4 HD in Raid?

Nikolai · August 17th, 2007

Hey Guys,
I was talking to this guy the other day and he said he got this external box that holds 4 x 500gb harddrives, and they are arranged in Raid with stripping for optimum performance , and it plugs into his motherboards via a single SATA cable.
My question is, is 4 harddrives in such a configuration faster then if you put it in 2 harddrives in raid with striping?
Also, is this external box going to cause problems or slow things down rather then if each harddrive was plugged into the motherboard in the case?
thanks

**Hitman** · August 18th, 2007

4 X 500 GB HDs in RAID 0 is a bad Idea IMHO. Yes it will perform faster but as you stated it's in an external configuration, so any speed (Which isn't that much BTW) that would be gained would be negated. The drives would perform faster on the MoBo. With RAID 0 you increase your chances of data loss. If one of those bad boys fail, you loose 2 terabytes of storage. Not exactly the easiest to back up. Now if it was in a RAID 5 that would be better, because then you would have redundancy. When it comes to mass storage, speed isn't as important as stability. I would see if this configuration offers other RAID types. I am assuming it has it's own RAID controller, so it might offer more then just RAID 0.

Lead Head · August 18th, 2007

An external box that has 4 RAIDed HDs, and plugs into the motherboard with a single eSATA cable? I would think the controller inside the box would have quite a bit of overhead converting 4 HD SATA connections into 1, and then why would you want to limit the bandwidth more with just one cable? It would be better to have your HDDs inside your case, directly connected to the motherboard.

Nikolai · August 18th, 2007

Hey Guys,
Thanks for the info,
appearantly he said that he configured his setup, the 4 x 500gb harddrives in a Raid -1 (minus 1) configuration ..... does this make any difference for performance, safety or speed?

**Hitman** · August 18th, 2007

Ok either you're misunderstanding this guy, or he doesn't know what he is talking about. There is no such thing as a RAID -1. If he has 4 hard drives then he is probably running RAID 0+1. Which is stripping (RAID 0) 2 Drives, then Mirroring (RAID 1) those 2 drives on 2 other drives.

This Guide should explain RAID a little better.

August 17th, 2007	#1
Nikolai I hate my dell pc Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 44	4 HD in Raid? Hey Guys, I was talking to this guy the other day and he said he got this external box that holds 4 x 500gb harddrives, and they are arranged in Raid with stripping for optimum performance , and it plugs into his motherboards via a single SATA cable. My question is, is 4 harddrives in such a configuration faster then if you put it in 2 harddrives in raid with striping? Also, is this external box going to cause problems or slow things down rather then if each harddrive was plugged into the motherboard in the case? thanks

August 18th, 2007	#2
Hitman Functional Alcoholic Join Date: May 2006 Location: 14S E:561116 N:3830189 Posts: 4,387 Blog Entries: 2	Re: 4 HD in Raid? 4 X 500 GB HDs in RAID 0 is a bad Idea IMHO. Yes it will perform faster but as you stated it's in an external configuration, so any speed (Which isn't that much BTW) that would be gained would be negated. The drives would perform faster on the MoBo. With RAID 0 you increase your chances of data loss. If one of those bad boys fail, you loose 2 terabytes of storage. Not exactly the easiest to back up. Now if it was in a RAID 5 that would be better, because then you would have redundancy. When it comes to mass storage, speed isn't as important as stability. I would see if this configuration offers other RAID types. I am assuming it has it's own RAID controller, so it might offer more then just RAID 0.

August 18th, 2007	#3
Lead Head Join Date: May 2006 Location: Rhode Island USA Posts: 1,716	Re: 4 HD in Raid? An external box that has 4 RAIDed HDs, and plugs into the motherboard with a single eSATA cable? I would think the controller inside the box would have quite a bit of overhead converting 4 HD SATA connections into 1, and then why would you want to limit the bandwidth more with just one cable? It would be better to have your HDDs inside your case, directly connected to the motherboard. Opteron 64 165--1.5GB DDR--ECS KA1 MVP(thanks HL!)--x1800GTO 256MB--Seagate 320GB SATA--Antec 550 Watt--Antec P180

August 18th, 2007	#4
Nikolai I hate my dell pc Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 44	Re: 4 HD in Raid? Hey Guys, Thanks for the info, appearantly he said that he configured his setup, the 4 x 500gb harddrives in a Raid -1 (minus 1) configuration ..... does this make any difference for performance, safety or speed?

August 18th, 2007	#5
Hitman Functional Alcoholic Join Date: May 2006 Location: 14S E:561116 N:3830189 Posts: 4,387 Blog Entries: 2	Re: 4 HD in Raid? Ok either you're misunderstanding this guy, or he doesn't know what he is talking about. There is no such thing as a RAID -1. If he has 4 hard drives then he is probably running RAID 0+1. Which is stripping (RAID 0) 2 Drives, then Mirroring (RAID 1) those 2 drives on 2 other drives. This Guide should explain RAID a little better. Last edited by Hitman; August 18th, 2007 at 22:18.

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