RAID 0 and fake RAID?

[rickthegreat]

I've googled it and everything but having trouble finding useful info. Basically, I want to run 4 to 6 SATA drives in RAID 0. My question is:

is real (hardware) RAID a lot faster than software RAID? I mean how much CPU overhead is involved with fake RAID? I ran two disks in fake RAID 0 (I guess it is fake RAID, it came on my MOBO and it my MOBO only cost about $125...although the RAID is from INTEL, but I'll have to double-check that)....and did notice my OS boot somewhat faster. Just wondering if running 4-6 drives will tax my CPU and not even make it worth it. I know real RAID is expensive, but I think I can find some used cards on Ebay for cheap.

P.S. What about maxing out the PCI bus? I mean you can only add so many drives to RAID 0 for performance right?

I saw this Youtube video with like 100 SSD drive RAID setup....Holy cow...150Gbits/s X 100???

Anyway, I figure I can get 4 30GB SATA drives for cheap, plus a RAID card and boost my bootup time. I really should get a new mobo, because this one won't hibernate (known issue with MOBO)....still, I'd like to try the RAID thing for faster app performance.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[Narcissus]

Sort of tangential, but I wouldn't recommend striping that many drives. The odds of any individual drive failing are the same as always, but if any one of those drives fails, the entire volume will be corrupted. The reliability of the whole thing hinges on the weakest element. You'll want to get some redundancy in the mix. Also, consider how you intend to back all that data up, since even a redundant RAID (is that redundant?) is not a substitute for a backup plan.

[millenniumman75]

If you really want tangential, when I read the title, the first thing I thought of was bug killer .

[rickthegreat]

ty.. not too worried about RAID failure though. It'll just have my OS and some apps (they'll be 36 GB big so not that much will fit anyway)...data will be stored on a conventional drive and also backed up. I want RAID just for the performance. I make images of my OS, so any failure can be brought up in relatively short time.

In any case, software RAID vs hardware RAID? Any thoughts?

[Narcissus]

In your case, I don't think hardware versus software is particularly significant. But if you're just looking for fast reads on a small amount of data, have you thought about getting one of those Intel SATA SSDs?

[ShawnnyK]

Well Raid 0 isn't fault tolerant... I guess it depends on what exactly you need all these drives for? Are you just beefing up your computer for the sake of beefing it up? Are you a Gamer? I run Raid 0 scheme on my PC, and truthfully haven't noticed all that much of a difference in overall performance... It's a little quicker, but it's not night and day.... Everything I have on my PC is backed up, if one of my disks go, no way to retrieve data.

[rickthegreat]

Originally Posted by Narcissus

In your case, I don't think hardware versus software is particularly significant. But if you're just looking for fast reads on a small amount of data, have you thought about getting one of those Intel SATA SSDs?

Yeah but they are expensive. I could get a 6 drive RAID for less! I actually thought about setting up a RAID using those SSDs but the prices goes up FAST as you add drives.

Originally Posted by ShawnnyK

...I run Raid 0 scheme on my PC, and truthfully haven't noticed all that much of a difference in overall performance... It's a little quicker, but it's not night and day....

How many drives do you have in the RAID 0? I had two and noticed a little bit of a difference. I was hoping to get 4-6. No important data will be on them, just the OS and maybe some apps, or games (which can always be reinstalled)

Mostly I want the RAID for fast boot up time and fast app response and a game or two. (All this would fit with room to spare on a 30GB hard drive). RAID would not affect my data whatsoever. All my movies and music would be on a big huge 1.5 TB drive.