Raid 0 Setup Recommendation

[BillyBobSenna]

I have the following gear:

- Z790 Maximus Hero

- 1 Samsung 980 2 TB

- 2 Samsung 990 4 TB

- RTX 4090

- ASUS 10Gb/s Ethernet Card

How would you configure on my MB to optimize performance? I was thinking the 980 is in m.2_1 and the 2 990’s are in m.2_2 and m.2_3 setup as Raid 0. 980 would be the boot drive. The Ethernet card is in PCEEX16(G4). No need to use the Hyper m.2 card?

[achugh · Accepted solution]

Hi @BillyBobSenna 

Yes, that is how I would give it a try because I believe the use of 4090 will cover your PCIEX16(G5)_2 would get obstructed and not available for use to install your 10 Gb/s Ethernet Card.

I am assuming you have the 980 PRO version which support GEN 4 speeds since the 980 Gen 3 speed only goes up to 1 TB.

Why are you trying to install a RAID 0? For most consumer use, you can simply setup a Windows Backup feature to automatically copy the data between 2 drives. This will be much more faster and portable (in case your PC goes bad or you need to copy the drive from this PC to another PC; it will work properly). With RAID it is always recommended to test that you can recover your data. Just because you are using RAID to protect data does not mean you have the means to recover this data in case of CPU or motherboard failure. Enterprise RAID cards come with specialized hardware software ways to store the RAID configuration so your RAID can be recovered on another system in case of a system failure. This is not something that is highly talked about as most of the discussion you will find is around drive failure where you are replacing the bad drive in the same system hence everything works. I learned the hard way so sharing here for you before you really commit to consumer grade RAID. Always run a failure test to ensure you can recover your data in both case i.e. drive failure and system failure.

I hope this helps and good luck with your setup.

EDITED on 1-Nov-2024: Corrected the mistake with regards to RAID 0 by striking through incorrect information.

[BillyBobSenna · Accepted solution]

Thank you for the reply. Yes, I have the 980 Pro drive. Regarding the RAID 0, maybe I am confused. I thought RAID 0 was to make 1 large drive? That is my motivation for the RAID.

[JohnAb]

Achugh raises an important point. if you want to use Raid 0 with two 4TB drives, then you'll get 8TB of storage at 2x the read and write speeds. That can be a good thing, but be aware that there is no failure tolerance.

If either drive fails, then the data is gone, so you need another way of backing up 8TB of data in case of failure. You could, of course, as a minimum use an external 8TB drive for that if you wish and run a backup regularly. There are plenty of good and free data synchronisation tools like FreeFileSynch.

I'd recommend having a careful think about whether you really want speed or data safety.  In my case, I use two encrypted HDDs for my data which are synchronised daily (no RAID). Then I backup to an external HD (kept in a fireproof safe, also encrypted) and finally I backup to a NAS in another part of the house weekly (also encrypted). My data is still at risk if the entire house burns down, but I do at least save my password database to the cloud, so at least I wouldn't lose access to banking or other important web services. For me, the risk is acceptable, but ideally I should still have a total off-site backup. At least the encryption  means that in the case of theft my data cannot be accessed. 

Worth having a good think about the best strategy for your situation... in my spare time I help people with PC problems and it's amazing how many people have no data backups whatsoever!

[BillyBobSenna]

Thanks for your comments. I get it. There is a lot to be said about keep is simple.

I have an external NAS with 40 TB of storage with the ability of 1 disk failure without data lose. The 10gb/s network card goes in my system is connected to a high-speed switch and my NAS also includes a 10gb/s connection.

The reason I wanted to setup in an array was to have 1 large disk. Speed is an added bonus. I would you the space for photos. I shoot motorsports with Nikon Z8 cameras and take about 80,000 shots over a season. I like having the current season on SSD's while I am actively editing.

I think in the end I could be ok with 2 4TB drives instead of 1 8TB drive.

[JohnAb]

Then it sounds like a good plan. If you have a NAS for backups, go for it and have fun!

PS Nikon Z8 - very nice

[achugh]

Hi @BillyBobSenna you are correct. RAID 0 is to combine drives. Sorry, I got confused with RAID 1 (Mirroring). Thanks for correcting me.