Asus with 975x has so many Raid Options

  • Thread starter Thread starter Talal Itani
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Talal Itani

I plan to use the Asus motherboard with Intel 975x chipset. This
motherboard has so many Raid options. Why so many Raid options? Thanks
 
I plan to use the Asus motherboard with Intel 975x chipset. This
motherboard has so many Raid options. Why so many Raid options? Thanks
Click to expand...

Different options give you different things. The two main things you
can get from raid are stripping and mirroring. In general, stripping
makes it faster, but less reliable, while mirroring makes it more
reliable, but slower.

One option is raid 0, is stripping. This only needs two drives, and
increases the speed. However, if one drive fails, you lose everything.

Another option is raid 1, which is mirroring. This means that there
are two copies of everything. It is often slower in write operations,
but can be faster in read operations. If one drive fails, you don't
lose anything.

Another option is raid 10, which has both stripping and mirroring, but
requires four drives. If one drive fails, you do not lose anything. It
is both fast and reasonably reliable, but requires a relatively large
investment in drives (4 minimum).

Another option is raid 5. This uses stripping and a parity drive. This
can be very high performance, and tolerates a single drive failure. It
can scale from 3 to as many drives as the controller supports.
However, as you add drives, you increase the chance of multi-drive
failure where you would lose everything.

Note, that with mirroring, you are duplicating everything. So if you
buy two 320GB drives, and go with raid 1, you have a total of 320GB of
space, not 640. If you buy four 320GB drives for raid 10, you will
have 640GB of space, not 1280.

Personally, for home use, I reliable backups to mirroring. Mirroring
only protects against a single drive failure. A detachable backup is
far more reliable than any raid system can hope to be, as you can
geographically isolate the backup (i.e. Store it at a friend's house
if it isn't confidential, or at a bank if it is). This means even if
your house burns down, you still have your data. While raid would just
have a pile of destoyed drives.

Finally, in most cases, all of the drives need to be exactly the same
size. A few setups allow you to treat each drive as the least common
denominator. That means if you have three 100GB drives and one 500GB
drive, the 500GB drive gets treated as a 100GB drive. Some setups do
not even allow that, requiring all four drives to be 100GB, so it
would only use the three 100GB drives, and the 500GB would need to be
attached separately (outside the raid array).

Dean G.
 
(message (Hello 'Dean)
(you :wrote :on '(13 Apr 2007 14:23:47 -0700))
(

DG> Different options give you different things. The two main things you
DG> can get from raid are stripping and mirroring. In general, stripping
DG> makes it faster, but less reliable, while mirroring makes it more
DG> reliable, but slower.

properly implemented mirroring should make it a bit faster, at least not
slower.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_mirroring
---
In addition to providing an additional copy of the data for the purpose of
redundancy in case of hardware failure, disk mirroring can allow each disk
to be accessed separately for reading purposes. Under certain circumstances,
this can effectively double the speed of disk read access (halves the seek
time). This is an important consideration in hardware configurations that
frequently access the data on the disk.
---

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_RAID_levels#RAID_1_performance
---
For the usual mirror of two disks, this would, in theory, double the
transfer rate. The apparent access time of the array would be half that of a
single drive. Unlike RAID 0, this would be for all access patterns, as all
the data is present on all the disks. In reality, the need to move the drive
heads to the next block (to skip unread blocks) can effectively mitigate
speed advantages for sequential access.

Many older IDE RAID 1 controllers read only from one disk in the pair, so
their read performance is always that of a single disk. Some older RAID 1
implementations would also read both disks simultaneously and compare the
data to catch errors. The error detection and correction on modern disks
makes this less useful in environments requiring normal availability. When
writing, the array performs like a single disk, as all mirrors must be
written with the data. Note that these performance scenarios are in the best
case with optimal access patterns.
---



)
(With-best-regards '(Alex Mizrahi) :aka 'killer_storm)
"I am everything you want and I am everything you need")
 
I plan to use the Asus motherboard with Intel 975x chipset. This
motherboard has so many Raid options. Why so many Raid options? Thanks
Click to expand...

Because there are so many possible combinations. More
features equates to more line-items to make a product seem
better, and to suit more uses. It is better (cheaper) to
have a product that can do 4 things than to have to make 4
separate products for each thing, IF the single product can
do all 4 acceptibly.

If you were to direct your questions towards your specific
needs instead of the other way around you would have a
workable solution much sooner.
 
With my current PC, I do backups about every 2 weeks, to an external USB
hard drive. I am setting up a new PC, and I need it to be fast and secure.
I first thought to have two internal drives, a Raptor for the operating
system and applications, and second 7200 RPM drive for data. I would also
have one external USB drive to backup my data.

Then I learned about RAID, then about the Intel Matrix Raid. So, I am
trying to figure out what best fits my needs. With the Matrix Raid, I can
have one internal drive, and one External Serial ATA drive. The two drives
partitioned into 4 drives would provide security and speed.

I am worried about setup, and how to handle things in case of drive failure.
This is for a Home/Business computer, that I use all day long.

These are my needs. If you can help me further, great. Thanks.
 
Koni will you explain much better. If you go with raid 10 you mast have 4
HDs. You set raid before partitioning. Than you could live 4 HDs as a "c" or
make as many partitioning as you wish. In my computer I have 2 drives in
raid 0. and 2 partitions with Win xp 64 and win XP.

So you can't make raid 10 with 2 HDs. If the smallest drive is 100GB
Capacity of system will be 2 time 100 = 200GB.

Boba Vankufer
 
Boba said:
Koni will you explain much better. If you go with raid 10 you mast
have 4 HDs. You set raid before partitioning. Than you could live
4 HDs as a "c" or make as many partitioning as you wish. In myin
computer I have 2 drives raid 0. and 2 partitions with Win xp 64
and win XP.

So you can't make raid 10 with 2 HDs. If the smallest drive is
100GB Capacity of system will be 2 time 100 = 200GB.
Click to expand...

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with) the quoted material to which you reply, after snipping all
irrelevant material. See the following links:

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With my current PC, I do backups about every 2 weeks, to an external USB
hard drive. I am setting up a new PC, and I need it to be fast and secure.
I first thought to have two internal drives, a Raptor for the operating
system and applications, and second 7200 RPM drive for data. I would also
have one external USB drive to backup my data.
Click to expand...

So we will assume you have determined that making a backup
every 2 weeks is often enough, that the time to continually
make them more frequently, is worth more than the loss that
would occur between each backup.

Then I learned about RAID, then about the Intel Matrix Raid. So, I am
trying to figure out what best fits my needs.
Click to expand...

Given your current strategy you don't need RAID unless you
have a need for constant uptime on the system, for it to
keep running that moment if one of the hard drives rail.

RAID isn't a substitute for a removable, and removed,
backup. The removed backup is more important for most
purposes except maybe server oriented. (but if the server
is that important, it still should have removed backups)

With the Matrix Raid, I can
have one internal drive, and one External Serial ATA drive. The two drives
partitioned into 4 drives would provide security and speed.
Click to expand...

I think it best if you avoid the word "security" since it
has a quite different meaning in computer terms, and one
that applies here - since a connected external SATA drive
has no security against things going wrong that would effect
files, user error, or the operating system doing something
wrong. A virus for example, has no problem infecting your
RAID while it can't get at a removed backup.

For speed you never defined exactly what you're doing. As
written already, in general terms the Raptor alone for OS is
a good start. If you start adding a lot of high RPM drives
it will make the system louder but we dont' even know how
loud it would be otherwise, it is a noise objectionable on a
quiet PC but more tolerable on a louder one.


I am worried about setup, and how to handle things in case of drive failure.
This is for a Home/Business computer, that I use all day long.
Click to expand...

Don't use RAID0. Using RAID1 for example, you just unplug
the failed drive system still runs and you plug in the
replacement which is rebuilt by the RAID Manager software.

Same for other RAID levels that support redundancy, read the
product documentation to see what it supports and how many
drives you would need to implement it. With only two drives
in a RAID array you would want RAID1. The array is defined
before you install windows, but I think that controller
would allow installing windows on one drive then later
mirroring it onto another but be very careful doing that, it
is easy to make a mistake and wipe out the data on the first
drive so be sure you have a backup as you were already
doing, removed.


Ultimately the issue revolves around how many drives you
want for cost and noise, and the budget. If 4 drives isn't
too many, get two Raptors and RAID1 them for the OS, and two
larger drives for the data in RAID1. If either the OS or
data isn't important enough to have a redundant RAID for
them, use only a single drive for that purpose.
 
kony said:
So we will assume you have determined that making a backup
every 2 weeks is often enough, that the time to continually
make them more frequently, is worth more than the loss that
would occur between each backup.



Given your current strategy you don't need RAID unless you
have a need for constant uptime on the system, for it to
keep running that moment if one of the hard drives rail.

RAID isn't a substitute for a removable, and removed,
backup. The removed backup is more important for most
purposes except maybe server oriented. (but if the server
is that important, it still should have removed backups)



I think it best if you avoid the word "security" since it
has a quite different meaning in computer terms, and one
that applies here - since a connected external SATA drive
has no security against things going wrong that would effect
files, user error, or the operating system doing something
wrong. A virus for example, has no problem infecting your
RAID while it can't get at a removed backup.

For speed you never defined exactly what you're doing. As
written already, in general terms the Raptor alone for OS is
a good start. If you start adding a lot of high RPM drives
it will make the system louder but we dont' even know how
loud it would be otherwise, it is a noise objectionable on a
quiet PC but more tolerable on a louder one.




Don't use RAID0. Using RAID1 for example, you just unplug
the failed drive system still runs and you plug in the
replacement which is rebuilt by the RAID Manager software.

Same for other RAID levels that support redundancy, read the
product documentation to see what it supports and how many
drives you would need to implement it. With only two drives
in a RAID array you would want RAID1. The array is defined
before you install windows, but I think that controller
would allow installing windows on one drive then later
mirroring it onto another but be very careful doing that, it
is easy to make a mistake and wipe out the data on the first
drive so be sure you have a backup as you were already
doing, removed.


Ultimately the issue revolves around how many drives you
want for cost and noise, and the budget. If 4 drives isn't
too many, get two Raptors and RAID1 them for the OS, and two
larger drives for the data in RAID1. If either the OS or
data isn't important enough to have a redundant RAID for
them, use only a single drive for that purpose.
Click to expand...


I use the PC all day long, for engineering and business. I should backup
more frequently that every two weeks, but I unfortunately ignore that task,
and I dislike NTbackup. Maybe I do not need a Raid system, but a good way
to backup daily. I was reading today about the backup in Vista, I think it
is much better than NTbackup. I also learned that Microsoft and Google have
online backup services. I will also check them out. I am worried about
Raid, maybe Raid is not for me, it takes know-how and I do not have that
know-how. I think I will have one Raptor for operating system and
applications, one 7200 RPM for data, and one for external drive for backup.
 
I use the PC all day long, for engineering and business. I shouldbackup
more frequently that every two weeks, but I unfortunately ignore that task,
and I dislike NTbackup. Maybe I do not need a Raid system, but a good way
tobackupdaily. I was reading today about thebackupin Vista, I think it
is much better than NTbackup. I also learned that Microsoft and Google haveonlinebackupservices. I will also check them out. I am worried about
Raid, maybe Raid is not for me, it takes know-how and I do not have that
know-how. I think I will have one Raptor for operating system and
applications, one 7200 RPM for data, and one for external drive forbackup.
Click to expand...


Online backups have the advantage of guaranteeing that a copy of your
data is geographically diverse from your PC, which eliminates teh
extra step of moving the backup media offsite (in case of fire, theft,
etc). Titanize (www.titanize.com) is a great option, which also
allows remote access to your files when you are not at work.
 
Online backups have the advantage of guaranteeing that a copy of your
data is geographically diverse from your PC, which eliminates teh
extra step of moving the backup media offsite (in case of fire, theft,
etc). Titanize (www.titanize.com) is a great option, which also
allows remote access to your files when you are not at work.
Click to expand...

Thank you. Have you used Titanize?
 
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