RAID 0/10/5 useful or real world overkill? (for non-video work)

[schweinsteiger]

No RAID level is a replacement for backups. So, you still ned to back up either way.

The two aren't the same. Backups are backups. Backups are not RAID. RAID halls ass. It has a very specific purpose. 1, 10, 5, and 6 additionally have a hardware level of protection. But it's not a backup mechanism either.

With my RAID 0 I feel I have ONE really big, really fast hard drive .... and a really big reason to back-up, and a really big reason to operate everything on a UPS.

So hopefully this thing is forcing me to be disciplined and smart. Not a bad move, I think.

I should have had an automatic back-up plan for years (instead of manually backing up drives and files to random external HDs whenever I feel like it). And given that we have power outages here in LA every summer, I should have had an UPS in my office too. (Coincidentally, today is another pretty warm day in LA, and my wife just emailed me, there was a 2-min power out in her office building in downtown.)

I have both an UPS and an elaborate automatic back-up schedule in place now, and that's mainly because of the risk of the RAID array. Works for me.

 

[Tesselator]

If I lived in the USA I wouldn't have my system connected to the mains at all. Especially in California where they deliberately create "rolling black-outs" for no other reason than to justify raising the price of kilowatt-hours. This was proven in court and the same idiots are still doing similar things today.

If it were me I would take my computer system 100% solar or maybe some other form of energy. Here in Japan our utility companies are not controlled by the mafia (yet) - so in one of the largest and certainly densest cities in the world there are zero such events. In Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya (the three largest cities in Japan) the only power outages there are happen because of accidents - like a construction crane falls over or something like that.

Anyway USA power supplies (mains) are too expensive and too unreliable for my usage profile. I would get off the mains if it were me. A solar system healthy enough to run a packed Mac Pro or two and 3 or 4 monitors 24/7 is cheap and easy to set up - not to mention fun!

 

[schweinsteiger]

If I lived in the USA I wouldn't have my system connected to the mains at all. Especially in California where they deliberately create "rolling black-outs" for no other reason than to justify raising the price of kilowatt-hours. This was proven in court and the same idiots are still doing similar things today.

If it were me I would take my computer system 100% solar or maybe some other form of energy. Here in Japan our utility companies are not controlled by the mafia (yet) - so in one of the largest and certainly densest cities in the world there are zero such events. In Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya (the three largest cities in Japan) the only power outages there are happen because of accidents - like a construction crane falls over or something like that.

Anyway USA power supplies (mains) are too expensive and too unreliable for my usage profile. I would get off the mains if it were me. A solar system healthy enough to run a packed Mac Pro or two and 3 or 4 monitors 24/7 is cheap and easy to set up - not to mention fun!

Couldn't agree with you more.

Before I moved to the US, I lived in Germany for 30 years. That's 30 years without one power outage. Here in LA it seems we have them every time the temperature goes over 36 degrees C, because every moron has to turn the AC on to max. And then we also have the other morons who drive into electricity poles and kill the power for a whole neighborhood. (happened 3 months ago). It feels like living in the Dominican Republic, no offense. And you're right, the main culprits here are definitely the energy companies manipulating the system.

Apart from the usual environmental reasons, that situation with the outages also has made me think about solar energy. (The sun shines 330 days a year here!). I think for $15k I could put a nice solar system on my roof .... and some extra money would give me a back-up solution. With state subsidies the thing actually pays for itself after ten years.

 

[Tesselator]

Couldn't agree with you more.

Before I moved to the US, I lived in Germany for 30 years. That's 30 years without one power outage. Here in LA it seems we have them every time the temperature goes over 36 degrees C, because every moron has to turn the AC on to max. And then we also have the other morons who drive into electricity poles and kill the power for a whole neighborhood. (happened 3 months ago). It feels like living in the Dominican Republic, no offense. And you're right, the main culprits here are definitely the energy companies manipulating the system.

Apart from the usual environmental reasons, that situation with the outages also has made me think about solar energy. (The sun shines 330 days a year here!). I think for $15k I could put a nice solar system on my roof .... and some extra money would give me a back-up solution. With state subsidies the thing actually pays for itself after ten years.

Yeah and newer systems are tweaked for use with fresnel lenses thereby reducing the surface area needed and increasing the efficiency a lot. I dunno how much - 5 to 10 times at 1/4 the size or something like that. Needless to say a very overcast or drizzley day produces like a system without the lens on a sunny day. YouTube and the internet is pretty awesome for this kind of research!