To RAID or not to RAID

[zybch]

I'm getting a couple of 200Gb SATA drives to replace my older 120 IDE ones in a couple of days.
Would it be worthwhile to set them up as a striped RAID array or should I just leave them as 2 seperate drives?

I know having them as a RAID array does increase the probability of data loss, but is the extra performance worth it?
All non-replaceable things (documents, illegal downloads etc) will still be stored on a standard IDE drive.

[Bigjakkstaffa]

In my humble opinion, no. The only cirsumstnces where RAID is necessary are sever/multi-access scenarios.

--Jakk:t

[Midknyte]

this question has been answered many times in the data storage forum

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.html?i=2101

[zybch]

I know that, but I don't like spiders and all the cobwebs in that forum frighten me! :D

What I'm looking at is the speed increase that a striped array can provide. I do a lot of work with video which is why I thought I'd consider it.

[G]

You may want to rethink whether RAID 0 is the best solution for you. RAID is not really for Desktop machines. If you have your mind set on RAID setup consider one that gives data reliability, e.g., RAID 1, 5, 10

If you search Sysopt.com you will find many RAID 0 failures and unrecoverable data unless you have the know how, software and the $s to recover.

Either have RAID with tolerance or go SCSI.

[Someone Stupid]

No.

[zybch]

Originally posted by Someone Stupid
No.

Concice and to the point :)