Question : Problem: RAID recommendation needed for Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 mobo ...

Hello All.

Here's my situation: I have a DQ6 motherboard and two WD Raptor 150 GB , 10000 rpm SATA-I hard disks. I would like to setup the two WDs as fast storage (RAID 0 or possibly RAID 5  -- with an addition Raptor if I go this route). However, I do not want to use the RAID functionality of the mobo because it relies too heavily on the processor. My question are 1) Does it make sense to try a hardware RAID with these hard drives; and , 2) How much additional perforance can be gleaned by using RAID (0 or 5) as opposed to just interfacing each drive to the SATA controllers on the MOBO. I also know I will be giving up capacity of one of the hard drives (for RAID 0), but my ultimate goal is performance for flight simulation software. I have yet to decide what I am using as a system hard drive, but it will be in addition to the two WDs.

I was considering a Promise SuperTrak EX4350 RAID  controller, but need opinions better informed than mine to decide if it's worth the cost.

Answer : Problem: RAID recommendation needed for Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 mobo ...

I guess I would take a little from both arnold and sda100.

First and foremost:  Is the data valuable or can it be rebuil and you take good backups?  That decides the level of raid in many cases.  I don't agree with sda regarding cpu load, software raid is not worth the headaches.  Just look in EE regarding software raid, 9 out of 10 experts will agree.  Flight simulation software tends to hit the CPU pretty heavy too, the last thing you want in software raid.  I wouldn't even consider it.

That said, if you aren't worried about data redundancy because you can replace\re-install the software and you backup your real data regularly, Raid I isn't necessary, leaving Raid 0 (Striping) or Raid V (Need to buy another hard drive - really 2 since if 1 goes you need to rebuild on the spare).  

For what you are doing, I don't believe Raid V is necessary.

So now your options are 1:  Stripe the pair or 2: Use them as separate disk

Option 1:  Striping - While I agree with sda100 that performance is dependant on the block size striped, you can make some assumptions and in my 15 years of experience, striping raid is fast.  Very fast.  I'm not talking 0-15%.  Again, it depends on the application and how disk intensive it is, but it is much faster than regular disk.  It will bring up another level of complexity, as raid always does, and if a drive goes you will lose everything on the disk (goes back to what data is stored there and how important/replaceable is it).

Option 2:  Regular disk.  Easier to manage, you put the swap on the second drive.  You stated that you would have a seperate boot/OS disk.  If so, then you boot off disk #1, put the swap file on the 1st Raptor (disk#2), and put the simulator on the 2nd raptor (Disk#3).  Then the OS, the Swap, and the actual application are all on different disks, using the advantage of 3 disk controllers and 3 disk caches.  

My opinion is start with #2.  They are fast drives.  If that isn't suitable you can always buy the Promise and go that route.  And that is a good controller, I've used Promises before and have used that particular one recently.  It is an easy setup.  Come back to EE if you want to do that and we can talk you though it.

Hope this helps,
jd