[edge2022]

Edge the Raid Ideal as appealing it sounds I still see no reason for it.

If you use a RAID array consisting of 2 striped disks and 1 parity (RAID 5) it can increase read speeds and times from HDDs. And, as said by Troy, hard disks are the slowest components in a PC. This allows for speedy reading b/c the data written is split between the 2 drives, and then a bit written to the parity drive. Having a parity also means that data can be reconstructed if one drive fails.

If this seems too complicated, and just want to stick to separate HDDs, then do so.

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If this seems too complicated, and just want to stick to separate HDDs, then do so

Nothing complicated about it at all Edge. I just have never used Raid and as I said I see no point in it. To use a drive that in all practical purposes becomes unusable for anything but backup of the original drive and has to be the same size to boot shows no realistic value to me.
I have been dealing with Raid for the 13 years I have been working on and using computers and I do understand it but no value to me.

Edited by rshaffer61, 15 June 2009 - 07:17 AM.

[rshaffer61]

If this seems too complicated, and just want to stick to separate HDDs, then do so

Nothing complicated about it at all Edge. I just have never used Raid and as I said I see no point in it. To use a drive that in all practical purposes becomes unusable for anything but backup of the original drive and has to be the same size to boot shows no realistic value to me.
I have been dealing with Raid for the 13 years I have been working on and using computers and I do understand it but no value to me.

Edited by rshaffer61, 15 June 2009 - 07:17 AM.

[edge2022]

RAID arrays can increase the read times and speeds from drives, and thus can help increase computer performance. Although, RAID serves little practical purpose for home users; RAID is used more for servers that should be able to quickly recover from a disaster, and that have to push a lot of data around. Servers should have as little downtime as possible, and having a mirrored drive and a parity in case of a HDD failure can save hours of work getting the server back up.

Another RAID-like thing to do with your disks is to make them into a JBOD (Just a Bunch of Disks) array. This essentially is not a RAID array, but just a way to connect the physical disks together into one logical drive.

RAID comparison charts with a standard HDD are here: http://www.pcstats.c...t...=830&page=9

[rshaffer61]

Thank you both for the suggestions and the information. I'm afraid that I may have to wait on my build due to a fire in our house and now a flood all in the past week.
I was hoping to get everything setup and going so I could be ready for Windows 7 but it looks like now I will have to wait till tax refund time next year.

[diabillic]

Thank you both for the suggestions and the information. I'm afraid that I may have to wait on my build due to a fire in our house and now a flood all in the past week.
I was hoping to get everything setup and going so I could be ready for Windows 7 but it looks like now I will have to wait till tax refund time next year.

Sorry to hear that. Priorities are priorities.

But, to answer your RAID question. I am a big advocate of RAID, or rather data redundancy in general. What you can do is strip your drives in RAID0 to increase your OS performance greatly and setup mirroring in RAID1 or 5, depending on the amount of drives, to keep your data redundant.

[rshaffer61]

4 One TB drives for data
A 250 gig IDE for Windows 7 OS.
Maybe a second 250 gig IDE for dual boot OS of XP.

[diabillic]

When you do set it up, setup those 4 TB drives for RAID5.

[DragonMaster Jay]

What was your planned budget?

[Troy]

What??!! A fire and a flood? Goodness gracious what's going on over there?

Claim a new computer as part of your insurance!

[rshaffer61]

I thought about that Troy but the computer sits in the upper part of the house away from where the flood was.
My budget at this point is between 1500 and 2200 dollars.
With the components I have chosen and changed with Troy and Dragonmaster Jay's suggestions I am at 1778.00 now with shipping.
I dropped one of the Plextor dvd drives due to MOBO only has 5 SATA ports
Also dropped Video card as MOBO has intergrated video consisting of a Radeon HD 3300 VGA core and HDMI, DVI, and VGA outputs
That saves me a little money but always open to suggestions.

Edited by rshaffer61, 17 June 2009 - 08:29 PM.