Need help with RAID 5 setup

[Ginz]

Hey guys,
 
I would like to set up a RAID 5 array with three WD Red 3TB drives. I'm thinking about either doing this on an Intel S1200V3RPS or on a separate RAID card.

If I set this up on the motherboard controller, if the motherboard dies, am able to (easily to an extent) recover the data that is on the drives?

What about on separate RAID cards; can you just swap a dead RAID card with a new one (same model).

Also, is it possible to extend a RAID 5 array without losing data on the drives?

 

Thanks guys.

 

[Xaring]

You will need to whipe out the drives in order to creade/delete any kind or raid.

You should be able to recover the data with a mobo from the same brand/same bios and on a same raid card, yes.

[Ginz]

Would I see a speed increase by using a dedicated RAID card?

And can you recommend any specific RAID cards that are relatively inexpensive?

[Hazy125]

I would not advise using a motherboard RAID controller for anything other than a RAID 0 setup as they don't have the reliability of a dedicated RAID card. You should be able to continue using the drives if you replace the RAID card or motherboard solution with another of the exact same model as anything else will most likely use different codes to build arrays. However, you can just lose a lot of data if something is reading and writing to the array- Just like you can lose data when you don't eject a USB from the computer system. You can expand a RAID 5 array, just add the new drive and give it time to fill in the required partitions on the new disk, then insert the next new disk. Bear in mind that when you set up an array it will erase all data on the drives. Also when you break the array you will also lose all data

 

EDIT: By using a dedicated RAID card you will most likely see an increase in speed after the card has been initialised, but that is provided that the motherboard RAID solution is really bad. In a RAID 5 array you will be mostly limited by how quickly the drives can read and write data and not the RAID card itself. I don't know that much about RAID solutions and therefore cannot recommend a good, cheap RAID card. The only card I look at are expensive and have support for many varieties or RAID array's

[Ginz]

Thanks guys, this has helped me quite a lot