for the same storage (as each drive must have a mirror).

RAID 1+0 or 0+1 will both boost performance and provide reliability. But again at the double price.

RAID 5 will boost reading performance and provide reliability at much lower extra cost. However, it doesn't improve (and sometimes even decreases) writing performance.

There are other setups. You can check it all at the following comprehensive RAID guide (some 80 pages, no less!):

<A HREF="http://www.storagereview.com/guide2000/ref/hdd/perf/raid/index.html" target="_new">http://www.storagereview.com/guide2000/ref/hdd/perf/raid/index.html</A>

Leo