RAID or no RAID? That is the question.

[krye]

Currently I have a stock 320G drive installed with a 750G F1 Spinpoint installed as a Time Machine. I have maxed the 320 out so I'm looking to get a bigger drive.

Question: looking at the F1 Spinpoints, should I do 1x750 with 32M cache? Or 2x400G in a software RAID0? The 400s have a 16 Meg cache, so 32M total.

What's better? Do you think I'll see a better performance boost by striping over 2 drives with 16M cache each, or sticking with 1 drive with a 32M cache? And with the 2x400, I'll gain about 50 Gigs of storage over the 750G drive.

2x400 is $156
1x750 is $125

Is this a decent boost for only an additional $25, or should I just save a drive bay and get 1 drive?

 

[iShater]

Are you looking at a RAID solution speed or reliability/backup?

 

[disconap]

The OP said striped/RAID0.

You'll see some performance increases with the RAID, but it's riskier as it can crash. Just depends--if your system is running as fast as you need, I wouldn't bother with the RAID, I'd get the 750gb and use the 320 for storing files (you're already going to see a huge speed bump from fine tuning your OS drive and storing most of your files on the 320). Or use the 320 and ONLY put the OS/apps on it, and use the 750 for all your files, you'll see a definite speed increase there too (for example, running a video file from a second drive while working on your first cuts down on the word the drive has to do DRAMATICALLY, same with any read/write needs).

That's my two cents. RAID0 is fun and speedy, but really should be avoided unless needed. Also remember that Time Machine, while good, isn't a mirror drive; if your RAID crashes, you'll still lose any work you did since the last time Time Machine backed up.

Another option--you could get another 320, do a RAID0 with the two 320s, and dump Time Machine altogether and use the 750G you already have as a mirror of the RAID (so a RAID0+1). That would be fast and stable, but compared to what I said above would cost you some storage space...

 

[krye]

The OP said striped/RAID0.

You'll see some performance increases with the RAID, but it's riskier as it can crash. Just depends--if your system is running as fast as you need, I wouldn't bother with the RAID, I'd get the 750gb and use the 320 for storing files (you're already going to see a huge speed bump from fine tuning your OS drive and storing most of your files on the 320). Or use the 320 and ONLY put the OS/apps on it, and use the 750 for all your files, you'll see a definite speed increase there too (for example, running a video file from a second drive while working on your first cuts down on the word the drive has to do DRAMATICALLY, same with any read/write needs).

That's my two cents. RAID0 is fun and speedy, but really should be avoided unless needed. Also remember that Time Machine, while good, isn't a mirror drive; if your RAID crashes, you'll still lose any work you did since the last time Time Machine backed up.

Another option--you could get another 320, do a RAID0 with the two 320s, and dump Time Machine altogether and use the 750G you already have as a mirror of the RAID (so a RAID0+1). That would be fast and stable, but compared to what I said above would cost you some storage space...

Cool. I think I will go with a 2 drive approach, but not a RAID. I'll install my OS and apps on one drive, and my data on another.


UPDATE: I just ordered a 400G F1 Spinpoint. So here's how my drive layout will look:

400G for OS and Apps
320G for my data
750G for Time Machine

 

[iShater]

The OP said striped/RAID0.

Indeed, but he has been asking about his drives in a couple of posts, thus the confirmation question

Cool. I think I will go with a 2 drive approach, but not a RAID. I'll install my OS and apps on one drive, and my data on another.

The easiest choice to configure and maintain.

UPDATE: I just ordered a 400G F1 Spinpoint. So here's how my drive layout will look:

400G for OS and Apps
320G for my data
750G for Time Machine

Brilliant, now where is your drive/partition for disaster recovery?

 

[krye]

Indeed, but he has been asking about his drives in a couple of posts, thus the confirmation question

The easiest choice to configure and maintain.

Brilliant, now where is your drive/partition for disaster recovery?

Disaster recovery you say? I plan on using Time Machine to recover from a main drive failure.

Also, I routinely backup to DVD. Time consuming, but worth it when you're talking about 26,000 pictures of my kids, all my music creations, home movies, documents, etc etc.

 

[iShater]

Since you are separating your application drive from your data, are you planning to backup just your data? or is the OS/apps drive going to be backed up as well?

 

[m1stake]

I use a RAID0 array on a PC I own. It just plays games so I don't worry about the drives dying anyway. No big loss if anything happens. The speed is worth it.

 

[krye]

Since you are separating your application drive from your data, are you planning to backup just your data? or is the OS/apps drive going to be backed up as well?

The 320G OS/app drive and the 400G data drive will be backed up to the 750G Time Machine drive.