1 500GB drive vs S/W RAID 0 with 2x250GB

[Chupa Chupa]

What would Steve Jobs Do? I do a daily backup so I'm not too worried about HD failure in the RAID. But in a S/W RAID 0 is there an appreciable performance increase compared to a single 500GB drive to justify taking up an extra HD slot. I am using enterprise grade Seagate drives in either setup.

Drives will be in a stock MP.

[mattkime]

if the 250s are as likely to fail as the 500, then you've doubled your chance of losing data due to drive failure.

but if you make frequent backups then it shouldn't be a big deal to lose a drive. still, i wouldn't do it with a boot drive.

[clay]

I'd say it depends what you're going to be using the drive(s) for. If you're doing video work where render times would be helped by a fast array, then go for it. If you're just storing a ton of Word documents or photos or music, then I'd say go for the single disk option. The speedup will be noticeable, but whether it's actually usable in your setup depends on what you're going to be using it for.

good luck

[AAA]

DROBO

[mattkime]

>>DROBO

oooph. i'm running one and very happy with it but its not a fast device. it doesn't intend to be.

[M A V I C]

Depends on the drives, most likely. The 500GB probably performs better than a single 250, but a RAID0 would help, but it being a software RAID0 might negate any performance.

I would stick with the 500 for reliability. I tend to shy away from RAIDs unless they're hardware and with a good controller.

[Mr645]

I love RAID 0 set ups. I use them for boot drives in all my Macs, PowerMac G4 and G5's. Speeds things up like about one step up in CPU. Back ups are important, but I like the speed boost