RAID 0?

After many problems with a new Dell XPS 420, I returned it. Have decided to build a system myself. OS will be Vista Home Premium 64 bit. Going to install N Studio 64 bit as well.

Undecided if I should run the OS and programs in a Raid 0 config. Anyone have any thoughts as to a yes or no. Is there anything to be gained?

The data, recording, HDs WILL be in Raid 0. Suggestions on stripe size?

New sys specs:
Core 2 Quad 9550 - 2.83
Intel DX48BT2 MB
6 gigs OCZ - Intel Extreme DDR3 - 10600 (1333) mem
ATI HD3870 PCI-E 2.0
Dual 22" LCDs
Samsung/Toshiba Super Drive DVD with Light Scribe
Right now I have 1 Western Digital SATA II 320 HD for OS and programs & 2 Western Dig 500s for a data - Raid 0.
Have M-Audio Audiophile 192 sound card but am waiting for 64 bits drivers. They say out by Sept. 1st.

All parts here by Monday afternoon. Build starts Monday night!!

DUFF

Hi duffman:

BoY…
That sounds impressive…
You’re gonna have to keep us posted up here, as to how this system goes together and how all the hardware behaves toward one-another and how the drivers-and-software answers to the Operating System…


I’m in the InTeL Camp as well, but there’s lots of whisker’s and broken teeth everywhere in it…
It has to be 10 - 15 year old technology now…



Not that there’s anything wrong with being in the AMD Camp…
:laugh:
:p





Bill…

[EDIT]
OoHh… I forgot to ask… What’s all these toys gonna set you back?

http://audiominds.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=5737

OS on one disk + (two raid 0 disks)- that’s good
Stripe size 64k sector (recomended for A/V editing)

Lot’s of Pro’s and Con’s - but I’d like to see you try it.

Software Raid? (Some say depends on the driver quality -








i.e. some software controller drivers are better than








others. Don’t know much about that.

One thing I found - Pro Tools won’t let you record using Raid 0
See this thread.

PT thread

Good luck - Just remember - Have to make those backups.

Thanks for all the replies…

Been to and read all the links, thanks a ton great info. After all of the reading, I would love to have 4 - 1 Terrabyte drives in RAID 10!! If I bought those the mushroom cloud from my wife exploding would blot out the sun!!

Thanks again for all the info.

Bill…I picked the motherboard, memory, cpu, and power supply because they are listed on Intels sight as certified to auto config and work together. Soooo…we will see if its true.

DUFF

CPU & MB showed up yesterday…a day late…thats what I get for living in the middle of cornfields.

1 1/2 hrs for hardware install, computer posted fine. Install Vista, can only see 1 harddrive, DUH, change HDs settings in BIOS from IDE to RAID in BIOS. OOPS, have continual boot loop with /keybord stopped working /unable to boot from CD/DVD. AHA!!! Have to configure HDs in BIOS before installing VISTA!!! Unplug primary drive, boot from CD/DVD, install Vista to different drive, shutdown, reconnect drive, reboot…AND there it all is up and running.

Testing and benchmarking this weekend with full driver and software installation. My recording computers have never seen the internet, but I think this one will have to, to get updated assorted drivers and Vista Updates.

So far so good…

DUFF

Thanks for the update…



It’s nice to see Board Members staying current-and-up-to-date with new hardware and machines and all…





n-Track and It’s Users continue to thrive…



I’ve yet to move into SATA Drive Connection Technology…



The Server I connect my Modem to suffered a major failure last Thursday… Today, they are just getting up and running, again…
I was in to the university to see what took it down…


I think someone triped over a cord and knocked a machine to the floor…
I saw a bunch of parts in a pile laying outside the office door…





:p
You don’t ask them …
Who Did It… :laugh:




Bill…

Buff - I posted to the thread that Bubba cited so you can read what I wrote there.
To summarize, I’m a firm believer in RAID-0 (or RAID 0/1) if you are going to work with large audio and/or video files.
I also make my sector size large (32K) which is supposed to help, but I don’t know if Vista allows you to do that or not.
The big fear about RAID-0 is that if one of the drives goes bad, then you’ve lost everything.
Whether you use RAID or not, you MUST have a backup strategy otherwise you’re vulnerable.
So if you have a good strategy, using RAID is non issue.
I personally have a separate backup drive which I Ghost my entire OS & audio drive on.
I also periodically Ghost the entire audio drive onto another hard disk which I keep off site.

I hope that helps.