HDD and RAID setup questions

[-slash-]

Ok so I read the sticky up top a few times and figured out that I will most likely use a RAID 1 setup. I have 3 HDD's. One already has vista and XP on it and I will use it for my OS disk. It is a 7200rpm 400gb WD caviar 8mb cache. Now my RAID disks will be 2 500Gb 7200rpm WD caviars 16mb cache. All 3 are SATA drives.

My big question is will this setup work. Ive never done RAID before. Having a single drive for my OS and then my RAID setup for the storage should work correct? I assume I can just use my mobo's RAID software and not a RAID card because I am only running a 2 disk RAID 1 setup.

Also I chose RAID 1 because this is a gaming rig and I will play games that are large files but in the games it reads lots of small files like sound clips etc (Counterstrike, TF2, etc.) so i think RAID 1 would be best. Correct?

Total newb at RAID setup so thanks for any and all responses:up:

[jas420221]

Yes it will work...your mobo has an onboard raid controller...Raid1 is just redundency. It wont run any faster its just there to save data. You want speed, raid0.

[-slash-]

Ok so raid 0 then. Thanks for the quick response. SO i shouldnt run into any hickups with raid 0 even though the game will mainly be using small files while playing?

[Lloyd]

YES it will work, As Jas says RAID 1 is just a mirror of the first drive so 2x 500GB drives become just 500GB as the second drive is an exact duplicate of the first.
You want RAID 0 for speed.
How are u gonna run things? os on the single drive and apps and games on the raid0 array?
Myself i'd install the os, apps and games on the raid0 array (basically anything you want to run as quickly as pos) and have a backup of files etc on the single - just my 2 pence worth

What w/c parts are u looking at geting?

[jas420221]

YES it will work, As Jas says RAID 1 is just a mirror of the first drive so 2x 500GB drives become just 500GB as the second drive is an exact duplicate of the first.
You want RAID 0 for speed.
How are u gonna run things? os on the single drive and apps and games on the raid0 array?
Myself i'd install the os, apps and games on the raid0 array (basically anything you want to run as quickly as pos) and have a backup of files etc on the single - just my 2 pence worth:yepp: :up:

[adamsleath]

i agree with the above; but i'd also have another os installed on your backup drive. :); it cant hurt to be safe....so in other words keep your existing system/s as a backup drive, and use that new RAID0 system:D

i spose you'll have to go into bios and set raid option on the nvidia chipset for sata, and frig around with drivers....:shrug: ive only done it with the f6 option & a floppy during windows install of xp (nforce4 board/ silicon image raid chipset)
depends whether the RAID drivers are in your os bootdisk or not.

[-slash-]

Well i was planning on keeping my single drive with the 2 OS's on it as they are already on there and using the RAID 0 array for all my app's. That way if i lose it my OS's are still safe! And yes i will be using my MSI mobo's RAID drivers for it, hope this goes over well:ROTF:.

And for watercooling i was going to get a kit from Petra. Most likely the $260 one for cpu cooling.:D