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Which RAID config?

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Gonna setup 3 Seagate 320GB in RAID for storage.
Which raid config should I use? RAID 5, 0+1, 10?
Why so?

Oh, and random question, does partitioning a RAID config defeat the purpose of the raid? Like say I make 3 partitions on a RAID 5 w/ 3 drives. Is it better for me to have just left them individual, or is RAID still advantageous here?

Thanks!
 

Random Murderer

The Anti-Midas
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raid 1+0(also called raid 10) and 0+1 require 4 disks minimum, and they must have an even number of disks (4, 6, 8, etc.). raid 5's purpose is defeated when you have more than one partition, as the whole purpose of raid 5 is to provide data security for a single partition. raid 3 and 4 are your best bets for a 3 drive setup, but raid 3 is extremely slow and outdated. raid 4 is a cross between raid 3 and 5, and while being secure and noticeably faster than raid 3, is still pretty useless when using multiple partitions.
 
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raid 1+0(also called raid 10) or 0+1 requires 4 disks minimum, and it must have an even number of disks (4, 6, 8, etc.). raid 5's purpose is defeated when you have more than one partition, as the whole purpose of raid 5 is to provide data security for a single partition. raid 3 and 4 are your best bets for a 3 drive setup, but raid 3 is extremely slow and outdated. raid 4 is a cross between raid 3 and 5, and while being secure and noticeably faster than raid 3, is still pretty useless when using multiple partitions.


That is unless he gets/has an Intel board, in which case he can use Intel's Matrix Raid array. This is what I am using and it will allow you to use your 3 drives in a raid 10 (actually its's better because you can run both a Raid 0-for games/editing/whatnot and Raid 1-for data integrity!) Search for Intel Matrix raid and you will find that it operates quite fast in both modes (I have confirmed this w/HDTach). Quick and painless to set-up as well.

Cheers,

Bryan
 
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Interesting... well, unfortunately I'm not planning on purchasing an Intel board, it's gonna be eVGA 680i board, so it'll use nVidia RAID controllers.

Well, the partitioning was just an extra question, but thanks for all the info. So, if I got 4 320GB HDDs, then I could go with RAID 0+1 or RAID 10? What's the difference between these, and which is more optimal for gaming/storage. I'll already have 2 120GB Raptors runnin in RAID 0 for Windows & Most applications.
 
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