Getting a second hard drive... should I get a RAID controller?

[UWConvoy]

I'll probably soon be getting a second hard drive... probably another Maxtor 40GB 7200rpm. I still have an IDE spot available (I have 1 HD on primary, and a CDRW and DVD-ROM filling the secondary cable), so I was wondering if I could just stick it in as primary slave or would it behoove me to go ahead and get a RAID controller card to use instead? If so, is there a good card for a good price that I should consider?

Thanks in advance for feedback!

[Strawbs]

If you have a 7200rpm or higher HDD as your primary, then you can go ahead and add the new drive to the same cable, but if your current drive is only 5400rpm or lower you would be slowing your new drive to the same speed as your old one, in which case you should get a RAID card or RAID MoBo (possibly cheaper) and don't skimp on the cost (pay now or you usually cry later), go for a name you know i.e. Adaptec or their equal.

[UWConvoy]

My current HD is 7200rpm, so I should be ok, then. Thanks for the info :)

[arthur888]

Why RAID??? Just an extra controller will do fine. It doesn't have to be a RAID controller. RAID is a technology to get more reliability or speed out of two or more drives. For just connecting an other drive the onboard IDE controller should be ok, and if the channels are full a normal IDE controller card (like those Promise Ultra100 cards) works fine.

Greetings

Arthur

[arthur888]

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/sh...html?i=1491&p=1 for info on RAID. (thanx to ND)

[UWConvoy]

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*runs away*

Oh, sorry, these things get to me sometimes :p. Thanks for the advice. I'll just try onboard IDE first then. If that doesn't work, I can just go pick a card up at CompUSA or something.