I had a PM from a new member here, asking me about my RAID 0 setup with my two velociraptor HDD setup...i figured I would shaire my response with the rest of the forum, to explain what RAID 0 and RAID 1 is, and help you to decide what is right for you if you decide to attempt a RAID setup on your own computer.
Foregive my grammar, lack of punctuation, etc...but I believe i put it in leymans terms, so everybody can understand it
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RAID 0 basically makes 2 (Identical, they MUST be identical hard drives, model number and all) work in tandem... data, that is written, and read off of the drive, is written in 128kb "stripes", though you can change the stripe size to 64kb, or even 32kb... 64kb is probly the fastest, but i am running at 128kb stripe size...
anyway, say you have a 1gig file, in RAID0, that file is stored on both HDD, in tandem, written in 128kb chunks back and forth. thus making each HDD, only having to write 500mb, vs. the same HDD by itself, having to write the entire 1gb. so you cut the read/write time by essentially almost half...but not really... there is some latency involved, but RAID0 def beats out a single HDD.
If you got the money, go grab yourself two velociraptors, and run those in RAID0, its nice ;-)
Now, the other advantage to RAID0, is your essentially taking 2 hard drives, and creating one single large HDD. so windows see's my two 300gb raptors, as a 600gb HDD.
Then, there is RAID 1, raid 1, is a "Mirror" and is excellent for data security...if 1 hard drive fails, all of your data is still mirrored on the other, and you lose nothing. there is no performance increase, and you also do not gain any HDD space either...so if you take two 500gb HDD, and run them in RAID 1, your system still only has 500gb Hard drive space...it's just copying every single file, twice. It doesnt make it slower, it just makes it more secure if you are the type of person who values the files on their computer.
There is other RAID types, which essentially combine RAID 0 and RAID 1, but those setups require multiple Hard Drives of the identical model, and can get pretty pricey, unless you got the dough.
Foregive my grammar, lack of punctuation, etc...but I believe i put it in leymans terms, so everybody can understand it
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RAID 0 basically makes 2 (Identical, they MUST be identical hard drives, model number and all) work in tandem... data, that is written, and read off of the drive, is written in 128kb "stripes", though you can change the stripe size to 64kb, or even 32kb... 64kb is probly the fastest, but i am running at 128kb stripe size...
anyway, say you have a 1gig file, in RAID0, that file is stored on both HDD, in tandem, written in 128kb chunks back and forth. thus making each HDD, only having to write 500mb, vs. the same HDD by itself, having to write the entire 1gb. so you cut the read/write time by essentially almost half...but not really... there is some latency involved, but RAID0 def beats out a single HDD.
If you got the money, go grab yourself two velociraptors, and run those in RAID0, its nice ;-)
Now, the other advantage to RAID0, is your essentially taking 2 hard drives, and creating one single large HDD. so windows see's my two 300gb raptors, as a 600gb HDD.
Then, there is RAID 1, raid 1, is a "Mirror" and is excellent for data security...if 1 hard drive fails, all of your data is still mirrored on the other, and you lose nothing. there is no performance increase, and you also do not gain any HDD space either...so if you take two 500gb HDD, and run them in RAID 1, your system still only has 500gb Hard drive space...it's just copying every single file, twice. It doesnt make it slower, it just makes it more secure if you are the type of person who values the files on their computer.
There is other RAID types, which essentially combine RAID 0 and RAID 1, but those setups require multiple Hard Drives of the identical model, and can get pretty pricey, unless you got the dough.
My Computer
System One
-
- Manufacturer/Model
- Myself
- CPU
- Intel Core i7 920
- Motherboard
- ASUS P6T Deluxe
- Memory
- 6gb MUSHKIN DDR3 1866
- Graphics Card(s)
- TWO x EVGA NVidia GTX 285
- Sound Card
- Soundblaster Extreme
- Monitor(s) Displays
- ASUS 24inch 2ms LCD
- Screen Resolution
- 1920x1080
- Hard Drives
- 4 x OCZ Vertex 60GB, 1 x Western Digital Velociraptor 300GB, 1TB Western Digital Caviar Black
- PSU
- Corsair 1000W
- Case
- Coolermaster HAF 932
- Cooling
- Water cooled
- Keyboard
- Saitek Cyborg Deluxe
- Mouse
- Microsoft Regular USB w/wheel
- Internet Speed
- Cable 15mbps
