Got the box, need the RAID

[IBM]

Got a little box downstairs, couple of Raptors on RAID 0, running XP. It's not being used at all, so wanted to convert it to a NAS. Wanted some suggestions on the best way to go about it.....RAID 5 looked like a nice way to go, three 500GB disks and off you go. But seeing as the network is going to be the bottleneck, followed by the processor (Athlon 3400+), is there any point to RAID 5?

Plus, if the Raptors (the oldest part of the machine) were the first to go, I wouldn't want to be running software RAID, so what's the cost of a RAID card for whatever setup works best?

Thanks for all the info

[aidanjt]

It's more than enough to do RAID5. The biggest bottleneck will be your NIC. Software RAID will do as long as you mirror the raptors if you're worried about them dying, although they'll likely outlast your 500GB disks.

[IBM]

So I could put the raptors in RAID 1, and any additional disks on RAID 5?

What options are there for RAID software, and is there going to be any problems running software RAID with an Athlon 3400+?

Just thinking that since I don't really require much in the way of storage at the moment (500Gb will do me for the moment) is RAID 5 really necessary, or would I be better off just sticking with RAID 1?

[aidanjt]

RAID1 is fine. Either way you don't have to worry about disk death nuking all your stuff.

[peterb]

If you are going to use Linux as the OS for your NAS box, the native MDADM software RAID is reputed to be reliable - and is mobo and chipset independent.

The Software-RAID HOWTO

Gives a very thorough introduction, however it is dated and some of the specific information is out of date - the theory and principles are fine though.

[Agent]

followed by the processor (Athlon 3400+)

There is no way in hell that a AMD 3400+ is going to be the bottleneck for a simple RAID 5 array

Dedicated hardware is always nice, but people forget how powerful those CPU's are

[FifthFreedom]

RAID 5 is usually overkill unless you got a whole bunch of drives going for 2 reasons:

1) You loose the capacity of one drive in the Array (So if you have 3 x 500Gb drives you only get 1TB storage)

2) You need to have spare disks lying around for the system to be effective (as if one drive goes, you can't afford to wait weeks for a replacement in case another dies...)

My advice, go with a simple RAID 1...

With RAID arrays the best thing is just to keep it as simple as possible...

[aidanjt]

1) you lose capacity of one drive in the array even with RAID1
2) same applies for RAID1 as well

RAID5 can also take new disks for storage on the fly.

That said, mirroring will do for the OP since he reckons his storage needs aren't that great.

[IBM]

So what's the advice on software, anybody got any cheap options that are worth using?

If you are going to use Linux as the OS for your NAS box...

Going to be running XP...

[aidanjt]

Meh, XP. Well if you want to go that way, just use the onboard BIOS RAID that's present in most modern motherboards. You'll need a floppy disk to load the RAID drivers off, or slipstream the drivers onto a disc using nLite. XP Pro has a purely software RAID option but it's rubbish.