R.A.I.D. Drive or controller

[MaximusNukeage]

I want to know if i buy 2 normal, basic hard drives and a raid controller will i be able to set up a RAID 1 system? or do i need special RAID hard drives? basically i'm asking is RAID a type of hard drive or can RAID be used on any hard drive, with the proper controller.

P.S. do some mother boards act as raid controllers? E.G. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136157

 

[DoomUK]

No, all desktop PATA and SATA HDD's can be put into a RAID configuration.

 

[MaximusNukeage]

so the hard drives are the same, but they are just being used in a special way? also, what about my motherboard question

 

[mikesgroovin]

Max, simply out of curiousity and of course to provide you with the most efficient solution based on your inquiry, what exactly will you be using this configuration for?

I suppose that my initial concern is that raid1 is extremely inefficient and it's high overhead. Indeed, two similar drives (pata or sata) will work with the proper pata or sata controller. However you will want to make sure that the drives used in this confiruation meet the requirements for your needs.

As for your motherboard question... Yes, most newer mothboards these days provide controllers for your basic, dual drive minimum, Raid configurations (0, 1) and (0+1 if you happen to be blessed with 4 drives). The raid controllers simply integrated rather than added through a slot.

 

[MaximusNukeage]

i just wanted know. i dont really intend to use Raid 1, i'm a gamer and i like the idea of Raid's redundancy and most importantly the ability of merging multiple physical drives into one logical drive. however i realize that the cost to use Raid 1 or 0+1 is very extreme and i dont really 'need' the redundancy.

 

[mikesgroovin]

Well, in that case, I hope we were a help. Being a gamer, I feel you most certainly should look into a SATA RAID controller. Seagate would be your wisest drive choice, in my opinion.

 

[MaximusNukeage]

you did help, thanks guys