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Cheap raid system
Hi anyone. Just need a little help figuring out a cheaper raid system. Firstly, right now I have a 1tb drive (main drive for programs etc..), and I have for my 2nd drive a 2tb drive (both drives the stock Serial ATA’s). I would like to add (2) more 2tb hard drives (different brand from macsales.com) to fill all bays.
Questions: If I’m going to raid 0 my 2nd 3rd and 4th drives together, do they all need to have the same capacity (eg all need to be 1tb drives or all need to be 2tb drives)?
Next question: is it ok to mix with different hard drive brands together (eg https://eshop.macsales.com/item/Hitachi/0S02861/ with my stocked hard drives?
Thanks….
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8 Replies
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[Rob Fourchalk] “Questions: If I’m going to raid 0 my 2nd 3rd and 4th drives together, do they all need to have the same capacity (eg all need to be 1tb drives or all need to be 2tb drives)?”
Technically no; in reality yes. The portion of the drive used for RAID has to be the same – the excess capacity (if any) can be used elsewhere in theory but in reality it rarely happens or makes sense.
[Rob Fourchalk] “Next question: is it ok to mix with different hard drive brands together (eg Hitachi 0S02861) with my stocked hard drives?”
It’s being done w/o problems (I have yet to hear of any) but rarely recommended: you may run into problems in some rare cases.
Alex (DV411)
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Thanks for your response Alex. Lastly, in a raid set up as I described with my number 2, 3 and 4 drive Raiding at 0, what role does my number 1 drive have in relationship to raiding 2-4 drives. Is it not included in the raid set up? Or must I include it but then it wouldn’t work out as that main 1st drive is only 1tb (when I want to go with 2tb for drive 3 and 4 – drive 2 is already 2tb).
Thanks….
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Don’t include it. (I don’t know what your system, OS and RAID controller/ chip/ software is/are but the answer is still right. :))
Alex (DV411)
P.S. Nice pic Rob!!! Good to have happy faces on the forum… 🙂
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I’m gonna bug you one more time Alex (and thanks for the thumbs up on the mug shot), I’m looking at these 2 particular hard drives: https://eshop.macsales.com/item/Hitachi/0S02861/ and https://eshop.macsales.com/item/Hitachi/0F12115/ …. Could I please ask you for you opinion as to which would be better? They seem the exact same drive but…??? I am going the cheaper route but if either of these drives are ok then I’m ok with it…..
PS – I don’t have any raid card etc.. on my 2010 mac pro 8 core. Will be using the utility software that it comes with to raid.
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These two are exact same drives – one “retail” (in a box), the other one “bare”. For some inexplicable reason (anyone?) that I haven’t googled yet, the retail one sells for less than the bare one. Go with the cheaper one.
Alex (DV411)
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10-4…sincerely thanks for your prompt replies….
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Glad to help. Check out Newegg prices just in case. They are crazy – lower than my distributor prices.
Alex (DV411)
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Rob,
If you have 3Gb/s drives, don’t mix them with 6Gb/s SATA drives, you’ll be asking for problems. The cache memory is different as well as the performance.
Jonathan Schilling | Sales & Marketing Manager
RAIDON-USA Technology
STARDOM Storage by RAIDON
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City of Industry, CA 91746
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