software RAID5 on a PCI card supporting RAID 0+1 ?

Discussion in 'Storage Devices' started by markey164, Aug 21, 2006.

  1. markey164

    markey164 Geek Trainee

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    Hi guys,

    Am looking to setup SATA RAID5 for resilience of my data. I understand the concepts of RAID, but have never actually set it up before, and dont want to spend too much money either.

    I understand its best practise to setup the drives on the same bus which means i will need a 4 port SATA controller card. If i were to buy something like:
    DabsValue 4-PORT SATA RAID Card PCI (FSA31144IR01BC0)

    which states it supports RAID 0+1, would i still be able to setup RAID5 as software RAID ?

    Any advice/comments gratefully recieved.

    Mark
     
    markey164, Aug 21, 2006
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  2. Big B

    Big B HWF Godfather

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    Well, that would depend on the OS being used. The controller itself does not support this mode, so, while you can do RAID 5, you're hinging on the OS supporting it.
     
    Big B, Aug 21, 2006
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  3. markey164

    markey164 Geek Trainee

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    Sorry, yes of course. This is Windows XP Pro. So i guess the answer to the above is yes?

    If so, is there a major performance difference between using software RAID 5 and hardware RAID5? Is it really worth me spending the extra cash to buy a hardware card that will do this?

    (PC is AMD Athlon XP2400 with 1GB RAM)
     
    markey164, Aug 21, 2006
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  4. Big B

    Big B HWF Godfather

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    Software RAID requires drivers to have the RAID array in action. This is run by the CPU, which can really take a hit when using a RAID 5 or 3 array, due to the XOR calculations. A true hardware RAID card has a processor dedicated to those calculations as well as some onboard memory or a slot/slots for RAM (typically Registered RAM, so it's kinda pricey). As a general rule, true hardware controllers > software. For everyday tasks or simply to play around with RAID, your controller is fine. However, like in gaming, the low-end stuff isn't enough. How much of a difference you'll notice is going to depend on what you do. Load times on games and video editing are some things that can benefit. Surfing the web and e-mail won't do you justice with any RAID array.

    Also, in this case, the controller doesn't automatically support RAID5, so you'll have to create the RAID array within Disk Management. This means you can't create the array and install Windows on to it. Keep this in mind, as a RAID 5 array requires a minimum of 3 disks for the array. Meaning that, if you software RAID 5 from within Windows, you're going to need 4 hard drives.
     
    Big B, Aug 22, 2006
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