RAID or No RAID? 1

[oneartist]

My first post here,

I'm building a auido recording and editing computer using:
ASUS P4P800, Corsair 512 DDR 433 3500, P4 3.0 800FSB, WD Raptor 36 GB and Raptor 74 GB HD's(both 10,000RPM), Zalman CNPS5000-CU, Zalman 400A-APF, and Cooler Master TAC-101 Wave Master Alum Case.
I'm configuring my new system and since I only have one 35GB Raptor SATA drive for OS and software and one 74GB Raptor SATA for projects, should I setup a RAID 0 Vol now and stripe it for performance, or just use the default configuration until I add a second 74GB RAID disk?
If I do the RAID configuration, is there a supplemental guide to setting up besides the mobo manuel?

Chuck

 

[IslandCustom]

For RAID (0 or 1), you'll need two preferably identical drives for your OS. I run RAID 1 since it is fault tolerant. If one drive fails, the other continues. I do video editing and have found that compiling is faster with the video software on my RAID array and the video data files on their own physical hard drive, and I suspect audio files would do well with such an arrangement. You need to examine your needs more closely. Are you looking for additional speed and drive capacity (RAID 0)? Or are you looking for system or data file security through fault tolerance (RAID 1)? You can have both, but it would require even more drives.

 

[lesgray]

Hi oneartist:

IslandCustom is absolutely right. You need to look at what you need. File security (raid 1) or raw speed (raid 0). Until you get a second 74Gb raptor, though, I'd say just run it as a single drive as IslandCustom is suggesting. You do not get much benefit from creating two volumes on a single drive and then striping them. Speed will be up a bit on a raid 0, but file security is nil. If the drive fails, all your data is gone. Mirroring two volumes on a single drive is pointless - if the drive fails, all your data is gone anyways.

Best to wait until you get the second 74Gb raptor and decide what you need then.

I do have another suggestion. It doesn't appear from the ssytem that you are building, that money is a huge concern - you are getting the best of everything. If I were you, I'd consider buying two more 74GB raptors and also a S150 SX4 Promise SATA raid controller. It supports level 5 raid, which would give you speed and redundancy. The usuable drive space on the raid 5, using 3 raptors would be about 148GB as you lose the equivalent of one drive to redundancy. The Promise card works extremely well in terms of the speed you'll get out of the raid 5. I have used one myself on several workstations we have built and the users have loved the results. The card will run you somewhere in the neibourhood of $175 US, but it may be the best $175 you'll ever spend.

Hope this helps;

Les Gray

http://www.creartec.com

 

[IslandCustom]

I couldn't agree more with Les' opinion of RAID 5. I use RAID 5 on the servers on my office network and, as Les says, you lose the equivalent of one drive to redundancy. If secure data is your ultimate goal, RAID 5 works great. Of course, RAID 1 works well too, at the sacrifice of both the space of one drive lower speed in comparison to RAID 5. RAID 0 does nothing to secure your data.