Setting up a RAID on a P4P800 - how hard is it?

[3in4]

And is it worth it? Here's my situation. I just upgraded my machine to a P4 2.8c on a P4P800 mobo and 1GB PC3200 DDR.
Everything else is the same. One of my HD died and I needed more storage space anyway. Right now I'm looking at a total of
160gb, either in a 160gb drive or in 2 80gb drives in a RAID. I've never setup a RAID before although I hear the drives will
run faster this way. The P4P800 has the SATA connectors, so I would be buying SATA drives.

The delimma occurs here: The 160gb drive isat least $40 cheaper than buying 2 80gb drives. Is the extra speed gained by using
it as a RAID worth the price difference? Secondly, if it is difficult to set up, I may not even bother with a RAID. So I
guess my question is still the same, how hard is it to set up a RAID on this MOBO?

BTW, the drives im looking at are WD. Any probs with them? Pros / cons? I previously only had IBM/Hitachi drives, but thats
one of the drives that prematurley died, so I don't know if I will be going with them again.

Thanks..

 

[DaveW]

RAID arrays can be a pain to setup and maintain. I would get the single
160GB drive. And, yes, the WD is probably one of the most reliable
harddrives out there right now.

--
DaveW

And is it worth it? Here's my situation. I just upgraded my machine to a

P4 2.8c on a P4P800 mobo and 1GB PC3200 DDR.

Everything else is the same. One of my HD died and I needed more storage

space anyway. Right now I'm looking at a total of

160gb, either in a 160gb drive or in 2 80gb drives in a RAID. I've never

setup a RAID before although I hear the drives will

run faster this way. The P4P800 has the SATA connectors, so I would be buying SATA drives.

The delimma occurs here: The 160gb drive isat least $40 cheaper than

buying 2 80gb drives. Is the extra speed gained by using

it as a RAID worth the price difference? Secondly, if it is difficult to

set up, I may not even bother with a RAID. So I

guess my question is still the same, how hard is it to set up a RAID on this MOBO?

BTW, the drives im looking at are WD. Any probs with them? Pros / cons? I

previously only had IBM/Hitachi drives, but thats

 

[KC Computers]

And is it worth it? Here's my situation. I just upgraded my machine to a

P4 2.8c on a P4P800 mobo and 1GB PC3200 DDR.

Everything else is the same. One of my HD died and I needed more storage

space anyway. Right now I'm looking at a total of

160gb, either in a 160gb drive or in 2 80gb drives in a RAID. I've never

setup a RAID before although I hear the drives will

run faster this way. The P4P800 has the SATA connectors, so I would be buying SATA drives.

The delimma occurs here: The 160gb drive isat least $40 cheaper than

buying 2 80gb drives. Is the extra speed gained by using

it as a RAID worth the price difference? Secondly, if it is difficult to

set up, I may not even bother with a RAID. So I

guess my question is still the same, how hard is it to set up a RAID on

this MOBO?

What do you use the system for? RAID 0 striping can boost performance
significantly for disk I/O intensive apps (such as digital video/audio
editing)
but not very much for games, etc. Also, should one drive in the array fail,
then you lose ALL data.

BTW, the drives im looking at are WD. Any probs with them? Pros / cons? I

previously only had IBM/Hitachi drives, but thats

one of the drives that prematurley died, so I don't know if I will be

going with them again.

We are a dealer and have good luck with WD drives.

 

[3in4]

Cool, thanks for the info. Now anyone know of a reliable dealer, who is competitivley priced (somewhere close to newegg) that
accepts paypal?