first time raid'er, need advise

[buffyvpsfan]

I've been debating about building a raid system, I have a p67 motherboard. I have an evo ssd for os, is there a way to build a raid hdd for games and are there benefits in speed?? also how would I go about building raid other than the advice beside buying the same ssd or hdd??

 

[Steevo]

What do you hope to accomplish with the setup?

More disk space?
Faster load times?
Failure tolerant?


Next how much data will you be using, between games, OS, personal files and "stuff".

Most operating systems with basic programs can use 120GB including a decent game library, but not music, movies, pictures.

Will you store your personal files, inclusive of music, movies, pictures, and other things like phone backups, documents, and scrap programs/files on another drive?

 

[Schmuckley]

a) install IRST for your motherboard that you downloaded from the vendor's site.
b) go into BIOS and set up up array
Yes there are benefits in read/write time and storage capacity.
You could also DL this: http://www.romexsoftware.com/download/PrimoCache.Setup.zip
and set a 2-3GB cache up for the drive you want to use.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there, @buffyvpsfan!

It's preferable to use specific NAS/RAID HDDs, because they can save you from rebuilding the array which often happens with regular desktop drives. The specific RAID-environment drives have different features and firmware with algorithms that optimize the performance, power and reliability of that drive. They are even tested to run in 24/7 environments. In contrast, the average desktop drives are not optimized for multi-drive systems which have higher noise and vibration levels. If such drives are added to a RAID system, this additional vibration can reduce the life span and reliability.
However, it really depends on what you intend to use the RAID for as @Steevo mentioned. For example, a lot of video editing professionals prefer RAID-ing SSDs because of the intense work on raw files and the needed high speed. But it's a rather pricey configuration and most of the time unnecessary for other RAID users.
Since you are looking for speed, then RAID 0 (striping) is what would suit you best. It enhances performance, speed and all the storage capacity is usable unlike other RAID configurations, but it has no fault-tolerance and failure in just one disk can result in loss of all the data on the array. So I'd recommend not to keep anything important on it.

Hope this helped. Keep us posted with your decision!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[Aquinus]

I've been debating about building a raid system, I have a p67 motherboard. I have an evo ssd for os, is there a way to build a raid hdd for games and are there benefits in speed?? also how would I go about building raid other than the advice beside buying the same ssd or hdd??

You shouldn't be considering RAID if your only goal is performance. If performance is your goal, a SSD will do nicely. RAID is really intended to minimize downtime and to provide fault tolerance. If performance is your goal, don't go with RAID because RAID-0 doesn't help where things matter (such as random 4k IOPs) and you would be much better off just getting a larger SSD. Not to mention you increase the likelihood that your computer will take a nose dive into the floor if you lose a drive in RAID-0.

So before you do anything else explain this for me: Why do you think you need RAID?

Hey there, @buffyvpsfan!

It's preferable to use specific NAS/RAID HDDs, because they can save you from rebuilding the array which often happens with regular desktop drives. The specific RAID-environment drives have different features and firmware with algorithms that optimize the performance, power and reliability of that drive. They are even tested to run in 24/7 environments. In contrast, the average desktop drives are not optimized for multi-drive systems which have higher noise and vibration levels. If such drives are added to a RAID system, this additional vibration can reduce the life span and reliability.
However, it really depends on what you intend to use the RAID for as @Steevo mentioned. For example, a lot of video editing professionals prefer RAID-ing SSDs because of the intense work on raw files and the needed high speed. But it's a rather pricey configuration and most of the time unnecessary for other RAID users.
Since you are looking for speed, then RAID 0 (striping) is what would suit you best. It enhances performance, speed and all the storage capacity is usable unlike other RAID configurations, but it has no fault-tolerance and failure in just one disk can result in loss of all the data on the array. So I'd recommend not to keep anything important on it.

Hope this helped. Keep us posted with your decision!
SuperSoph_WD

I'm reluctant to recommend any kind of RAID until I know why the OP needs it. More often than not, people who think they need RAID really don't. Also TLER is nice when drives don't spin up very quickly but drives in WD Blacks (like the ones in my tower, despite lack of TLER) run flawlessly in RAID-5 with RSTe.

 

[Tallencor]

This is how I have always felt about Raid. Scary chance of me messing something up. I am interested to see how this thread develops.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

You shouldn't be considering RAID if your only goal is performance. If performance is your goal, a SSD will do nicely. RAID is really intended to minimize downtime and to provide fault tolerance. If performance is your goal, don't go with RAID because RAID-0 doesn't help where things matter (such as random 4k IOPs) and you would be much better off just getting a larger SSD. Not to mention you increase the likelihood that your computer will take a nose dive into the floor if you lose a drive in RAID-0.

So before you do anything else explain this for me: Why do you think you need RAID?

I'm reluctant to recommend any kind of RAID until I know why the OP needs it. More often than not, people who think they need RAID really don't. Also TLER is nice when drives don't spin up very quickly but drives in WD Blacks (like the ones in my tower, despite lack of TLER) run flawlessly in RAID-5 with RSTe.

Can't argue with that one, @Aquinus ! You are right. The OP does need to explain the purpose for the RAID.
He can most probably get away with a much simpler storage solution and avoid the scary chance of messing something up as @Tallencor mentioned.
I'm glad that your tower works flawlessly with the WD Blacks though. I guess you are taking good care of it.

 

[buffyvpsfan]

im running out of space on my hdd my 1 tb only has 130 gb left and my Samsung evo 840 ssd 120gb only has about 40 gb left. I need more space and more performance, speed was what I am trying to achieve. wth more games being 40gbs going all ssd is very expensive, which was why I was considering hdd raid. I might just get more ssds, but bang for the dollar im not sure if its such a wise idea with games like shadows of mordor poping up more and more.

 

[Aquinus]

More performance, get a bigger SSD. More space, get a bigger drive. It's really that simple. The only reason I did RAID-0 with my SSDs is because at the time 120GB SSDs were considerably cheaper than 240GBs, that's not the case so much anymore. I do however recommend RAID-5 if most of what you'll be doing is reading. RAID-5 gives RAID-0 like read speeds, but because of parity data, writes take longer and are slower. The biggest benefit to RAID-5 is linear read speeds and fault tolerance but you lose one disk of space due to parity.

For RAID, you'll want the same kind of drives, so a new bigger HDD and a new and bigger SSD might actually cost less than going with the RAID options as well. I would just add a 240GB SSD and a 2TB drive to the drives you have now then figure out a backup plan after, but I don't see you being in a position where fault tolerance will be worth the shortcomings of going with RAID.

...or to keep it simple: If you don't care about fault tolerance, than you shouldn't really care about RAID. You shouldn't use it unless you need it.