RAID Card needed (with SSD cache)?

[Mixmaster5]

Hi there, 

 

I have several questions regarding RAID and I'm looking for some help here from experts: 

 

Status quo: 

 

• I have a 4 x 3 TB (WD RED) motherboard RAID 0 setup in my system (since 3 years)
• I work with RAW video files a need disk speed. SSDs are too expensive for the size I need
• The RAID has worked great so far but has behaved weird lately. I will back it up and delete it to check every single
• One of the biggest problems: I work with cinema DNG (singel still frames instead of a container); so a lot of rather small files (1 to 6 MB / frame -> depending on resolution). One of the downsides of RAID seems to be those small files and it suffers in performance 
• RAID 0 is set to 128kb
• I'm aware of the risks of RAID 0 and have backups. I'm not looking into RAID 5 or 6. 

 

Questions: 

 

• there are a lot RAID cards out there but rarely do I read Windows 10 compatibility. Is compatibility an issue? Because of the drivers?
• Am I likely to see performance gains with a decent RAID card compared to the motherboard or software RAID?
• Can anybody recommend a good RAID card which performs well with RAID 0 and windows 10?
• I've seen options with SSD caches: 
  • Are the files first written to the SSD before they go onto the HDD RAID? 
  • Would this solve the issue with performance loss with small sized files? 

 

Ideally I would look into a card (maybe also used) that doesn't cost more than 300$ if this is realistic. Again: I just need RAID 0 (and maybe that SSD cache) for 4-6 drives, no fancy other stuff. 

 

Thanks for you help. Much appreciated. 

 

Cheers

 

 

[nosirrahx]

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there are a lot RAID cards out there but rarely do I read Windows 10 compatibility. Is compatibility an issue? Because of the drivers?

Technology improvements have pushed RAID to the corporate sector almost exclusively. NAS technology connected over USB C, thunderbolt or 10 gig ethernet seems to be the way large/redundant storage for home users is going.
 

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Am I likely to see performance gains with a decent RAID card compared to the motherboard or software RAID?

Yes but really good RAID cards (supporting both lots of RAM cache and SSD caching with battery backup) are pretty expensive. I have used Areca cards and they do offer crazy fast performance but you also end up with crazy long boot times as the card initializes.
 

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Are the files first written to the SSD before they go onto the HDD RAID? 

You are in control over this. You can set the SSD to read cache, write cache or both.
 

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Would this solve the issue with performance loss with small sized files?

It helps a lot but nothing compares to a RAID card with a large RAM cahce when it comes to dealing with small files.

The Areca card I have is 100% compatible with windows 10 but it is discontinued and was more than $1000 new.

One thing to keep in mind is that RAID 1 does distribute reads meaning that you exchange 50% of your drive capacity for redundancy and faster read speed. 4 HDDs in RAID 10 would give you read speed close to 4 drives in RAID 0.

Perhaps getting a SATA SSD and something like Primo cache would be the most cost effective solution in your case. The 860 EVO is a really good SSD for the price.

[Mixmaster5]

Thanks you for the thorough answer. 

 

Yes I know about the NAS..but they're quite pricey as well. Also, neither do I have TB, 10Gig or USB-C...I don't want to upgrade my PC just because of that.

 

Another question: is it possible to create a software RAID 0 (non-os) with an SSD cache? 

 

What is the areca card you own? Maybe I could buy it used. 

 

[nosirrahx]

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Another question: is it possible to create a software RAID 0 (non-os) with an SSD cache? 

I have a hard time recommending RAID 0 in any form unless the use case involves data you need fast but you can also lose that data without any negative consequences. You mention that you do have backups so maybe its fine but even in that event a RAID failure means that you are dead in the water, the setup will not function until you replace the drive of create a new RAID environment to restore backups into. In RAID 10 you can have a failure and keep working. You can use this time to save your current project and replace the failed drive.

This was my primary setup for 4 years at work, 4 drives in RAID 10. I did have a drive failure and it was fine. I saved my data and ordered a new drive, had the drive replaced in 3 days. I was able to work for those 3 days, things were just a little slower. Had this been RAID 0 I would have been down until the drive came in and restoring backups would have been a major PITA.
 

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What is the areca card you own? Maybe I could buy it used. 

I own both of these configurations:

http://arecadirect.com/arc1882ix124gb.html

http://arecadirect.com/ar124po12gbs.html

 

Both have battery backup and are connected via dual 8088 cables to one of these:

http://arecadirect.com/ar812sastojb.html
 

There is no way these will be economical choices even used and this still does not even address the hard drives or a SSD for cache.


Looking at the options and prices I think 4 WD 6TB red drives in RAID 10 cached against a 250GB 860 EVO via PrimoCache would get you very good performance while keeping the price reasonable.

Even if you just added that SSD as cache it would help a lot but with RAID 0 you could at any time be looking at a PC you cant work on until you rebuild the array.