SATA w/ RAID or no?

Evicerator

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I'm currently in the process of doing a massive amount of research for building a new computer before Christmas and I've crossed the path of HDD's and I'm at whits end trying to decide if RAID is for me or not. I really plan on using this computer as a leisure/gaming/LAN computer that will be daily used for basic computer stuff like web surfing, IM, email and of course gaming. I have a data computer running for stored items such as media and important data that I rarely access.

My main question is would RAID benefit me with the uses I have for the computer I'm looking to build? I like speed and performance, but will I get "wow"-ed by RAID or will it only be marginal for what I am using it for?

Thanks for any and all info or advice that can be offered.
 

Ncogneto

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It will be marginal at best.

It's not what they tell you, its what they don't tell you!<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by ncogneto on 11/10/03 05:21 PM.</EM></FONT></P>
 

Evicerator

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thanks for the info. Anyone else?

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by evicerator on 11/10/03 03:41 PM.</EM></FONT></P>
 

Ncogneto

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<A HREF="http://www.storagereview.com/cgi-bin/news_archive.pl/30" target="_new">http://www.storagereview.com/cgi-bin/news_archive.pl/30</A>

Scroll down ad read the article "Is Raid 0 really worth it"

It's not what they tell you, its what they don't tell you!
 

lunitic

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I agree. RAID 0 is for a very small group of users who really need top performance and who don't care about the risk they take. And for people who want to show off.
 

Vapor

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I'm definitely in need of more HDD performance (not just for workstation use, but those damn scene loads in Morrowind!!!). Oh yeah, my friends' systems are starting to catch up to my system, too, so there's all the more reason.

Damn Rambus.
 

gothitbycar

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things like raid are most noticeable when your using the same exact system and went from a single disk to RAID 0. Its also very good to show off with and make certain parts feel bigger.

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Add witty comment here.
 

jim552

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My short answer would be to leave well enough alone.
Stick with the SATA drives and you should be good.
My only recommendation would be to get the Western Digital Raptor hard drive.


Long Answer:

It has always seemed to me that since the primary purpose of hard drives is to provide storage anything that detracts from that cause with out a purose should be avoided.

Generally, when people talk about putting up a RAID configuration on their personnal computer it is RAID 0 and it is for speed. (RAID 0 also known as striping.)

RAID 0 does improve through-put and if you add more drives you get a better improvement. (Providing your controller takes advantage of that.) What is basically does is to create one large looking hard drive that is made up of n drives. When data is written, each cluster/block/sector, is written/read beginning with drive 1 through drive n. You can write overlaps, you lessen the impact of seeks, and you get a large looking hard drive. If you use, which you plan to, SATA then the advantages of multiple drives are even greater since SATA provides what is essential a private data conduit for each drive.

Now we get to the that "detract" part!

If you have two drives, then you have doubled the chances of hard drive failure!
If you have three, then it is tripled!
etc.....

Do you want that potential headache?

If you are doing video editing, database serving, or something that can greatly benifit from that improvement in speed, it may well be worth the risk.

Hard drive are pretty well built, Raptor ones in theory are better built, but the end result is you have still increased the chance of failure.

What's more, more often than not when a striped drive array fails the entire contents are lost. It, generally, is not like 1/2 the drive is now missing. (Which in my assessment, may even be worse at times!)

Now this can be overcome to some degree by using the combination of RAID 0 and RAID 1. (striping and mirroring.) Now we are talking about 4 drives!

I would suggest, especially since there have been price decreases, just using a Western Digital Raptor hard drive.

If you want added protection then get two and mirror them.

If you want a little bit more performance then get two and use one for the OS and paging file, and the other one for the game installations.

If you are conserned about space, then get one Raptor for the OS and paging file, and one standard SATA for you data.

Ultimately though, one drive will likely be enough.....

You could even wait for the NEW Raptor 74gb drives to become available! Supposedly they are faster! Some people here have claimed to be able to buy them, I am still looking.

One note of caution though!
The Western Digital Raptor hard drives do run a bit hot, make sure you have good ventilation.