Fastest 2TB HDD For OS & Storage & Raid

[happy]

Hi guys, what is the fastest and most reliable 2TB HDD out there. Caviar Black? Just wanted to get some opinions. Also I also wanted to back up my files. Can you Raid 3 or even 4 2TB drives together?

Thanks

[Delta6326]

I would say yes to all of your ?'s You may need a good raid controller for 3-4 cards though.

[happy]

Originally Posted by Delta6326

I would say yes to all of your ?'s You may need a good raid controller for 3-4 cards though.

I was hoping to use my AMD 890GXM-G65 mobo to Raid 3-4 of my 2TB drives. I have a Phenom 955BE. This will work right? I currently have x2 WD20EARX and was hoping to get a fast 2tb HDD (to work as my OS as well as some storage but also be backed up in my other HDDs) and maybe a different 2tb to complete this raid. You can raid different branded 2TB HDDs? This is possible without having to buy a raid card right?

Thanks

[LagunaX]

WD Caviar Black like above.

The Seagate 3TB is pretty fast, faster than the 2TB drives.

The upcoming 1TB Velociraptor is amazing for a mechanical drive with reads and writes in the 200's but dies not fit your criteria.

[Delta6326]

Originally Posted by happy

You can raid different branded 2TB HDDs?

You maybe able to, I have always thought you had to use the same HDD model, brand and size.

Your mobo can probably handle the raid. I just prefer dedicated raid cards.

[arnoo1]

i have a WD Caviar Black 2tb and does 140mb read/write in atto
i don't have a screenie atm, i don't have it on my rig atm

[happy]

Originally Posted by Delta6326

You maybe able to, I have always thought you had to use the same HDD model, brand and size.

Your mobo can probably handle the raid. I just prefer dedicated raid cards.

Originally Posted by arnoo1

i have a WD Caviar Black 2tb and does 140mb read/write in atto
i don't have a screenie atm, i don't have it on my rig atm

Thanks and that Caviar Black does some crazy fast read/write. I think I might get a 2TB F4. You think it would be better than other 2TB for OS and Storage?

Thanks

[happy]

Hi guys,
So I just came to a conclusion of getting a 1TB Caviar Black.
HDDs I Currently Have: (x2)2TB Caviar Green WD20EARX, (x1) 1TB Samsung F3 HD103SJ
I will be Raiding these drives using an AMD 890GXM-G65 mobo. So basically, I just read up on the different types of RAIDs but I don't know which one would suit me best. I got the 1TB Caviar Black to be used as an OS so that boot up time would be reasonably faster than the F3. What is the best method of Rading that I should use to simply store photos and movies. I will also be gaming which is why I bought the Caviar Black.

Thanks

[happy]

Originally Posted by KitchenTel

The upcoming 1TB Velociraptor is amazing for a mechanical drive with reads and writes in the 200's but dies not fit your criteria.http://www.crzxy.info/abs

Yeah I'm trying to build this rig on the cheap but still want it to operate at a decent speed.

[RejZoR]

Another happy WD Caviar Black 2TB user. It was a bit more expensive soon after release but it's damn fast for a standard HDD and the size is just massive. I have loads of multimedia stuff, entire Steam archive of like 200+ games and i still have 500GB left lol.

Yeah yeah, SSD's are faster but none of it provides such good balance of price, capacity and speed as this one. I'd go with the Velociraptor but that's close to the SSD price wise with speeds not that massively better than its slower brother Caviar Black.

Just remember, you can't RAID Caviar Black's. You need to buy WD RE4 or whatever number they have these days. Thats the only thing not cool about them. But if you just need 1 drive, it's superb.

[happy]

Originally Posted by RejZoR

Another happy WD Caviar Black 2TB user. It was a bit more expensive soon after release but it's damn fast for a standard HDD and the size is just massive. I have loads of multimedia stuff, entire Steam archive of like 200+ games and i still have 500GB left lol.

Yeah yeah, SSD's are faster but none of it provides such good balance of price, capacity and speed as this one. I'd go with the Velociraptor but that's close to the SSD price wise with speeds not that massively better than its slower brother Caviar Black.

Just remember, you can't RAID Caviar Black's. You need to buy WD RE4 or whatever number they have these days. Thats the only thing not cool about them. But if you just need 1 drive, it's superb.

Thanks for the heads up. So I guess I have to get the same 1TB F3 model in order to be able to raid right? When I Raid does this affect all the drive? I want to have the 1TB F3 drive as my OS and have the other 1TB F3 to back up my data. As for the (x2) 2TB Caviar greens I also want to raid them but probably in a different Raid than the 1TBs. Is this possible?

Thanks

[caleb]

I confirm. FAEX ftw.

[theonedub]

Rather than run a RAID setup, I backup all my important files to an F1 drive that I keep powered off and stored away. I'm not sure that the Greens will want to play nice in RAID either. If its just for basic non essential storage I really don't see a real need or point in running them in RAID0.

[happy]

Originally Posted by theonedub

Rather than run a RAID setup, I backup all my important files to an F1 drive that I keep powered off and stored away. I'm not sure that the Greens will want to play nice in RAID either. If its just for basic non essential storage I really don't see a real need or point in running them in RAID0.

So you suggest that if I RAID there will be less potential of failure? Basically, I need to just store lots of family pictures and ripped movies. Should I just leave them as regular drives?

[yogurt_21]

Originally Posted by happy

So you suggest that if I RAID there will be less potential of failure? Basically, I need to just store lots of family pictures and ripped movies. Should I just leave them as regular drives?

raid 0 + backup = no no

Raid 5 + backup = perfectly acceptible

raid 1 + backup = overly redundant imo I mean it's already a backup.

Raid 10 + backup = likely a waste of a drive depending on your speed requirements


Single drives are fine too, but don't give you the large single volume which is beneficial for backup. Though tbh may main backup is a 2tb single external, but my NAS is a raid 1 config.

[theonedub]

Originally Posted by happy

So you suggest that if I RAID there will be less potential of failure? Basically, I need to just store lots of family pictures and ripped movies. Should I just leave them as regular drives?

When I thought about it, it made more sense to keep my backup drive powered off and in storage rather than continuously running in a computer. I think a whole lot less can go wrong with a drive pulled from a computer, than constantly powered on- you know?

[happy]

Originally Posted by theonedub

When I thought about it, it made more sense to keep my backup drive powered off and in storage rather than continuously running in a computer. I think a whole lot less can go wrong with a drive pulled from a computer, than constantly powered on- you know?

Yeah that's what I thought too. So essentially if I were simply storing things. Safest thing to do would be either just add it in as a regular slave drive and drag pictures and other things to the drives. So I should just not raid at all because raiding has a bit more chance to die?

[theonedub]

Yes, thats my rationale at least. I see more threads about RAID array issues than HDDs straight up dying

[happy]

Originally Posted by theonedub

Yes, thats my rationale at least. I see more threads about RAID array issues than HDDs straight up dying

Hmm. Never RAID before that is why I thought it would be more intersting to go this route this time. I also used a couple of my 2TB drives for storage and they are still going strong. Thanks for the heads up.

[happy]

Firstly, is it possible to RAID 10 3 drives? Also if I raid x2 2TB HDD that are 64mb cache and x1 2TB HDD that is 32mb will it default to 32mb on a RAID 10 config or RAID 5 config? So if I RAID 10 all three drives would that mean I would only get 3TB of usable space? Which would be more fail safe and faster; RAID 10 or RAID 5. These drives are just going to be used as storage and backing up files.

[baggpipes]

Originally Posted by yogurt_21

raid 0 backup = no no

Why? RAID 0 uses 100% of your drive space... Not all of the drives you have have to be RAIDED... Just back the pics and movies on one of the hard drives... I would use your greens for a RAID 0 and the 1TB drive to backup your pics/movies you want to keep... and not bother with buying another drive(unless you need the space).... and if you do go RAID make sure you get your MB RAID driver before reinstall...

and with RAID 10 dont you need a raid controller?

Great site explaining RAID....

http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19269-01/...50515995_98008

[Steevo]

Originally Posted by theonedub

When I thought about it, it made more sense to keep my backup drive powered off and in storage rather than continuously running in a computer. I think a whole lot less can go wrong with a drive pulled from a computer, than constantly powered on- you know?

I do it, all my important data is either on my 6TB RAID 0 array that gets backed up to a 2TB external drive when I finally decide to download pictures off the camera or movies off the camcorder. The rest is just things like my DVD rips, OS install files for new builds, games that can be reinstalled, and of course, my uhh, stuff.

[mrw1986]

Originally Posted by Steevo

I do it, all my important data is either on my 6TB RAID 0 array that gets backed up to a 2TB external drive when I finally decide to download pictures off the camera or movies off the camcorder. The rest is just things like my DVD rips, OS install files for new builds, games that can be reinstalled, and of course, my uhh, stuff.

Why put important data on a RAID 0 array? That's the least safe option...RAID 1, 5, or 10 would be better.

[baggpipes]

Originally Posted by mrw1986

Why put important data on a RAID 0 array? That's the least safe option...RAID 1, 5, or 10 would be better.

That would be wasting alot of space... Why everybody so scared of RAID 0 its not like his desktop is a server holding top secret info or something... RAID 1 just mirrors the drive... sounds like waste of space... and with raid 5 with two 2TB drives and two 1TB drives there is going to be alot of unusable space... 2TB of wasted space... the only thing that is important to him is the pictures and movies, which can be saved directly to the non raided HD.

EDIT: How many people here have actually had a hard drive fail without knowing its about to go?? I mean you would hear it failing wouldnt you?

[happy]

Originally Posted by baggpipes

That would be wasting alot of space... Why everybody so scared of RAID 0 its not like his desktop is a server holding top secret info or something... RAID 1 just mirrors the drive... sounds like waste of space... and with raid 5 with two 2TB drives and two 1TB drives there is going to be alot of unusable space... 2TB of wasted space... the only thing that is important to him is the pictures and movies, which can be saved directly to the non raided HD.

EDIT: How many people here have actually had a hard drive fail without knowing its about to go?? I mean you would hear it failing wouldnt you?

Originally Posted by baggpipes

Why? RAID 0 uses 100% of your drive space... Not all of the drives you have have to be RAIDED... Just back the pics and movies on one of the hard drives... I would use your greens for a RAID 0 and the 1TB drive to backup your pics/movies you want to keep... and not bother with buying another drive(unless you need the space).... and if you do go RAID make sure you get your MB RAID driver before reinstall...

and with RAID 10 dont you need a raid controller?

Great site explaining RAID....

http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19269-01/...50515995_98008

So based on what I've seen, RAID 5 means you need an even number of drives 2,4,6,etc.. What if I have 3 2TB drives, an odd number of drives, does that I get 3TB of usable space? The only reason why I don't want to RAID 0 is because I'm afraid that if 1 drives fail, my files will be lost forever. But based on what I've read from your comment RAID 0 has never caused any problems for you. Hmm... And I'm working with a relatively small computer case which has 3 slots for HDD. Luckily I was able to mount my SSD (OS & some programs) on the bottom.