Add a small RAID card? Will it help overall stability and performance of my nine hard drives?
- by Ray
Hi,
Will I get any extra genuine added performance and RAID stability if I insert a basic RAID card into a PCI-E x1 slot? I am considering the Adaptec 1220SA - 2 port SATA , pci-express (1x) , raid 0/1. Ok it only supports two SATA drives.
Purpose is to help support the eight internal hard drives (1TB each), a DVD drive and an external e-SATA connected 2TB hard drive - by dealing with two of the internal hard drives.
My current configuration of eight internal 1TB Barracuda (7200.12) SATA hard drives, one external 2TB SATA Western Digital Green Drive (e-SATA) and one DVD drive can already be supported by the Intel P55 & JMicron controllers on the ASUS motherboard :
the Intel P55 (controls six HDD; configured as three x RAID 1), and
the JMicron (controls two HDD as one RAID 1, as well as the DVD drive and the external SATA drive via the motherboard's e-SATA port (controlled by the JMicron)).
Bigger picture details :
I have an ASUS motherboard designed for the LGA1156 type processor and it includes the Intel P55 Express Chipset and JMicron.
I am using the Intel Core i7-870 processor, and have 8GB DDR3 (1333) memory (four x 2GB Corsair DIMMs). Enough overall power.
The power supply is more than sufficicient for the system. Corsair AX850. The system will never need the full 850 watts (future : second graphics card).
The RAID card would provide hardware RAID 1 for two of the eight intrnal drives.
It would either reduce the load on :
the Intel P55 firmware RAID support, or
replace the JMicron controller's RAID 1 set.
I am busy installing the above configuration using Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit as the OS.
The RAID card is a last minute addition to the plan.
Is it worth spending the extra R700 - R900 on the Adaptec 1220SA, or equivalent RAID card?
I cannot afford to spend yet another R2000 - R3000 on a RAID card that would support many SATA2 hard drives, with a better RAID, example the RAID 5.
My Issue & assumption :
I am trusting that the Intel P55 chipset can properly handle six drives, configured as three * RAID 1.
I am assuming that the JMicron can handle, using its RED SATA ports, one RAID-1 (two HDDs).
The DVD drive connects to the JMicron optical SATA port 1 (white port 1).
White port 2 is not used.
The e-SATA connection is from the JMicron straight to, and through the motherboard - to an on-board (rear panel) e-SATA port.
Am I being a little hopeful in only using the on-board Intel P55 and the JMicron?
Is it a waste of money to install a RAID card that handles two SATA2 drives?
OR
Is it wisdom to take the pressure a little off the Intel P55?
Obviously I am interested in data security, hence RAID 1, not RAID Zero.
RAID 5 would be nice.
The CPU, Intel Core i7-870 will provide the clout.
Context to nine drives : I am using virtualisation with Windows 7 Ultimate.
Bootable VMs.
The operating system gets a mirror.
Loaded apps gets a mirror.
The current design data is kept in another mirror and
Another mirror is back-up one and / or VM territory.
Then the external 2TB drive (via e-SATA) is the next layer of data security and then finally, I use off-site data security.
Thanks.
