Raid

[cheburns]

Just finished my first build and everything is finally up and running properly after I installed the drivers so thanks to everyone here for helping me out. I'm not 100% sure what RAID is or if its advantages are really worth using, but like my sig says I have a 400GB WD SATA drive and would I need another drive exactly like that to set up RAID or could I buy for instance a Maxtor drive or a WD drive of different size? Just trying to set my system up as best as possible.

Thanks

 

[The_Other_One]

Typically it probably is best to get two identical drives, but I have heard of people doing RAID on two completely different drives. I've never tried it personally, but I wouldn't recommend RAID, period. The extra speed is not required as it used to be. Plus running two drives really isn't THAT much faster(under normal circumstances) than a single drive. I'd really only recommend it if you need the space and it's cheaper(two 400GB drives are less than one 750GB...) or you run something like RAID 1.

 

[Cleric7x9]

RAID isnt just for performance, it can be used to mirror your harddrive so you always have a backup if one fails. regardless, you do need harddrives that are the same size, otherwise it wont work (there are ways around that but if you arent a RAID pro then its not worth it). so if you arent worried about having a backup, the as the_other_one said, the speed improvements are usually minimal. if you want more space, just get another harddrive, you dont need to connect the using RAID. also, RAID 0 (the most common RAID conifugration) is dangerous because if you lose one harddrive, you lose all of them.

 

[Cromewell]

The drives don't need to be the same size but the array will be limited in size by the smallest drive. I'll chip in with everyone else in saying RAID isn't needed for home users.