First time RAID

Hi,

Well i'm planing on getting a new computer for myself, and i started thinking abotu RAID, since i'll probably be getting a Hitachi 320Gb 16MB HDD because i can get it for 100$, i thought why not get 2 of these and try to do a RAID 0 configuration.

Now since i don't know a lot abotu this i was thinking, how much will i even get, i mean will it be that much faster that i'll just go, WOW...
And is it less reliable than just having 2 drive separate?

Oh yes, i also have a few questions i saw in the book i got with the mobo, it says something about choosing the block size or something?

Is there any guide or general size i should use?

And about the drivers, do i really have to push that F6 every time i reinstall windows, i mean am i just loading the drivers for windows to install, or do i have to make the entire array again?


Thanx

Usually with Raid0 you will see a big difference in some applications and not such a big difference in others.

I personally prefer two separate drives as it gives me a backup medium in the case of a disk problem.

Never have I seen so dramatic a difference with Raid 0 that I felt I needed it. If games load a tad slower then its ok with me. Gameplay generally will not change.

I would consider Raid 0 less reliable over two separate drives in that if one of the drives in the raid goes bad you lose everything.. At least with two separate drives if one goes bad you have whatever data on the other.

I have always gone with the default block size. I think that lower sizes are better if you know you will have lots and lots of small files. Your probably better off just leaving it at the default

Chances are you will always need to hit F6 to load the raid controller driver. Especially if its an on board controller. Brand name add in controllers may have drivers on the OS disk. Try not hitting F6 and if your raid shows up then you should be ok. However if it does work with the OS driver it may be an older driver.

OK, so i guess i won't see any huge improvement... and that's bad because i kinda can't decide should i get 3 Gb of RAM, or 2 HDD's and make a RAID...

I'll see what kind of price i can get on the drives and then i'll decide

Thanx