Use RAID for desktop computer?

Question

I'm building a new computer over the summer. I'm fairly competent in computer hardware, and am thus building the computer from scratch. I have everything planned out, but I was wondering if I should consider RAID, and if so, which RAID to use. I plan to purchase 2x1TB drives. Currently I'm leaning toward RAID 1 for the redundancy -- I've heard newer super-capacity drives fail more often than one would think, and I don't want to have a problem and lose all my data. What do you think? My mobo supports RAID 0/1/5/10. Is it worth it to use RAID at all, or should I just use a backup service like Mozy? Should I consider RAID 0 instead, for the performance? I'm kind-of going back and forth on this one. Thanks a lot for your help.

EDIT: I'd like to avoid the OS drive different from Data drive situation, because that can get frustrating when programs like to store a lot of data in their program files folder. I've lived with that situation before and it gets annoying after a while.

Solution 1

If data loss is your concern, please remember that RAID is not backup. I suggest you invest in some form of backup, whether it's a 'cloud' solution or a simple rsync job to another computer.

This way, you can have your RAID 0 for performance as well.

Solution 2

Be aware that even if you are mirroring drives, the raid controller itself is a single point of failure.

Solution 3

It may be worth considering using an SSD as the OS/applications drive, for excellent performance (see Anandtech for a review of the latest Intel X25-M drive).

I opted for this, with two non-RAID HDDs for data (plus an external drive for backup), which works well.

Solution 4

On the desktop RAID allows you to keep working through a hard drive failure and fix it at your convenience. And perhaps saving some work since the last backup.

However, in my experience, if you have proper backups, RAID for workstations just isn't worth the bother. The rebuilds are often not trouble free and the rest of the PC is a bunch of single points of failure, many of which can trash the disk anyway - memory, power, motherboard.

The RAID controller is a single point of failure. If it goes you have to be able to replace it with the same or compatible controller or you lose the array anyway. If it's a motherboard controller are you going to be able to get a compatible replacement in 2 years time? Assuming it didn't take the array with in when it failed.

RAID isn't a backup strategy - there's no substitute for real backups. Something like, say, at least 3 external drives and backup software that gets everything and can do a bare metal restore is where you should start. You didn't say what OS you have, but there are good options for Windows Linux and Mac. And if you do it right the recovery is quick and sure.

Solution 5

I generally buy two fast drives (10K RPM) that are relatively small and run them in RAID 0 (stripe) for my OS partition and two large drives (7200 RMP) in a RAID 1 (mirror) for my data partition. That way, if I lose a drive in the striped array, I just rebuild my OS and my data is protected by the mirror. Of course, that requires 4 drives, where you could do a RAID 5 with 3 drives, but in my mind, it's the easiest.

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Comments

[Admin]

Newer large drives do not fail more often than others, you just lose more data when they do die with no backup.

[Admin]

From your question, it already appears that you have a good understanding of basic raid, so i've got nothing to add there. That said, i do have some anecdotal information. I wanted performance and reliability. So i chose a pair of enterprise grade drives (Western Digital Raptors) that were fast (10k RPM) and ran them in raid 0. I ALWAYS made sure i had copious amounts of cooling on these drives and have NEVER had a problem with them. This was almost 5 years ago and i'm still using them today.

[Admin]

Sorry to bust your bubble, but the WD Raptors are not enterprise grade hardware. They're damn fast drives though.

[Admin]

Can you describe the problems you've had with programs installing data into the "Program Files" folder? Is it to do with games?

[Admin]

Mostly games, yes. But I think ~300GB should be enough. I'm thinking about going with a 300GB 10K rpm drive for program files and one 1TB drive for data.

[Paul McMillan]

Cloud solution is not viable for anyone with real amounts of data.

[TM.]

True that RAID 1 is not a backup, but, on the other hand, RAID 0 actually doubles your chance of losing the data on your drive.

[Robert Munteanu]

It's much more than that - see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_RAID_levels#RAID_0_failure_ra‌​te

[Zoredache]

It is very rare to actually get a 2x performance increase with RAID0