Is it possible to have Raid AND Storage in the same pc?

[cheezewhisperer]

Hey guys/gals!

 

I'm a gamer at heart with the occasional media fluff.

I pretty much ONLY play games on my pc, I store my "must always have" media on an external hdd. But I like everything in one place so it's less clutter.

 

So my question is:

Can I have 2 SSD's running in Raid 0(for the speed AND storage) and have a Raid1 setup on 2 hdds for backup for my media...all in 1 pc?

 

I realize I can setup a Raid0 with the SSDs in the pc and have a separate storage running Raid1 but want it all in one box so to speak. Plus, to run raid at all wouldn't the external hdds need to be in another pc box with OS and all anyways?

 

Cut out the clutter is the point.

 

Idc if 1 SSD in the Raid 0 fails and I lose all my installed stuff in that little array. I usually uninstall games I haven't played in forever and I usually do a clean Windows install every 6 months anyways.(told ya, I hate clutter XP)

 

Also, would a Raid controller(pcie card) be needed for this? SHOULD it be needed at all? Or is it even fkin possible? lol.

 

I'm noob to networking/storage so a "for dummies" terminology is preferred .

THANKS IN ADVANCE!!

[WoodenMarker]

Yes, you can do that. 

Many motherboards support raid (albeit not as well performing) without an aftermarket controller. 

[cheezewhisperer]

Yes, you can do that. 

Many motherboards support raid (albeit not as well performing) without an aftermarket controller. 

Oh so u think this setup is possible with just the onboard? I planned to use a very recent mb(like z97),

So I could possibly use a mITX motherboard and have a NIC using the sole pcie slot instead of needing two pcie slots?

 

As long as the Raid0 is fast(for the games), idc how long it takes for the backup to backup on the Raid1.

 

Also could u point me in the right direction on how to do that multiple raid array? That could possibly be another forum post in itself I'm sure lol. So if it's too much "do this, install that" that's fine .

[WoodenMarker]

Oh so u think this setup is possible with just the onboard? I planned to use a very recent mb(like z97),

So I could possibly use a mITX motherboard and have a NIC using the sole pcie slot instead of needing two pcie slots?

As long as the Raid0 is fast(for the games), idc how long it takes for the backup to backup on the Raid1.

Also could u point me in the right direction on how to do that multiple raid array? That could possibly be another forum post in itself I'm sure lol. So if it's too much "do this, install that" that's fine .

No clue about the time it would take but that should be fine. 

How it's done varies with the motherboard is done through some bios settings. 

[cheezewhisperer]

No clue about the time it would take but that should be fine. 

How it's done varies with the motherboard is done through some bios settings. 

When would u recommend using a Raid controller? If I used one, about how much faster do u think it'd be than without? (ballpark estimate)

[WoodenMarker]

When would u recommend using a Raid controller? If I used one, about how much faster do u think it'd be than without? (ballpark estimate)

A hardware raid controller is always better but whether it's worth the money or not depends. Some say hardware raid is the only way to go. Not sure how much faster it would be. 

[cheezewhisperer]

A hardware raid controller is always better but whether it's worth the money or not depends. Some say hardware raid is the only way to go. Not sure how much faster it would be. 

Oh it just dawned on me. Quick question:

Does the raid controller bypass the sata, thus bypassing the 6gb/s limitation?

I haven't used a raid card before, but from what I've seen, it looks like all the hd's connect to that NOT the mb.

[DirkW]

Oh it just dawned on me. Quick question:

Does the raid controller bypass the sata, thus bypassing the 6gb/s limitation?

I haven't used a raid card before, but from what I've seen, it looks like all the hd's connect to that NOT the mb.

As long as you are using SATA drives, you will be limited by SATA speeds. Doesn't matter if you connect them to a RAID card or motherboard.

[cheezewhisperer]

As long as you are using SATA drives, you will be limited by SATA speeds. Doesn't matter if you connect them to a RAID card or motherboard.

Oh ok, I thought that's why a raid controller was faster.

[DirkW]

Oh ok, I thought that's why a raid controller was faster.

 

Not really, no. RAID controllers are faster for parity RAID levels (5, 6, 50, 60) because they do the parity calculation with a special chip, instead of letting your system do that work. The speed adavantage (once that parity calculation is no longer a "bottleneck" :rolleyes: ) is that all drives in the array add their speeds (doesn't scale perfectly of course), so you could indeed reach e.g. 300-500 MB/s speeds on an HDD-based array, which is way higher than any single HDD could hope to reach.

 

However, they still use SATA protocol to communicate with each drive. However, since you will only reach the limit of SATA-3 (6Gbps) with modern single SSDs but not with single HDDs, I wouldn't be concerned about SATA limits too much on such arrays.