On Sun, Dec 14, 2008 at 4:32 PM, Grant <emailgr...@gmail.com> wrote: >>>> My desktop currently runs one of these: >>>> >>>> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148140 >>>> >>>> I'm pretty much out of space and I'm trying figure out the best way to >>>> expand. The factors to consider are cost, capacity, speed, noise, and >>>> heat. >>> RAID 0 will be twice as fast as any single drive >> >> I didn't realize that. Maybe I should just buy another drive >> identical to mine and run RAID0. That would be cheap, twice as fast, >> twice the capacity, and with some amount more heat and noise. I have >> a separate backup system so I'm not worried about data loss. > > Thanks a lot everyone. I think I'm going to get a second identical > 320GB drive and run RAID0 for speed and capacity. If noise becomes a > problem I'll insulate as some have suggested. > > My MSI motherboard supposedly has hardware RAID, but after Alan's > scathing evaluation of built-in hardware RAID offerings, I'm thinking > it might be crap. It's just a $75 consumer motherboard. Should I set > up software RAID0? Am I getting into a(nother) big project? > > On another system which must be about 10 years old, I'd like to > replace the IDE hard drive with a high capacity drive. High-capacity > IDE drives are pretty much non-existent on newegg.com, but I'd like to > find one around 500GB. Is moving that system over to the new drive as > simple as plugging it in, partitioning, formatting, copying, and > rebooting? > > - Grant
Grant, I have no direct experience but I was asking some questions on this list recently. One disadvantage of software RAD would be that partition management tools like parted may not (or WILL not) do resizing on a software RAID but will (or should!) on hardware RAID. If you go with software RAID and later decide that a partition needs to be moved, resized, etc., then you may not be able to do it. I would suggest finding a good, if inexpensive, hardware RAID card or possibly play a bit with the RAID stuff on your motherboard to see if parted can work with it. Just some thoughts. Cheers, Mark
