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RAID Configuration Advice

Eastman51
By Eastman51
in Storage Devices
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I want to strip down my main rig (fewer drives and cables for a cleaner look), while repurposing old drives/upgrading my network storage capabilities. However, I am not really sure how I should go about achieving this goal. 

 

I will have 2x 2TB HDDs and 3x 1TB HDDs I would like to use in the creation of two separate RAID arrays. I do not know which RAID configuration would be best. The 1TB HDD array will focus on storing more important data, so it should be able to suffer a drive failure or somehow be recoverable.

 

Thoughts, opinions? I'm kind of at a loss with all these ideas and potential solutions floating around in my head. Would like some second opinions on what options I have, and which would be the best/most ideal. Thanks in advance!

 

EDIT: It seems as though it is possible to boot off of NVMe on the T7500 using Clover. So that is an option. I could try and find a small SATA M.2 for Clover or just get a cheap USB stick.

EDIT 2: Cleared out information no longer necessary due to plan change.

Primary PC: - https://pcpartpicker.com/list/8G3tXv (Windows 10 Home)

HTPC: - https://pcpartpicker.com/list/KdBb4n (Windows 10 Home)
Server: Dell Precision T7500 - Dual Xeon X5660's, 44GB ECC DDR3, Dell Nvidia GTX 645 (Windows Server 2019 Standard)      

*SLI Rig* - i7-920, MSI-X58 Platinum SLI, 12GB DDR3, Dual EVGA GTX 260 Core 216 in SLI - https://pcpartpicker.com/list/GHw6vW (Windows 7 Pro)

HP DC7900 - Core 2 Duo E8400, 4GB DDR2, Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT (Windows Vista)

Compaq Presario 5000 - Pentium 4 1.7Ghz, 1.7GB SDR, PowerColor Radeon 9600 Pro (Windows XP x86 Pro)
Compaq Presario 8772 - Pentium MMX 200Mhz, 48MB PC66, 6GB Quantum HDD, "8GB" HP SATA SSD adapted to IDE (Windows 98 SE)

Asus M32AD - Intel i3-4170, 8GB DDR3, 250GB Seagate 2.5" HDD (converting to SSD soon), EVGA GeForce GTS 250, OEM 350W PSU (Windows 10 Core)

*Haswell Tower* - https://pcpartpicker.com/list/3vw6vW (Windows 10 Home)

*ITX Box* - https://pcpartpicker.com/list/r36s6R (Windows 10 Education)

Dell Dimension XPS B800 - Pentium 3 800Mhz, RDRAM

In progress projects:

*Skylake Tower* - Pentium G4400, Asus H110

*Trash Can* - AMD A4-6300

*GPU Test Bench*

*Pfsense router* - Pentium G3220, Asrock H97m Pro A4, 4GB DDR3

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Ok, I did some research and have decided to just get a M.2 SATA for the server boot drive. And had the crazy idea to repurpose the 970 EVO as a network Steam drive. The M.2 riser card is actually a Silverstone, and box says it can do both slots at once. 

 

Not sure what kind of RAID arrays I want still, but I believe I can probably get the 2x TB HDDs and 3x 1TB HDDs in there no problem. I should have a 2x 2.5" to 1x 3.5" adapter somewhere as well, to make things a bit easier in regards to the 2 2.5" drives. Apparently going to Microcenter today, so tomorrow I'll be able to hook everything up and research RAID configurations. 

 

If anyone has input on RAID arrays, it would be greatly appreciated.

Primary PC: - https://pcpartpicker.com/list/8G3tXv (Windows 10 Home)

HTPC: - https://pcpartpicker.com/list/KdBb4n (Windows 10 Home)
Server: Dell Precision T7500 - Dual Xeon X5660's, 44GB ECC DDR3, Dell Nvidia GTX 645 (Windows Server 2019 Standard)      

*SLI Rig* - i7-920, MSI-X58 Platinum SLI, 12GB DDR3, Dual EVGA GTX 260 Core 216 in SLI - https://pcpartpicker.com/list/GHw6vW (Windows 7 Pro)

HP DC7900 - Core 2 Duo E8400, 4GB DDR2, Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT (Windows Vista)

Compaq Presario 5000 - Pentium 4 1.7Ghz, 1.7GB SDR, PowerColor Radeon 9600 Pro (Windows XP x86 Pro)
Compaq Presario 8772 - Pentium MMX 200Mhz, 48MB PC66, 6GB Quantum HDD, "8GB" HP SATA SSD adapted to IDE (Windows 98 SE)

Asus M32AD - Intel i3-4170, 8GB DDR3, 250GB Seagate 2.5" HDD (converting to SSD soon), EVGA GeForce GTS 250, OEM 350W PSU (Windows 10 Core)

*Haswell Tower* - https://pcpartpicker.com/list/3vw6vW (Windows 10 Home)

*ITX Box* - https://pcpartpicker.com/list/r36s6R (Windows 10 Education)

Dell Dimension XPS B800 - Pentium 3 800Mhz, RDRAM

In progress projects:

*Skylake Tower* - Pentium G4400, Asus H110

*Trash Can* - AMD A4-6300

*GPU Test Bench*

*Pfsense router* - Pentium G3220, Asrock H97m Pro A4, 4GB DDR3

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Taking into account that you have a small number of disks, your RAID choose is pretty limited. For the 2 TB drives, you can only setup RAID-0 or RAID-1, for the 1 TB drives, you can do RAID-0 or RAID-5. RAID-0 is about the performance, but once you lose a disk, all your data will be gone. I believe using RAID-5 might be OK for the 1 TB drives since even you lose one of the drives, your RAID array will still work and once you replace the disk, the rebuild will not take a lot of time.

My personal advice is to add one more 1 TB drive and setup either RAID-6 or RAID-10. With RAID-6 you can lose any 2 drives within the array, while RAID-10 can sustain up to 2 drives (unless whole R-0 span fails). RAID-10 is faster since it is not calculating any parity. Both of them will provide you with around 2 TB usable capacity and higher resiliency for your important data.

Check this article to understand RAID levels in depths - https://www.starwindsoftware.com/blog/back-to-basics-raid-types

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