I'm new to Raid 0+1

[Le_Murphant]

I have never done a raid arrangement before, and I plan on doing one on my next rig (raid 0). I'm not a freak about data integrity, I have no files that are overly important, but I was wondering if raid 0+1 could be a good thing. I assume that the basic principle is that you have 2 discs in raid 0 and one separate that mirrors the whole thing (although I haven't read on the sizes). So I was wondering if that last disc should be twice the size of the other two, or what? And if I decide not to go for raid 0+1, is it possible to have a hard drive that's basically like an external hard drive but that's inside, meaning that I only turn it on when I want (let's say for backups)? Finally, does having 2 hard drive make the computer much noisier? Obviously, there is two times as much noise made by the disks, but is it really noticeable? Thx.

[RTB]

First of all, RAID 0+1 generally means using four hard drives, but it's always an even number. Two for the original striped array, and two more for backup for example.That's a considerable increase in noise, while you're still at the disk capacity of one hard drive, and even close to twice the noise one hard disk creates. It's an increase of 9 dB, regardless of what hard drives are used, and a 10 dB increase counts as twice as loud for our ears (even though it's a factor 10 increase in noise power level, as it's a logarithmic scale). You'll notice the difference

Second, it's complete overkill for most, you have to ask youself: Do I really need all that speed, and am I willing to pay the price for it as well?

RAID 0 on its own makes it twice as likely that you lose the data on those harddisks, adding RAID 1 lowers the odds somewhat, but because of using four harddisks in total, it's still possible. So there is also a higher cost for maintaining the RAID set-up.

[Le_Murphant]

Second, it's complete overkill for most, you have to ask youself: Do I really need all that speed, and am I willing to pay the price for it as well?

Do you mean you think that raid 0 is overkill, or 0+1? How about a seperate internal hard drive for backup that I only activate when I do these backups? Anyways, you pretty much discouraged me from raid 0+1. I had just thought of it cause I had found a real good deal on hard drives, but I know the noise will get on my nerves. How about the noise for raid 0? I'd assume its about twice the noise of one HD, but maybe not because there are less operations on each drive. Frankly, I can barely hear my hard drive except when its writing like mad, the fans cover it.

[RTB]

RAID 0 is useful for video editing, because then you can use the increased speed. Games don't see nearly as much benefit and you'll need to have huge files to make use of it with office programs. RAID 0 with 2 harddrives will have twice the sound power level, but it's a 3 dB increase, so it's not as perceivable as RAID 0+1. For most people RAID is just a gimmick, not something they need to enhance their computer.

[dlewis23]

If you dont need the added storage of one big ass drive or the speed benefits in a few programs don't use raid.

and remember if you go raid 0 you double your chances of loosing data because if one drive goes you lost it all there is no back up.

[disturbed]

in my opinion raid0 shows significant difference even when using only 2 hard drives....anything that requires hd access will show an improvement - or should I say, in my experience....

[mudmanc4]

in my opinion raid0 shows significant difference even when using only 2 hard drives....anything that requires hd access will show an improvement - or should I say, in my experience....

I'll go w/ you on this one.Gothic 3 involves streaming from the HDD, and raid0 ,made a considerable difference. Just back up your saves each day, : )

  Just for the experience, as we speak , I'm installing a raid 0 on a suse 10.2 box. If for nothing else , I have learned to partition two drives, in a raid array , using a hardware controller , and the suse software raid