Planning a Raid array... some questions?

Hardware Hub Storage
1

so i recently upgraded my mobo to this Asus board (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=13-131-876) which has 6 sata iii ports, and i was thinking of using 6 drives however i also want those drives in raid. 

My plan was to have 2 256gb SSDs(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227792) in Raid 0 for my OS, Games, and often used programs

Then i would also have 4 2tb HDDs(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148910) in Raid 10 for media and backing up the Raid 0 array

Now the problem i face is that i dont want all the raid load put onto the onboard raid controller. (not sure if it can handle it)

 

So my questions are:

Could my onboard raid handle the array?

if i need a raid card, Would it be better to put my 4 HHDs or my 2 SSDs on the raid card?

And continuing, Do u guys have any suggestions for which raid card to get that is:

1. Under $350 (usd)

2. Has at least, 1 SAS (either for putting all drives or less on the raid card), 2 SATA iii (for using the the Raid card to raid the SSDs), or 4 SATA ii internal ports (for raiding the 4 HDDS together)

3. can use a slot that isnt taken up by a PCIe dual slot graphics card

----end of questions---

feel free to leave other suggestion for setting up the drives (keeping cost including raid card and drives under $1000), any help is appreciated 

 

PS (add ins)

 

the links are to newegg, however i will use pcpartpicker and get them from the cheapest source that i trust

 

now thinking of skipping 6 drives in array and just have this idea:

4 SSDs in Raid 10 for OS, games, and 

and 1 2tb drive for media and such, however im still looking at options

 

Continueing with the 6 drive idea i am looking at 4 SSDs and 2 3tb HDDs for my drives the SSDs would be in RAID 0 and the HDDs would each be lone drives one for backups and one for media

 

2

I would personally just put the two SSDs in RAID 0 together and then go with that RAID 10 array for the 4 hard drives. I just want to clarify something though. You're not expecting the hard drives to automatically back up information from the SSDs are you? Because you'd have to run both SSDs and two hard drives in a RAID 10 array, and that probably wouldn't be very stable considering that hard drives are much, much slower than SSDs.

If you put the 4 HDDs in RAID 10 by themselves then you'll have two of the drives in RAID 0 and two of the drives in RAID 1 copying all the information from the RAID 0 array. That's how I would suggest setting up the hard drives. Then just put the SSDs in RAID 0.

Your onboard RAID controller should be able to handle the load just fine. The only reason to use a separate RAID controller is if you have more drives than your onboard controller can handle.

3

the bit.ly doesn't work.... but I agree... I've looked into this, and the optimal stripe size is 64k

4

i wasnt expecting the HDDs the automatically backup the RAID0 array by themselves, my plan was to have the 2 SSDs in RAID0 and then use a backup program to back them up onto the disks

that way with the backups i could handle either one or both of the SSDs failing and i would still have a most of my data backup up. and i could also handle losing one of my HDDs in RAID 10 becuase of the fault tolerence. 

so the only way i could lose data would be if one of my SSDS and one of my HDDs fail at the same time or close timing

5

ill change out the link to the full versions. I thought for once they would work without my checking on them

6

no, 

raid 0: drive+drive

raid 1: drive=drive

raid 0 is just dispersing data between 2 driver, effectively turning 2 hard drive into 1

raid 1 mirrors one drive onto another, so if one drive fails, the other is a PERFECT replica, and will take over automatically

7

yes i know thats how it works, i was just thinking of using a desktop based software program to backup the SSDs to the HDDs while im sleeping. If i RAID one of my HDDs with the 4 SSDs(that are in RAID0) the write speeds would take a hit because the computer would automatically write to the SSD array and the HDD. which would result in a write speed drop i would just sooner have a program do the overnight backing rather than me having to sit through the writing while i could be working

8

why do you need 500 gigs of ssd?. adn if your willing to add on later, you can get a relatively cheap raid controller and 2 mor ssds for a raid 10 array

9

well im looking at a pretty large amount of storage for my SSDs Array because im planning on have raw video files on the SSDs while im editing it that way the program can work faster than if the programs were on my HDDs. I was looking at putting 4 SSDs in a RAID 10 and that would solve alot of the problems however im finding trouble to bringing my self to cut off some of my stoarage capacity. However i may do it still (i brain needs to look at more charts and ideas) but if i did the RAID 10 SSDs i would probly go with 4 256gb  SSDs which would give me 750gb

Im also looking at i could do the 4 SSDs in RAID0 and then down the road when i need more storage i could add two more SSDs and put the six of them in RAID10

10

raid 10 of 4 256 gigs is 512 gb, as the morror dirves = the stripe drives

11

yah thats y i cant bring myself to do it, it would be cutting my storage in half. im ccurrently looking into 6way Raid 10 which would give me 750gb of space (which i could work with)

12

not a bad idea, 6 drives, and you should still have 2 more for data drives

am I to assume you have the $$$$ for 6 256gig ssds?

13

I would consider getting a separate card for your SSD raid. The on-board Raid controller will work however not as well as a separate card. In my experience SSD Raid 0 was slower than operating the two drives individually.

Your on-board will handle the Raid10 well, and you will have redundancy if one drive fails.

You should be about to find a card that has 2 SATA3 ports for a very reasonable price. I don’t think you’ll find a card with 6 ports for $350 (however I don’t know the pricing of hardware in your country)

Your point 3 concerns me a little. Without knowing the layout of you MoBo I can’t even say if an add-on card is an option. If I’m not mistaken all add-on Raid card only require a single 1xPCIe port, so this shouldn’t be an issue.

Also Raid 10 on SSD is a complete waste of money. There is no need what so ever having 2 SSD mirroring you OS and games. Backup any important information from the Raid 0 often to stay protected.

14

well my board has 2 PCIe x1 and 4 PCIe 2.0 x16 slots, however one of each will be blocked by the gpu but i will still have room for a raid card easily if it used PCIe

15

you can't with intel, but surprisingly, amd dropped sata2 completely, they have all sata3

16

umm,,,, he isn't sticking games on them, he's using them for video editing.... and we are not talking just a normal 4 drive raid 10, we're looking at 6 drive raid....

17

and at this point, might as well increase the size of the ssd... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227820

and viola, i found a mobo with 4 raidable sata3

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157328

 

and for a 2011 socket:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157318

18

oh, your amd... welcome to the club!!!!

6 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s) (red) support Raid 0, 1, 5, 10 by AMD SB950

your set.... u may need a raid card for data drives if u raid them, but otherwise

19

6 500gb ssds would be pretty insane but i think ill stick  the 6 250gb ssds, and yah i am using amd becuase i got a fx-8350 which works well with my editing programs. im still looking at wether to have 4 ssds in raid 0 with hdd backup of them or just doing 6 ssds in raid 10. my brain is still likeing the looks of the 4 way raid 0 becuase i have no wasted space but i also like the reliability of raid 10. i may in the end go with the 6 ssds in raid 10 and one 3tb data drive but dont be surprised if i go with 4 ssds in raid 0 and the two backup drives

20

I was suggesting 4 500 gigs in raid 10