[Viracocha711]

Hello,
I want to ask you a question and it may sound odd because I am still trying to understand everything...When I am selecting what hard drives to buy, do I want to buy a fast 10,000rpm drive to boot from and then a bigger 7200rpm drive or two for storage? Another question, can I go with all SATA hard drives or do I need to start with an IDE hard drive and then add SATA drives after? Or is a RAID config better? If so, I assume all HD's must be exactly the same speed/size/make? I know these questions might be odd or just wrong, but I am still trying to learn? I was planning on buying a Dell XPS a week ago and then I saw what a financial mistake that would have been so here I am, Help please?

Thanks,
AJ

My build plans so far is:

**ASUS Striker Extreme LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX The Ultimate Gaming Motherboard

**Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6600

**eVGA 640-P2-N821-AR GeForce 8800GTS 640MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video

**CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X2048-6400C4PRO

 

[JohnWill]

You can do it either way. I've build up SATA RAID systems from scratch, and I've also installed on an IDE drive, then imaged the system to the RAID array. For a RAID-0 array, it's obviously best if the drives are the same capacity and speed. If the drives are not the same capacity, the difference on the larger one is wasted and not used. If the drives are not the same speed, you slow the RAID array down to the speed of the slower drive.

 

[DeLorean]

Yeah I'd go for SATA RAID also (and have done), if your motherboard has 2x SATA ports and RAID capability just buy 2 identical SATA drives.

You can scope around still for the ideal 10,000rpm monsters of storage but SATA RAID-0 combines both drives size and speed, so if you buy 2x SATA150 (150Mbps) 150Gb drives you will create 1x 300Mbps 300Gb drive. quite a monster.

RAID 0 (zero) just means 'Striping', all your data is spread across both disks allowing both drives to read and write together doubling data speed, giving great performance, RAID 1 is 'mirroring' this way everything written to one is written to the other this means with 2 drives you still only get the capacity of one since the other is a perfect mirror of the other, good for backup. RAID 0 is what you want for gaming.

most motherboards these days have options to "boot from SATA or SATA RAID" so even installing on IDE is not necessary anymore, you can save the IDE ports for CD and DVD drives or a good 500Gb+ backup drive

 

[Viracocha711]

Thanks...That helped alot. RAID 0 for performance and RAID 1 for insurance...So, if I go with 2 fast 10,000rpm HD's in a RAID 0 config, I would want to store my photos and videos and other media on a 3rd HD, possibly a 7200 rpm 320g or 500g and use the RAID 0 config for booting and running programs/games? Am I on the right track?

 

[JohnWill]

Well, close. What you really want to do is have AT LEAST two copies of anything that's important to you. If you store your "important" stuff on a single drive, and that dies, you're in the same boat.

In point of fact, I store stuff I access frequently on my RAID array, but I have an automated nightly backup to copy the stuff to a separate hard disk, and a networked disk.

 

[Viracocha711]

YES, always good to have a backup...So, your set up is Dual 74gig WD Raptors in RAID-0 Array 200 gig backup drive 500gig archive drive...So, you just keep only the data/programs you use frequently in the RAID 0 array, however, anything you may remove from the RAID array has been saved in two seperate locations or drives so that if you do need it you could move it back to your RAID 0 array. The point is to keep the RAID 0 array clean as possible to run performance needed task or programs/games, and booting?

 

[DeLorean]

Thanks...That helped alot. RAID 0 for performance and RAID 1 for insurance...So, if I go with 2 fast 10,000rpm HD's in a RAID 0 config, I would want to store my photos and videos and other media on a 3rd HD, possibly a 7200 rpm 320g or 500g and use the RAID 0 config for booting and running programs/games? Am I on the right track?

Yep, Ideally I want to get myself a 300+ gig drive to throw all my valuables on but I haven't gotten around to it yet so the more music and downloads I get attached to the less space I have for game installs. That and the excellent backup fact John mentioned as I have so much crap from over the years I'd be gutted if I lost it.

I was initially scared with RAID 0 as because 50% of every file is on one drive and 50% on the other (striping) it means if you lost one drive you'd lose ALL data. But then I thought about how rare it is for drives to fail if you take care of them, if a drive has a 1 in 100,000 chance of failing then with RAID 0 that becomes 1 in 50,000, I still like those odds.

 

[bigbear]

Please Please be aware Raid 1 is not BACKUP.
It is true that both drives are identical so if a drives "dies" then you have a spare.
If one drive get corrupted then both will corrupted so you have lost eveything. on that point alone I see no gain to Raid 1, it lulls people into believing it is backup
There is a speed gain to Raid 0 but again if a drive "dies" then you have lost everything.
Hence the the importance of BACKUP.
You may wish to buy three drives

 

[Viracocha711]

Yeah, I know what you mean...I too have accumulated alot of media and other data that if I lost I would cry! LOL! But yeah, I am thinking about going with a RAID 0 setup and then some type of back-up HD. Thanks!

Thanks too, John...You both have helped me connect some dots! I am almost ready to do my first build so I hope it is as easy as everyone says.

 

[Viracocha711]

Yes, I was thinking of doing just that...Maybe going with a RAID 0 setup and then a third drive as a backup and storage. Plus I have a home network and I usually copy important data(photos, home videos, finacial data, etc) to another computer so that my boss(my wife) has access to it from her computer. Thanks guys!

 

[JohnWill]

I highly recommend the dual backup for important stuff.