Help with buying new hard drive

minhxminh · 04-10-2007, 01:21 AM

I am planning on buying an internal 500gb sata hard drive. I want to know more about raid. I heard that raid 0 is best for performance and it's the only one I can do with 2 drives. I currently have an 80gb sata drive and want to add a 500gb one. I will be mainly using them for gaming, media and file transfers. Do I need a raid controller card or whatever for it to function? Will there be a significant performance increase if I configure them with raid 0?

**Rashiki** · 04-10-2007, 01:51 AM

You need two identical drives for RAID to function properly. Raid 0 is also referred to as 'striping'. This is where your data gets split between the two drives for faster read times. It also says you care very little about your data, since if one drive fails, you lose half the data and hence your system.

If you're going to go RAID 0, you had better be backing up your entire system every day in preperation for the day the drives fail.

Most people suggest running a single disk off of the raid array to do backups, as it will get pretty tedious with DVDs.

As for setting it up, it would depend on what kind of motherboard you have. Some boards come with raid controllers on board, and others (read: older) boards don't, and you'd need an add-in card for it to work.

Hard drives are cheap nowadays, and if your budget is strict, you could maybe go with two smaller drives if you want the performance boost.

minhxminh · 04-10-2007, 02:05 AM

Oh, I see. So I can't use two different capacity hard drives. 80gb-500gb is a big jump. Basically I want more storage and performace compared to external drives. I do care about my data, I have external drives I do my backups on. How long do internal and external drives typically last?

04-10-2007, 01:21 AM	#1 (permalink)
minhxminh Registered User Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 31 OS: XP Media Center Edition 2005	Help with buying new hard drive I am planning on buying an internal 500gb sata hard drive. I want to know more about raid. I heard that raid 0 is best for performance and it's the only one I can do with 2 drives. I currently have an 80gb sata drive and want to add a 500gb one. I will be mainly using them for gaming, media and file transfers. Do I need a raid controller card or whatever for it to function? Will there be a significant performance increase if I configure them with raid 0?

04-10-2007, 01:51 AM	#2 (permalink)
Rashiki Mentor Hardware Team Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 878 OS: Win XP Pro SP2	Re: Help with buying new hard drive You need two identical drives for RAID to function properly. Raid 0 is also referred to as 'striping'. This is where your data gets split between the two drives for faster read times. It also says you care very little about your data, since if one drive fails, you lose half the data and hence your system. If you're going to go RAID 0, you had better be backing up your entire system every day in preperation for the day the drives fail. Most people suggest running a single disk off of the raid array to do backups, as it will get pretty tedious with DVDs. As for setting it up, it would depend on what kind of motherboard you have. Some boards come with raid controllers on board, and others (read: older) boards don't, and you'd need an add-in card for it to work. Hard drives are cheap nowadays, and if your budget is strict, you could maybe go with two smaller drives if you want the performance boost. __________________ ASUS P5WD2 Premium v0709 \| Intel Prescott 3.2ghz \| 2gb Corsair XMS DDR2-800 PC2-6400 \| Sparkle Power 550w PSU \| ATI All-In-Wonder X600 Pro \| Sound Blaster Audigy 4 \| CoolerMaster Aluminum Case \| WD Raptor 76gb 10K RPM SATA HDD \|ASUS CD/DVD RW Combo Drive \| Mitsumi 7-in-1 Floppy Combo Drive \| Coolermaster Copper Heatsink

04-10-2007, 02:05 AM	#3 (permalink)
minhxminh Registered User Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 31 OS: XP Media Center Edition 2005	Re: Help with buying new hard drive Oh, I see. So I can't use two different capacity hard drives. 80gb-500gb is a big jump. Basically I want more storage and performace compared to external drives. I do care about my data, I have external drives I do my backups on. How long do internal and external drives typically last?