Need Upgrade Advice

Hello All,

Didn’t see an upgrade category, so I’m posting here. I’m building my next computer and need configuration advice. Historically, I’ve maintained either RAID 5 or RAID 1 to protect myself against data loss. My primary usage is normal computing (MS Office), CAD and rendering HD home movies using Pinnacle Studio and Handbrake. Rendering time is roughly 25 minutes per hour on my current quad-core i7 computer. Want to speed that up while maintaining drive redundancy.

My new computer will have an Asus X99 Pro motherboard and i7-5930K 6-core processor. Thinking of the following config:

  • System: Two 240GB SSD drives in RAID 1 config.
  • Data: Two 3TB mechanical HDDs in RAID 1 config.

Assuming the onboard controller can handle two separate RAID 1 arrays, what is wrong with this config? I’m aware RAID 1 can be a bit slow on the write side, but I run my business off this computer and cannot lose data. Further, I have little faith in partition backup programs – including Windows backup – to quickly get me running again after a crash. I guess worst case could be either single SSD drive for system and RAID 1 data storage OR the opposite.

I welcome your opinion here. Only have one shot at getting this right.

Hello,

Check the link below and compare the different models that suit your need.

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/internal/nas/

Hi Vguitarist,

Rendering is mostly a CPU intensive operation, so by upgrading your CPU and possibly RAM you may be able to render your video faster. RAID is a good way to get redundancy but I would also recommend backing up your data. RAID can only protect against a single failure in those RAID modes. For example if there is an electrical issue or the motherboard is damaged, it could in turn damage both drives and you wouldn’t be able to recover.

There are some people that do RAID SSD’s but I know some are not really designed for RAID use so I would make sure that if you want to RAID them together, check to see what the recommendation is from the manufacturer. For HDD RAID, I would probably recommend WD Red. They are designed for small home RAIDs and NAS environments.

RAID1 can be slow on write performance but there is usually some type of trade-off for redundancy. It is true that sometimes a backup cannot get you up and running quickly but it is more there for peace of mind that your data is stored in a separate location. I’ve used a RAID with redundancy and I still back up my data to a separate external drive for added protection, especially data that is important to me like images and documents.

Hope this helps you out.