Pros and Cons of RAID-0

So i have finished building my current PC and am very pleased with it:

CPU: Intel i-7 920
MoBo: MSI Eclipse Plus
GPU: MSI GTX275 Lightning
RAM: 6G 1333MHz
HDD: 7200rpm 1TB
OS: Win7 Ultimate 64

I was looking at the 'windows experience index' function on windows and everything was quite pleasing (out of 1.0 - 7.9).

CPU: 7.5
RAM: 7.4
GFX: 7.3
3DGFX: 7.3
HD: 5.9

The HDD is what seems to 'bottleneck' the rest of my PC at the moment. So i was looking for ways to speed up the tranfer rate without spending heeps on 15000rpm disks or SSDs.

One solution i was hoping to experiment with is RAID-0 hardware. To my understanding, if i get 4x 250GB HDs and connect them in RAID-0 format then will i have 4x the transfer rate, with the same delay as a 1TB drive, and will my computer see this as only 1 1TB drive?

Any advice, alternative solution or even a better explaination will be much help.

Thanks in advance,
Conse.

 

I would start here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_RAID_levels

The big issue I see with RAID 0 is that if one drive fails, all is lost as the data is split evenly to all drives:

 

Would i be correct to expect a major increase in read and write performance? The drive fail issue is not a problem at all as it would be the same story if i had no RAID function at all.

 

Not sure, I've heard some who use two raptors (10k drives) in Raid 0, are getting 6.0.

I'm currently using one Velociraptor 10k drive, and I'm getting 5.9. Though, as soon as I get the old data off my other Velociraptor, then I'll be switching to Raid 0.

Then my other 500G drive as backup storage.

 

Well, further reading, even with two drives, I may only still get 5.9

Read elsewhere that it takes 4 ssd drives to get to 7.9. In that case, no thank you.

 

You will get a speed increase but that will only be noticed during times of HDD activity. In theory you will get almost double the transfer rate with 2xHDD but this declines with the more HDD in the array, i.e. you will not get 4xHDD speed with 4, more like ~3.5.

The Drive FAIL issue is important because in RAID0 1/4 of the data would e written to all 4 HDD at once. If one fails you LOSE ALL DATA as you cannot retrieve a 1/4 portion of DATA.

I assume you are saying you would either have a 1x1TB or 4x250GB so in both examples if 1 HDD fails you lose everything. You may want to consider a RAID10 array were you get the performance benefit of striping as well as data security of mirroring:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID_10

I have had a RAID0 fail, thankfully I had a 3rd HDD on hand and was able to get DATA before one drive and then a week later the 2nd drive failed outright. I now have 2 clunky paperweights on the desk.

You could consider a 80GB SSD (performance for OS and primary applications) and then a SATA II for storage. SSD are getting cheaper each day and is my next objective.

 

Well, backed up my data, and now I'm at Raid0, which jumped my WEI to 6.2. 6.2 being the hard drives.

But, again, I still have a 3rd drive for the most important items/backup. So, I'm not worried right now, about a failed drive.

 

6.2 with 2xRAID-0 is a good enough improvement for me. Although instead of duel 10k raptors ill just use quad 7.2k's. Should come up with the same effect for half the price. The mechanical delay still cant be helped untill the SSD becomes afordable...

Did you RAID using software or hardware?

 

Hardware.

 

Just in case you are not aware, if you switch to a RAID setup, any type at all, you will PROBABLY have to reinstall everything as the OS may need drivers provided at install. Thus you may need a floppy drive as well.

 

With Vista and Windows 7, you don't need a floppy drive, just a USB thumb drive, with the drivers.

Luckily, windows 7 setup, recognized my Raid-0 drive. So, in my case, I didn't have to worry about any drivers, since they were built in (Asus P6T Deluxe V1).

 

Handy to know hope that covers ga-ep45t extreme as well.

All this talk of RAID0 has given me an itch again, will aim for RAID10 though.