Best sofware RAID?

[ou_phidelt]

This is going to be for a home server. Hardware RAID is out of the question due to costs. My initial thought was to go with whats familiar and that would be an E1200 with an ICH10R/ICH9R motherboard. The only thing that keeps me from it is the AMD BE-4850e with its 45W TDP. I need matx, 6 SATA, and RAID 5. From a quick look at newegg that is only possible with nvidia based boards. My experience from Intel board with Nvidia chipsets mixed with RAID has not been good. Is the story the same on the AMD side?

[Firestrider]

Hardware raid on AMD SB750 is pretty good and supports RAID-5

Here's a bench: http://www.ocforums.com/showpost.php?p=5863048&postcount=72

That being said I think the best software raid is mdadm in Linux.


EDIT: Wow I can't find any SB750 motherboards that are matx.

[ou_phidelt]

Hardware raid on AMD SB750 is pretty good and supports RAID-5

Here's a bench: http://www.ocforums.com/showpost.php?p=5863048&postcount=72

That being said I think the best software raid is mdadm in Linux.


EDIT: Wow I can't find any SB750 motherboards that are matx.

Yep, that is the problem. The only RAID 5 matx AMD boards I can find are Geforce 8100/8200/8300. But I think I jumped the gun a bit. It turns out WHS uses its own storage format and you do not use, nor need, on board RAID. So now I am back to my Intel vs. AMD debate. But that is for another thread I suppose.

[JCLW]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131336 ?

[unrlmth]

From what I've heard, using the onboard RAID works well but to get a good performing RAID5 setup you really need to get a card.

[MR-FIX-IT]

welcome to the MATRIX. ICH10R or the 9R

[ou_phidelt]

I have used and loved matrix RAID in my desktops before but it will not work in this implemention. After I posted this thread I have learned that with windows home server you have two options. One is use its built(into the OS) in raid and the second it to use a dedicated card, the motherboard built in raid is not an option. While I would love a dedicated card $200-$300 for a card is not an option. Now I am just looking for a completely stable motherboard, preferably with decent OC options for underclocking but more importantly at a good price. I am now starting to think that the 45w AMD chip will be a better option but am still investigating things.

[fritzman]

I wouldn't entirely give up on the dedicated card idea if I were you just yet. The huge advantage is the ability to move your (raid5) drive as-is to a completely different system later. Try doing that with WHS.

[ou_phidelt]

I wouldn't entirely give up on the dedicated card idea if I were you just yet. The huge advantage is the ability to move your (raid5) drive as-is to a completely different system later. Try doing that with WHS.

What would you recommend for a decent price? I would want RAID 5 and preferably 6 ports for easy of upgrading the array. I don't need top end throughput as it is just for streaming media.

[JCLW]

How much space do you need? I would highly recommend a RAID 1 array over a RAID 5 array just because of the simplicity. If you have problems you can just plug the drives into any SATA port and get your data.

I'm not familiar with Windows Home Server - Why can't you use ICH RAID?

[JCLW]

Just did some searching - It seems that you can use ICH RAID, but MS doesn't recommended it.

Set up your RAID array in BIOS like normal, and then feed WHS some intel Server 2003 drivers when it asks for them.

[ou_phidelt]

How much space do you need? I would highly recommend a RAID 1 array over a RAID 5 array just because of the simplicity. If you have problems you can just plug the drives into any SATA port and get your data.

I'm not familiar with Windows Home Server - Why can't you use ICH RAID?

Assuming I can talk the wife into it $ wise I want to do 3x1TB. Otherwise I may just do 2x1TB.

[fritzman]

What would you recommend for a decent price? I would want RAID 5 and preferably 6 ports for easy of upgrading the array. I don't need top end throughput as it is just for streaming media.

I would be grabbing a used 3-ware or an Areca (like this one http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=580832) and running Raid5 with 3 drives. That way if a drive drops out, you still have your data still alive, well and functioning. Replace the ailing drive and it rebuilds itself.

I have not actually used Areca cards myself, but from what I've read... I know I would love to. 3Ware seem to be more readily available (to me anyway) and I have used two different ones, and have been impressed with both.

Yes, it's a bit more of a cost up front, but then you can buy whatever mATX board you liked your array is completely 'stand-alone' in the event of upgrading, etc.

Hope that helps clarify and not cloud.

[ou_phidelt]

fritz I completely agree with you but unfortunately I can't spend $300 on a RAID card, I simply can't afford it. After some more searching I am looking at this board (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121358) and this case (http://www.chenbro.com/corporatesite/products_detail.php?serno=100).

[fritzman]

fritz I completely agree with you but unfortunately I can't spend $300 on a RAID card, I simply can't afford it. After some more searching I am looking at this board (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121358) and this case (http://www.chenbro.com/corporatesite/products_detail.php?serno=100).

Totally understand.

That board looks great for what you want it to do man. And the case... looks awesome. Those drive-bays look very nice indeed.

Will you run the drives in Raid 5 or leave them to WHS?

[ou_phidelt]

Yeah I came across that case last night and it was love at first site. Upon investigating the available ITX it made my choice pretty simple, either Intel or Jetway. An absolutely perfect made in heaven match is this (http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/16/gigabyte-intros-churchill-mini-dtx-motherboard/) board but I can't find anything on it. All I can find is news releases from when it was announced but nothing where it was actually released.

Probably leave them in WHS. For this amount of data I will go with Microsoft's recommendation against going with ICH RAID. It's their OS so I'll trust them on it, they have had enough issues the way it is.

[MR-FIX-IT]

Personally I would do OS RAID if it can do it. Less headaches and HD resyncing is done on the fly if anything should happen. Since its only streaming video and or audio, your bottle neck at this point would be your network topology. Wireless is only 54Mb/s or 6.7MB a sec, which is textbook. Most likely you'll get in the neighborhood of 4MB/s if you have WPA/2 turned on. And wired is 12.5MB a sec. and gigabit is 125MB a sec. (Theoretically) Sometimes it does not pay to re-invent the wheel.

If need be, XP can have 10 concurrent connections to any single share, and could be a "server" too. And you would not be bound to home server features / flaws.

[noegruts]

Just did some searching - It seems that you can use ICH RAID, but MS doesn't recommended it.

Set up your RAID array in BIOS like normal, and then feed WHS some intel Server 2003 drivers when it asks for them.

I've been running Windows Home Server on a RAID 5 on my ICH9R-equipped ASUS P5K-E motherboard with no problems for almost a year now.

MS doesn't recommend it because one of the key selling points of WHS is the "Drive Expander" technology, which competes with RAID.

[ou_phidelt]

The WHS debate keeps getting more and more interesting. I need to go visit google and find a WHS forum.

[ou_phidelt]

I ended up going AMD with a Foxconn motherboard (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813186141) and a LE-1150. I am going with WHS and try its RAID implementation. Main reason being is I couldn't resist the $120 1.5TB at newegg but can't afford two at the moment. I'll pick another up after Christmas.

[Khemikal]

Let me know how this build turns out for you. I have been wanting to finally get all the media off my working desktop and onto a server so I can get to it from all my machines (my laptop and my g/f can access it from hers as well). Having my game machine double up as a server has worked for years but now it is time to do things correctly with a dedicated rig and raid. I would cry if anything happened to my hard drives right now since they aren't in raid and I have no way to backup my data right now.

[Mr.Guvernment]

raid 5 onboard is going to suck, so if you dont mind the massive performance kill your going to get, go nuts!

[ou_phidelt]

raid 5 onboard is going to suck, so if you dont mind the massive performance kill your going to get, go nuts!

I am going to use WHS' quasi RAID. Starting off its just going to be a single 1.5TB drive. I went a little crazy on the kids for Christmas so my tech spending has been cut back a bit for this month. I'll add a couple more after the holidays.

[JCLW]

Southbridge RAID 5 is most likely still faster then his network setup.

[ou_phidelt]

Southbridge RAID 5 is most likely still faster then his network setup.

Probably but it doesn't really matter. All it is going to be doing for the most part is streaming to my 360. It will serve some other back-up duties but nothing intensive. The network is just a Linksys WRT54GL running tomato. It will be wired to the server and wireless to everything else, two notebooks and one desktop. For large files I'll plug up my notebook but it will be primarily wireless.