Raid

[VideoTech]

Ok, I just read an article on raid and I'm planning on doing it. Can someone give me ideas on Raid 0 setups on an Asus A7N8X Deluxe?

I need to know what harddrive is best to use. Also on this article there were 2 spots on their motherboads to run ide 1 cables. But on the asus a7n8x deluxe I noticed on 1 ide spot. How would I run 2 cables to 2 different harddrives? Also, what would be better to use; software or hardware?

Anyways, just a little confused. So, I'm leaving this issue up to the professionals once more to help me make this choice and do the job right.

 

[OPUS1]

Try this:
As the disk spins

 

[D3v1an7]

on that board you would use the SATA connections to setup raid

Get two identical drives. For raid 0 to work the most effectively, you need to have both drives the same size. Otherwise, you wind up wasted HD space on the larger drive.

If speed is your thing, get a couple of 10,000 rpm drives. They are typically smaller in capacity as well as more expensive, but they haul ass.

If you want a huge amount of fast storage, get a couple of massive 7200 rpm drives.

Whatever you get, get drives with the 8MB buffers

It's best to have one small IDE drive for your OS and important files. With RAID 0, if one drives goes, you loose all the data.

As for setting up the RAID, consult the manual. I have yet to do it. I just know the theory.

 

[guito13]

I just got a older compaq server with three Raid 5 arrays....drool...sorry.....just had to tell you

 

[VideoTech]

ANymore suggestions and ideas? ANyone specifically with this board to tell of their setup?

 

[VideoTech]

Oh and another question...would it be better to use software or hardware raid on this board?

 

[addragyn]

You don't have "hardware RAID" on that board.

 

[shadow-13x]

Hardware is the better choice, less CPU overhead. You could always add a raid card since your MB doesn't offer it. I'm using 2 seagate 80gig SATA drives in RAID 0. My MB has onboard RAID (Silicon Images), and it's so f'in unbelievable how much faster it is compared to a single IDE drive.

ThE sHaDoW

 

[VideoTech]

Well, I'm using a 3200XP processor, so if I do go software, it really shouldn't hurt to bad. Right?

 

[Ice Czar]

Originally posted by blackrino9
huge amount of fast storage

is almost but not quite an oxymoron

actually it is for a desktop
but not a multi-user environment\server

for a desktop, any media file, movie ect will play just fine from a 5400rpm HDD a single one mind you, if your so impatient as to need games to load fast, RAID 0 will help, but risking that amount of storage isnt the best idea

candidates for RAID0, the OS, Virtual Memory (especially for graphics), Game Loading Platform, Video Editing ect

but there is more than one way to skin a cat
in the virtual memory category, you could settup multiple pagefiles on seperate HDDs

the first partition of the HDD has a much better Sustained Transfer Rate, so you could place your favorite games on a small partition there, for fast load times (or other aps)
Advantages of Multi-Partition Drives
(backtrack one page as well to the beginning of the article)

I dont want to discourage you from RAID0, but the risks involved are real, the performance is as well

I too would recommend reading As the Disk Spins @ Lost Circuits (RAID Section)

and also RAID @ the SR\PC Guide

there are more reference articles in the Advanced HDD Issues sticky thread

Good Luck

Originally posted by VideoTech
Well, I'm using a 3200XP processor, so if I do go software, it really shouldn't hurt to bad. Right?

from As the Disk Spins:

The third implementation, that is RAID-Lite, is currently gaining substantial popularity since almost every better mainboard manufacturer equips their mainboard with an integrated controller of some sort....

Software RAID

In general, both Striping and Mirroring, that is Level 0 or Level 1 RAID, respectively, can be achieved in software alone as long as the operating system supports it. This type of RAID is also called zero-channel RAID (because no dedicated hardware channels are involved)

Hardware RAID

Whether any given RAID solution is Hardware or Software often boils down to a matter of semantics. That is, by definition, any dedicated hardware RAID channels will qualify the array as Hardware RAID. However, often enough another distinction is made based on the presence or absence of a dedicated XOR processor. That is, any hardware RAID controller without the additional controller will often be referred to as software RAID, in other words, there is a grayzone. We will cover the significance of the XOR operations a bit later, for now, let’s start with the “lesser” levels of RAID, that is Level 0, 1, 0+1 and JBOD.