- Mar 13, 2010
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A few years back I switched from a bunch of random external USB drives to a proper RAID5 setup in a synology NAS box. It's exactly what I wanted, a simple and reliable assistant that does everything for me so no chance of the user (me) fucking something up and breaking the entire array. It's saved me once already however a drive in my computer case itself failed recently, pointing out an obvious hole in my redundancy. I've been thinking of replacing my 2 remaining 2TB drives in my case to a 2x 4TB RAID1 setup just in case of drive failure.
The question then is, what is the best route to take from here? On board Intel RAID, using the Marvell chip (GA-Z87X-UD5H), software based, or a dedicated RAID controller?
I was leaning towards buying a dedicated RAID controller purely to avoid headaches when the inevitable time comes that Intel tells me I need a new motherboard just for a new CPU...
However searching through these forums a bit it seems most are fine with Intel's build in RAID controller and even software RAID. This surprised me quite a bit, especially software RAID as that seems to me to be a recipe for headaches with software acting up and the inevitable upgrade. What happens when you decide to reinstall windows for example? How does the software recognize which drive is what after a format?
Wouldn't a hardware based solution be far simpler? The same question applies to hardware based, what happens when I replace my motherboard and turn on Intel RAID on the new motherboard? Does it recognize the drives as being a RAID volume or will it just format it and present me with a fresh RAID1 volume? :hmm:
Would a dedicated RAID controller card avoid this issue, as in, do those cards store the RAID setup independently of the motherboard/OS?
In the future I might migrate to RAID5 if the upcoming RAID1 setup proves successful, so obviously the setup has to be compatible with RAID5 and a simple automated software backup every week isn't preferable.
Thanks for any help you can give me.
The question then is, what is the best route to take from here? On board Intel RAID, using the Marvell chip (GA-Z87X-UD5H), software based, or a dedicated RAID controller?
I was leaning towards buying a dedicated RAID controller purely to avoid headaches when the inevitable time comes that Intel tells me I need a new motherboard just for a new CPU...
However searching through these forums a bit it seems most are fine with Intel's build in RAID controller and even software RAID. This surprised me quite a bit, especially software RAID as that seems to me to be a recipe for headaches with software acting up and the inevitable upgrade. What happens when you decide to reinstall windows for example? How does the software recognize which drive is what after a format?
Wouldn't a hardware based solution be far simpler? The same question applies to hardware based, what happens when I replace my motherboard and turn on Intel RAID on the new motherboard? Does it recognize the drives as being a RAID volume or will it just format it and present me with a fresh RAID1 volume? :hmm:
Would a dedicated RAID controller card avoid this issue, as in, do those cards store the RAID setup independently of the motherboard/OS?
In the future I might migrate to RAID5 if the upcoming RAID1 setup proves successful, so obviously the setup has to be compatible with RAID5 and a simple automated software backup every week isn't preferable.
Thanks for any help you can give me.