raid 0 questions

[quasar923]

if i buy 2 160 gig hdds will it give me 320 gigs of space in raid 0? also. can i buy a 250 gig hdd and a 40 gig and set it up in raid 0 and have the same speed and space as it would if it were another 250 gig? and which raid gives you the most speed? im needing a new hdd im assuming bc for the second time my 250 gig hdd WD has failed. first time i fried it this time there is a disk error. piss me off. anyways i see that a new 250 gig hdd by WD is 70 bucks so two of them would be about 160 bucks with shipping. thats quite a bit. so could i get two 80 gigs and have them equal 160 gigs because i think that would be suffiecent amount of space for me. i mean i game have about 10 gigs of music and a few videos and thats it. im guessing that if you have it in raid 0 which i think is the fastest raid it will only give you half of your total gigs. if that is correct how do i set up raid and what hdds are best within a good price range?

[quasar923]

oh and atm my only other problem untill the summer is that my mobo only has one sata connector becuase the other one broke but i have an empty ide connnector so can you use sata and ide and still go raid?

[Namslas90]

if i buy 2 160 gig hdds will it give me 320 gigs of space in raid 0?
YES, only 320 (minus operating system)

also. can i buy a 250 gig hdd and a 40 gig and set it up in raid 0 and have the same speed and space as it would if it were another 250 gig?

Maybe(depending on combatability) but it will only be 40Gb (minus operating system)

Raid 0 is striping > meaning the drives are sharred to be one drive working twice as fast.

Raid 1 is mirroring > meaning all data is storred twice - once on each drive.

For more information on Raid see here;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID

:toast:

[freaksavior]

if you get 2 x 160, it will give you about 300gb.if you do a 250gb and a 40gb its going to make the 250 a 40, so i wouldn't do that.

its alwasy best to use 2 x identical drives to get the same performance. if you dont/cant use the same 2 drives get 2 that are close to each other (take mine for example) mine are 300 and 320 so formatted thats 300 and 280, and i have 560gb in raid 0.

if your mobo has only 1 raid, just get a raid card for $30 off egg.

@ Namslas90

if he gets 2 160gb drives and raid 0's them he will get about 300gb minus the os so about 290.

[quasar923]

its hard to understand that sory

[quasar923]

so raid 0 which also increases proformance will also give you the same amount of space adding the gigs together. ive herd it just gives you half of it added together

[Hawk1]

Yes, RAID 0 will show a total of 320GB (or 300 as mentioned). RAID 1 mirrors one drive onto the other, so that RAID 1 will only see 160GB (little less). RAID 0 will load your OS/programs/files accross the 2 drives, so if one drive fails, you lose all data.

[quasar923]

so i should just get 2 80 gigs with the raid card so i would have about 150 gigs after OS. do i need a raid controller or anything idk what that is tho.

[smartphone]

your mobo might support raid. check its specs. If not, buy a controller.

[quasar923]

ok im getting a controller and 2 80 gig seagate barracudas. or if i can get the warranty for my fried 250 gig WD hdd then i will buy another one but seagate because ive herd that WD hdd die after a while which is what i am experiencing.

[RottnJP]

What mobo do you have? Check it's specs- Many will support RAID 0 and RAID 1 (that is, they have a controller built in) These will typically need to be same/similar size and type- So if you only have 2 SATA channels, and one is no longer functional, you may be in need of a new motherboard. Note also that you may have to be comfortable going into the BIOS to set this up.

If you have a mobo that does not support RAID 0, you can buy an add-in card which will support RAID.

I might also mention that if your board is too old to support RAID 0, you might be better off saving up to upgrade your system- you may see much more significant improvements just by getting better components- mobo, disk, etc.

[quasar923]

well im pretty sure my mobo supports it i just have only one sata input right now so i need to get the card and another hdd. i will be upgrading my comp at the end of the summer. newer better parts cheeper on the parts that are out now too. :)