RAID 0 Seagate Barracuda

[ErlendLarsen]

Hi! 

 

I need to do a fresh install of Windows on my computer and I want to change out my HDD for storage (have an SSD for OS). I am looking to purchase two Seagate Barracuda 3TB, and set them up in RAID 0 for pure perfomance as I have the possibility to have full backups of all my disks online. Any recommendations on how to set up my RAID array? BIOS (Asus Z170-A) or in Windows? Is there any way to backup the array config? 

I use my HDD drives in a typical SSD with OS, and HDD with storage, applications and games. I also run Plex sometimes of my computer and some server stuff just for myself. How would the reliability of Barracuda be? As of now I have WD Red, but is that necessary for my use?

 

Thanks!

[Lord Nicoll]

4 minutes ago, ErlendLarsen said:

Hi! 

 

I need to do a fresh install of Windows on my computer and I want to change out my HDD for storage (have an SSD for OS). I am looking to purchase two Seagate Barracuda 3TB, and set them up in RAID 0 for pure perfomance as I have the possibility to have full backups of all my disks online. Any recommendations on how to set up my RAID array? BIOS (Asus Z170-A) or in Windows? Is there any way to backup the array config? 

I use my HDD drives in a typical SSD with OS, and HDD with storage, applications and games. I also run Plex sometimes of my computer and some server stuff just for myself. How would the reliability of Barracuda be? As of now I have WD Red, but is that necessary for my use?

 

Thanks!

Why? HDD's in RAID 0 aren't even that fast, and have quite a higher risk of breaking, though with daily backups that's not so much of a risk, they're still not that fast, an SSD for a boot drive and a HDD or two should be enough for storage if you want pure speed.

[ErlendLarsen]

1 minute ago, Lord Nicoll said:

Why? HDD's in RAID 0 aren't even that fast, and have quite a higher risk of breaking, though with daily backups that's not so much of a risk, they're still not that fast, an SSD for a boot drive and a HDD or two should be enough for storage if you want pure speed.

I forgot to mention but I want to not format the drive that is installed now, so I need to buy new drive/-s anyway. So the question is if I should buy two 3TB or 4TB for ish the same price. How much more preformance will I get with RAID 0? Tought that it would nearly dobble?  

[Lord Nicoll]

1 minute ago, ErlendLarsen said:

I forgot to mention but I want to not format the drive that is installed now, so I need to buy new drive/-s anyway. So the question is if I should buy two 3TB or 4TB for ish the same price. How much more preformance will I get with RAID 0? Tought that it would nearly dobble?  

Sequential read and write speeds can be hard to calculate, depends on the stripe sizes and the files being written, sometimes it's double, sometimes RAID 0 is slower, however that's very unusual and easy to correct for. When you said you didn't  want to format the drive that's in there, you wouldn't need to since you already have the OS on it. Setting up a RAID 0 array would make managing the drivers easier, since it's one volume not two, but if it goes bad it's kinda annoying to set back up. 

[ErlendLarsen]

2 minutes ago, Lord Nicoll said:

Sequential read and write speeds can be hard to calculate, depends on the stripe sizes and the files being written, sometimes it's double, sometimes RAID 0 is slower, however that's very unusual and easy to correct for. When you said you didn't  want to format the drive that's in there, you wouldn't need to since you already have the OS on it. Setting up a RAID 0 array would make managing the drivers easier, since it's one volume not two, but if it goes bad it's kinda annoying to set back up. 

So if I understand you correct, since I would buy new drives for storage, I would probably just benefit from RAID 0? I will need to format my SSD, but all my important files is on the HDD. But if RAID 0 is slower it would be easy to correct? If they go bad I could just delete the array, set up a new and download all the data again. 

 

Have you any recommendations on how to set up the array?

 

[Lord Nicoll]

2 hours ago, ErlendLarsen said:

So if I understand you correct, since I would buy new drives for storage, I would probably just benefit from RAID 0? I will need to format my SSD, but all my important files is on the HDD. But if RAID 0 is slower it would be easy to correct? If they go bad I could just delete the array, set up a new and download all the data again. 

 

Have you any recommendations on how to set up the array?

 

As I understand it, software RAID is pretty good now a days, however the boards built in RAID is probably fine too. If you plan to mainly use large files, a larger stripe size would be better, but smaller files are better suited to smaller stripe sizes, it goes into it a bit here in this article here, https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/RAID-SCALING-CHARTS,1735-4.html 

[ErlendLarsen]

58 minutes ago, Lord Nicoll said:

As I understand it, software RAID is pretty good now a days, however the boards built in RAID is probably fine too. If you plan to mainly use large files, a larger stripe size would be better, but smaller files are better suited to smaller stripe sizes, it goes into it a bit here in this article here, https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/RAID-SCALING-CHARTS,1735-4.html 

Thank you so much! I will try it out!