RAID10 SSDs+HDDs

[Pesky Ngon]

I'm planning to make a rendering rig with a fairly large budget. would I be able to stripe 2 ssds (the raid 0 part) for the speed, then have those 2 ssds mirrored by 2 hdds (the raid 1 part). 

 

my thinking is raid 1 is all about redundancy, so I shouldn't need the drives to be fast? I have never used ssds. I have never used raid. so wanted to check to make sure I haven't got this wrong before I blow a few hundred quid on storage.

[Thomas_nerd]

yes that does seem correct although I would go for 5400rpm hard drives so they are less expensive and they might output less heat and therefore increasing the lifespan of your hard drives.

[Pesky Ngon]

Just now, Thomas_nerd said:

yes that does seem correct although I would go for 5400rpm hard drives so they are less expensive and they might output less heat and therefore increasing the lifespan of your hard drives.

awesome. thank you very much for the help  

[191x7]

5 minutes ago, Pesky Ngon said:

I'm planning to make a rendering rig with a fairly large budget. would I be able to stripe 2 ssds (the raid 0 part) for the speed, then have those 2 ssds mirrored by 2 hdds (the raid 1 part). 

 

my thinking is raid 1 is all about redundancy, so I shouldn't need the drives to be fast? I have never used ssds. I have never used raid. so wanted to check to make sure I haven't got this wrong before I blow a few hundred quid on storage.

Don't do that. Mirroring a fast drive with slow drive results in a slow array, the same happens in a Raid1 made of a fast raid0 and a slow raid0.

[Bishop Crane]

If your raid controller allows it (which a lot wont) this as 191x7 says will slow the system significantly. as the Raid will write to the SSD then write to the HDD, wait until its complete writing to the HDD then go back to the SSD for its next block of data.

A better option would be to use the SSD to accelerate the HDD with caching.  There are some bits of software that allow it, but most are either for Linux, or expensive.

Another thing to remember also is if your controller allows you to create a RAID0 or 1 array with mismatched drives, you will be limited to the size of the smallest disk in the array.

[Pesky Ngon]

22 hours ago, Bishop Crane said:

If your raid controller allows it (which a lot wont) this as 191x7 says will slow the system significantly. as the Raid will write to the SSD then write to the HDD, wait until its complete writing to the HDD then go back to the SSD for its next block of data.

A better option would be to use the SSD to accelerate the HDD with caching.  There are some bits of software that allow it, but most are either for Linux, or expensive.

Another thing to remember also is if your controller allows you to create a RAID0 or 1 array with mismatched drives, you will be limited to the size of the smallest disk in the array. 

ah shit. that's a pain in the ass. I thought the ssds would finish quickly so I could work fast and the hdds would keep working in the background to catch up. thanks for the warning.