Re: H/W RAID 5 on slower disks versus no raid on faster

On Thu, 21 Nov 2002, Rajesh Kumar Mallah. wrote:

>
> Hi folks,
>
> I have two options:
> 3*18 GB 10,000 RPM Ultra160 Dual Channel SCSI controller + H/W Raid 5
> and
> 2*36 GB 15,000 RPM Ultra320 Dual Channel SCSI and no RAID
>
> Does anyone opinions *performance wise* the pros and cons of above
> two options.
>
> please take in consideration in latter case its higher RPM and better
> SCSI interface.

Does the OS you're running on support software RAID? If so the dual 36
gigs in a RAID0 software would be fastest, and in a RAID1 would still be
pretty fast plus they would be redundant.

Depending on your queries, there may not be a lot of difference between
running the 3*18 hw RAID or the 2*36 setup, especially if most of your
data can fit into memory on the server.

Generally, the 2*36 should be faster for writing, and the 3*18 should be
about even for reads, maybe a little faster.