Looking to implement basic RAID on home PC

[cyberspace]

My sole 80gb hard disk is rapidly filling up so I think it's about time for an upgrade.

My PC is 4 years old so I am unsure if it has a 48bit LBA so that it can support drives over 137GB. So my first question is how do i check that.

Secondly, I would like to have a slightly better setup than the bog standard, stand alone IDE disks, so I have been thinking about a RAID0 or RAID1 implementation.

Can anybody reccommend a good, budget, IDE RAID controller? (UK)

Also wondering, when setting it up, Would i need to install the controller, then shut down and attach my hard disk to it? If this is not the case, then how do you go from installing the new controller, to adding your existing disk, and booting? Or, could i leave my existing hard drive in, and then add 2 more in a RAID, then set them up?

For home use, would RAID0 or RAID1 be more appropriate? (I know the difference between the two)

Many thanks for any advice offered

'When all else fails.......read the manual'

 

[cyberspace]

Just had a quick look and found this product:

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/prod...2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=47595

I presume that fits my requirements fairly well?

There is mention of "bootable arrays" - what does this mean? Does it relate to my previous question regarding booting?

'When all else fails.......read the manual'

 

[cyberspace]

Sorry I posted the wrong link I meant this:

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/prod...2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=60610

'When all else fails.......read the manual'

 

[firewolfrl]

I use this card with my clients and it is very good.
It is a RAID 3 SATA card and that is really what you want if you want speed and dependability. (RAID 3 is the successor to RAID 5)
That and RAID 3 offers mirror redundancy that keeps your data safe in the event of HD failure. it is not as cheap(for a RAID 3 it is almost $1,000 cheaper than others) and I figured Tiger Direct also hits the European market too.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1516471&CatId=1454

This card will smoke any of the cards you may have been looking at …read the specs on

 

[cyberspace]

thanks for the reply

That seems a little more than i was looking to spend really!

I notice that the other card i mentioned supports RAID 0+1, so you get the performance benefits of striping combined with the fault tolerance of mirroring....which seems ideal!

This is fairly new to me however so please do keep me right!

'When all else fails.......read the manual'

 

[rvnguy]

cyberspace,

I am not familiar with what outlets are available to you in the UK. Can't assist with that.

Features Virtual DMA: Bus master transfer on the PCI bus and PIO transfer on the ATA bus

This specification would be of concern to me if performance is any part of your goals. "PIO" is typically much slower than DMA and here DMA is not "real" but "virtual". That to me means it is emulated in software vs being actual use of DMA.

The price is right but I think I would opt for higher level of functionality even at higher cost.

How you should configure depends completely upon how you use this machine/what type of apps you mostly use and how these apps use stored data.

A general setup would be a boot drive with your OS as a seperate device, Raid of some type as a second device for apps/data. Raid type selected for speed, or data integrity each with it's own cost. As other posters point out there are new levels of raid that combine these also at a cost. Basically, evaluate what and how you use the devices, decide on what technology will best meet your needs, shop for what hardware you need to accomplish your goals.

How to install? After you select and receive the hardware, the manuals will outline the installation steps.

Some considerations:

Basic IDE controller: additional drive support, with or with out Raid capability. Should use system DMA access.

Mid IDE controller: additional drive support, onboard micro-processor to offload these duties from the system CPU.

Higher level controller: additional drive support, onboard processor, onboard RAM, facilitates faster read/write, caches to own ram etc.

Each has a higher associated cost.

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all

 

[paparazi]

I will break with opinion here and say that you could probably find a newer motherboard that would support your existing processor and memory BUT have additional raid functionality built in.
As this is likely to be an older socket type ie: Intel 478 or maybe AMD socket A? you are likely to pick up a bargain of a motherboard, with RAID but with a newer much faster chipset that will help performance generally and not just read/write hard drive performance.
A newer motherboard chipset could net you 5/15% performance gains on top of the increased performance from the raid setup.
When you consider a good raid card from Adaptec or similar will set you back £20/£30 and this new motherboard could well be very close to the same price.
Example: for socketA (just check for IDE Raid support)
For under £30!!!!!

http://www.asrock.com/product/product_K7NF2-RAID.htm

I'm sure there are similar cheap motherboards for Intel 478 with Raid at only £10/£15 more, you just need to google.
Martin


We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[paparazi]

Pretty sure this MSI does raid across SATA and ATA

http://msicomputer.co.uk/Products.aspx?product_id=703419&cat_id=77

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/ProductInfo.aspx?ProductID=4470

Not bad at £45 if you have a Socket A system.

Martin




We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[rvnguy]

cyberspace,

paparazi makes an excellent point here. Looking at the cost of an add on controller vs the cost of a new mobo the net is about a wash. But the increases from the newer chipset are a benefit.

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all