Basically ive got an Abit ST-6 Motherboard which has a pretty good RAID controller.

Ive also got a 40gb hard disk which is nearly fun.

What would you do? Bung a 40gb and create n array drive with the possibly of another being put in, Or put in a 2nd HD 80gb?

Ive got broadband so download tons rubbish, films music software.

Whats peoples opinions?

Think there £30 price difference

Si

If you strip two drives it will be quicker than having 1 large drive.

Jeff

that'd mean another 40gb then?

Is it hard to set up? also will i lose what i have now?

I don't know your motherboard but it will be a bios set-up for (probable) the Promise ATA contoller.

You should of course do a full backup first.....or if you do it without don't blame me if it doesn't work :)

You need to set the drives up in RAID 0 which strip mode rather than RAID 1 which is mirror.

Have a look in your Mobo manual and it will probable tell you how to do it.


Jeff

(Edited due to brain fade....its an age thing)

[Edited by Jeff Wiltshire - 3/25/2002 10:20:38 AM]

bought ....http://www.abit.nl/eng/product/mb/st6r.htm best P3 board

Just follow the directions in the manual to set up a RAID 0 strip set....


Jeff

(edited cos its getting worse !)

[Edited by Jeff Wiltshire - 3/25/2002 10:21:29 AM]

RAID 0 is going to create a stripe set. This componds any possibility you are going to loose data, as a failure on each disk will trash the volume, which is more likely if you are using IDE/ATA drives.
I would get the 80 and use that as a seperate volume, because a stripe set is no quicker at seeking (the main performance bottlekneck) , just sustained transfer rate - I guess you are not going to be doing much of that sort of access.

[Edited by MrDeference - 3/24/2002 11:22:08 AM]

A stripe is quicker at seek because there is a greater chance that the data you need is close to the drive head.

I have two 40GB drives in a RAID0 stripe. Been running with them for 6 months with no problems. Throughput is blistering. If you want max performance this is the way to go. However all of my work is stored on a fileserver here and backed up so data safety on my desktop is of little concern to me.

OK then. Most people would disagree, as with RAID 0, you are waiting for both heads to arrive, not just one. RAID 1 is much quicker for seeking, as that is ready to go when the first head gets there.
Still, whatever floats your boat.

Why not buy 4 disks and do RAID 0+1? ;)

This is a very good explanation of all the different RAID types.

Cos RAID1+0 would be more resilient ;) ?

Naaa.....

5+1 is the way to go .....:rolleyes:

5+1 nah you are joking. Raid5 is good for lowering cost but writes are well slow and a rebuild is i/o intensive. Raid1 is the best at write performance and redundancy, raid0 increases performance so 1+0 is the ideal.

Ie you create a whole bunch of mirrors and then stripe across them. In order to bring the system to a halt you need to have a failure of 2 disks both in the same mirror which is fairly unlikely. You could suffer a loss of a disk in every mirror and keep on ticking.

Raid0+1 - all you need to lose is 2 disks from the same stripe and you are fooked.