[oc jason]

Well i RMA'ed my 8k3a and ordered the 8k3a+ RAID version. But i have never used RAID and alrady have a 60 gig HD that i use now. It has only 19 gig left for storage that will be filled id say before next year. Now i am wondering what to do, either get a 2nd 60 gig drive to RAID 0 it and have a 120gig drive, form 2 seperate 60 giggers, or buy a single 120gig Drive and drag all my data to that. My questions are

1. How hard is RAID to setup, if i use it, it will be 60gx2= 1 120g drive.

2. How often does it fail?
3. Does it hold up to a high FSB the same as one single drive would.

4. Is 2 60 gig 7200rpm signifigantly faster than a 120gig 7200rpm, or just a bit faster?

I ask this b/c i got he + version and i might as well use the + feature, but i got it to ensure a rev 1.2 board is basically why. Also it will cost less to get a 2nd 60 gig instead of a totally new 120 gig at a $200 price.

And can i set up RAID 0 if i get a 2nd 60 gig drive as 1 120 gig drive if i still have files on the 60 gigger. I can format BOTh OS partitions and just reinstall but i DO NOT wanna have to delete 50 gigs of stuff just to setup RAID..so do both drivres have to be totally clean or can i get it to add the 2 drive sizes together when i choose to install 3rd party RAID drivers in the OS setup. I think ill just do a single boot using WinXp Pro.

[nikhsub1]

Originally posted by oc jason
Well i RMA'ed my 8k3a and ordered the 8k3a+ RAID version. But i have never used RAID and alrady have a 60 gig HD that i use now. It has only 19 gig left for storage that will be filled id say before next year. Now i am wondering what to do, either get a 2nd 60 gig drive to RAID 0 it and have a 120gig drive, form 2 seperate 60 giggers, or buy a single 120gig Drive and drag all my data to that. My questions are

1. How hard is RAID to setup, if i use it, it will be 60gx2= 1 120g drive.

2. How often does it fail?
3. Does it hold up to a high FSB the same as one single drive would.

4. Is 2 60 gig 7200rpm signifigantly faster than a 120gig 7200rpm, or just a bit faster?

I ask this b/c i got he + version and i might as well use the + feature, but i got it to ensure a rev 1.2 board is basically why. Also it will cost less to get a 2nd 60 gig instead of a totally new 120 gig at a $200 price.

And can i set up RAID 0 if i get a 2nd 60 gig drive as 1 120 gig drive if i still have files on the 60 gigger. I can format BOTh OS partitions and just reinstall but i DO NOT wanna have to delete 50 gigs of stuff just to setup RAID..so do both drivres have to be totally clean or can i get it to add the 2 drive sizes together when i choose to install 3rd party RAID drivers in the OS setup. I think ill just do a single boot using WinXp Pro.

1. It is simple to set up the raid --> you do it when you install windows.
2. You have 2x the chances of raid0 failing than a single drive, if one drive dies, kiss all data bye-bye.
3. Yes it holds up to high FSB like a single drive
4. Well that depends on the exact drive models you are talking about. 2 shoddy 60 giggers in raid0 may not be faster than the WD 8MB cache. 2 new Maxtors or IBM 120GXP's would be.

If you decide to raid, you should have a third drive for back-up. When you set up the raid0, all data WILL BE ERASED, no way around that unless you go raid1.

[Holst]

I dont (and probably never will) run Raid 0 on my system.

I know several friends who have lost everything due to a collapsed array.

Plus it often seems to be difficult to get a big performance increase, especially if your two drives arnt identical.

If I was you id keep your current drive seperate.

If you decide Raid is worth a shot get two fast identical drives and install windows onto them (make them the boot partion)
Then use your current drive as backup for the raid drives. Using norton ghost that was supplied with your board will be the simplest way.

Then if the array does collapse you will be able to recover easily (in theory)

Sometimes a Raid array is more seceptable to corruption due to high FSB running, I havent heard of any specific 8k3a+ problems, but its something to bear in mind.

[nikhsub1]

Originally posted by Holst

Sometimes a Raid array is more seceptable to corruption due to high FSB running, I havent heard of any specific 8k3a+ problems, but its something to bear in mind.

This is not true, it runs on the same Bus so no difference.

[Holst]

Originally posted by nikhsub1

This is not true, it runs on the same Bus so no difference.

A raid 0 array is inherantly more fragile than a single HDD, so the risk of damage is increased.
Some of this will depend on the implementation and design of the raid on the board, a friend of mine had an asus board that would corrupt the raid array at high FSB, with the drives on the same controller without raid there were less problems (although he still had corruption if he increased the fsb even further) this was due to the design of the raid being less robust.

It may be the the 8k3a+ wont have this problem at high FSB, I havent seen anybody complaining about it yet. But its something to take into consideration.