5 x 320GB SATA HD's - What Type of RAID for external storage?

[FrankieAIX]

I have (5) 320GB SATA Drives that I plan on adding to my system in some sort of RAID configuration, what type of RAID(s) should I implement?

My system is mainly used as a datawarehouse and sometimes used for gaming, although once in a while CoH, CoD etc are played........ The Windows install is mirrored on 2 x 80GB drives.

Should I create 1 RAID-5 Array out of these (5) 320GB SATA Drives, or should I create a few different RAID Array's?

Option 1:

5 x 320GB in RAID-5

Option 2:

4 x 320GB in RAID-5
1 x 320GB As a Regular Drive

Option 3:

3 x 320GB in RAID-5
2 x 320GB in RAID-0


The whole reasoning behind my post is that I have only 2 ports available on my on-board SATA RAID Adapter, I will need to purchase a new SATA RAID Controller, and have to figure out if I should get a 4-PORT or a 8-PORT to handle the 5 x 320GB SATA Drives...........

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

-Frankie

 

[Nelviticus]

The title of your post says 'external storage' but you seem to be talking about internal.

If you want data security and high speed I would go for option 3, with two drives attached to your motherboard in a RAID 0 array and the other three in an external RAID-capable box in a RAID 5 array. The two internal ones would give you the high speed you need for games (bit of a waste as far as storage is concerned though) and the other three would give you redundancy for your valuable data.

Re-reading your post, you say 'I have only 2 ports available on my on-board SATA RAID Adapter' - does that mean you only had two and they're now taken up with your Windows install, or you have two remaining?

Nelviticus

 

[FrankieAIX]

Nelviticus,

I apologize for the lack of finer details in my original post..... Thats my fault for posting while half asleep


The on-board SATA RAID controller has 4-Ports.

2 ports are being used for my Windows installation ( 2 x 80GB RAID-1)

So I have 2-Ports free on the on-board SATA RAID controller.

When I reference external disk, I was referencing disks that would be used outside of the OS, sorry its the UNIX inside of me talking

2 x 80GB RAID-1 (Windows Installation) (Internal)
5 x 320GB RAID-5 (Data & Apps) (External)

Hope that helped to clarify any misunderstandings from my previous post.

Thanks!

 

[Nelviticus]

It all depends on the balance between gaming usage and storage requirements.

If you did a lot of gaming I'd suggest option 3 but then you'd be taking up two 320GB drives just to give yourself shorter loading times, leaving yourself with only 640GB of redundancy-protected storage. If you don't game much I'd put all 5 drives in a single 1,280GB RAID 5 array and use the whole thing for a combination of gaming and storage. Personally, that's what I'd go for as hard drive speed isn't that relevant for gaming unless you're trying to squeeze every last drop of performance out of your machine.

If you have the time and the patience you might want to download HDTach once you've bought a RAID card and compare the speeds of different array set-ups before you finally plump for one (or two).

You've probably thought of this but with that many drives in your machine you'll want to make sure you have a very beefy, high-quality power supply, good cooling and probably some ear-muffs to counteract the noise of seven discs.

One last point: if you buy a RAID card, try to get a PCI-Express one as a straight PCI one will be bottlenecked by the PCI bus.

Regards

Nelviticus

 

[kmcferrin]

What are your requirements? Capacity? Fault tolerance?

Generally speaking I would say either put it all into one big RAID5 array or put it into a 4-disk RAID5 with a hot spare (which will still require the 8-port RAID card).

If what you are doing is primarily reading data, then RAID 5 will give you the best mix of performance and capacity. If you're really worried about fault tolerance and fast recoveries, I'd go with the hot spare.

Splitting it out as in options 2 and 3 really doesn't give you anything that you don't already have, other than it saves you from buying an 8-port card. But what it really comes down to is which solution fits your needs.

 

[FrankieAIX]

Some additional information on my system configuration...

I am going to house the 5 x 320GB drives inside my system. I have a spare SATA Cage that I will use to hold the drives (

http://www.icydock.com/product/mb455spf.html)....

SO with that being said I have some additional questions on which RAID controller to get based on my motherboard specs............

MSI P6N SLI Platinum Motherboard

SLOT Info:

- 2 PCI-Express x 16 Slots
a. the second PCI Express x 16 slot (PCI_E4) is a special design that supports PCI Express x 8 mode only
b. these two slots can support SLI Technology with PCIE x8 mode
c. the second PCI Express x 16 slot (PCI_E4) only supports to install graphics card in SLI mode

- 1 PCI Express x1 slot
- 3 PCI slots, support 3.3V/ 5V PCI bus interface.


I am kind of confused about the above description obtained from the motherboard manual. If I use the one PCI-Express slot for a VGA, can I use the other for the PCIE RAID Adapter?


So do I want to get a:

HighPoint RocketRAID 2320 PCI-e x4 (x8 and x16 slot compatible) adapter?

or

HighPoint ROCKETRAID2220 PCI-X adapter?


And which slot should I install this adapter in to?


Thanks again for your input!

-Frankie

 

[kmcferrin]

Interesting description. I take this line to mean one of two things:

c. the second PCI Express x 16 slot (PCI_E4) only supports to install graphics card in SLI mode

1. The only function that this slot will work for is as a graphics card slot for SLI mode.

or

2. The only graphics card function that this slot will support is SLI, meaning that if you're running with one card you'd best put it the other slot.

My thinking on this is that you have one of the earlier SLI boards. The primary PCI-E 16x slot will work as either x16, or in SLI mode at x8. The second slot will only work in SLI mode and at x8. If I'm not mistaken, the original SLI specs called for splitting the x16 path into a pair of x8 paths, giving you two GPUs but with each one having half the connection bandwidth. If that is the case then I doubt you will be able to get a non-graphics card to work in that slot.

And to make matters worse, I don't think that you'll be able to use a PCI-X adapter either. If you do, it will be restricted a bit by running in a standard PCI slot.

 

[Nelviticus]

You definitely want PCI-e (PCI Express) and not PCI-X (PCI eXtended).

As to whether or not you can put a non-graphics PCI-e card in your second slot, according to this Wikipedia page:

A larger card will not fit in a smaller slot but a smaller card can be used in a larger slot. The number of lanes actually connected may be smaller than the number supported by the slot size. While a 16 lane card cannot be used in an 8 lane slot it can be used in a 16 lane slot with only 8 lanes connected.

That explains why the description seems ambiguous - "the second PCI Express x 16 slot (PCI_E4) is a special design that supports PCI Express x 8 mode only" - it means you can put an x16 card in it and it will work, but at x8 speed only.

So the answer to your question - if you trust Wikipedia - is that you can put your graphics card in the first slot and a RAID card in the second, and you want the 'HighPoint RocketRAID 2320 PCI-e x4 (x8 and x16 slot compatible) adapter'.

Regards

Nelviticus

 

[FrankieAIX]

Nelviticus,

Thanks for looking up that additional information! I agree that description in the manual was so ambiguous.

I will give it a shot. If it does not work out I will just get another motherboard that has more the 2 PCIE slots and has more then 4 SATA ports

I guess you can say FORCED UPGRADE!

I appreciate all the help!

-Frankie