Do You Need a Discrete Sound Card?

When the motherboard manufacturers first started to include audio chipsets integrated on their motherboards, everyone accepted it with a very warm welcome. Although flawed with some issues, it was a huge leap forward for onboard peripherals and it meant that one less card was required in the system to produce sound. However, due to developments in software, particularly gaming and other audio intensive applications, it was soon realized that the Audio chipset installed on the motherboard was heavily taxing the main CPU. This meant that performance of the entire custom PC was reduced, therefore gaming and other tasks usually took a performance hit.

Sound cards never went out of production, but at that point in time they were back bigger than ever. Everyone needed them as onboard audio became choice #2 for many gamers and advanced PC users. Fast forward to today and onboard audio chipsets have come a long way. Processors have also come a long way. Where at some point in time we had issues with CPUs handling audio encoding, we now have CPUs capable of delivering stunning graphics performance without sacrificing resources. This leap in CPU technology has also allowed a leap in onboard audio chipset. Companies such as Realtek continue to innovate and bring new audio chips to the board manufacturer. They went from supporting basic audio to handling multiple channels such as 5.1 and 7.1 setups, with some even providing SPDIF or optical ports as well.

So now the big question becomes, with where we are now in terms of onboard audio technology, does your system need a sound card?

Yes and No. The need for the sound card is still there, however today’s sound cards are very sophisticated and provide a much wider array of features than the cards of the past. Therefore if you need to rely heavily on quality equipment if you have or run some kind of a studio with a digital audio workstation PC, then sound cards are a must. Onboard cards will probably not cut it for high quality use such as that. Also, onboard cards come with limited amount of ports, therefore connecting them to different peripherals in your studio can be a pain.

Audiophiles may argue that some sound cards are a must-have and that onboard sound cards are no good. If you identify yourself as such, then take that advice and go with the dedicated sound card that is highly recommended.

If on the other hand you don’t classify yourself as a true audiophile and you simply want great sound, onboard audio chips are good enough. Speakers will also play a big role in how good your system sounds, but having a quality sound chip is required. Bottom line is that for most basic, intermediate and even advanced tasks, onboard audio controllers have come a long way to provide that experience without sacrificing performance. If you need to go above and beyond what these chips can do, then invest into a dedicated sound card.

If you believe that the CPU is a bottleneck in the gaming or rendering performance of your computer, you could consider adding a discrete sound card to share the load with the processor. You could see and impressive jump in audio quality. Similarly, if your onboard audio chipset doesn’t quite cut it, or doesn’t have all of the ports you need (like optical, or dedicated subwoofer ports) you could upgrade your sound experience with a sound card instead if choosing to upgrade the whole motherboard.

What is a NAS and Why Would You Want One in Your Home?

Network Attached Storage (NAS) is a server that makes storage available on a network. Such a system will have one or more hard drives, an Ethernet adapter, and an operating system. You typically wouldn’t want to have a WiFi adapter on a NAS because it would significantly slow down the transfer speed. When you access the data in a NAS it would have to go over WiFi to your home router, and then over WiFi or Ethernet to your computer. This would be much faster if the NAS was connected via Ethernet cable to the router, and since you don’t need physical access to the NAS all the time, it’s perfectly fine to hide it away wherever your router and internet modem is.

The primary purpose of a NAS is to provide centralized and shared storage for digital files. For this reason there are often multiple hard drives in a single NAS. There are also other ways to accomplish shared storage in a home network. For example, many modern routers also have USB ports. You could simply plug in an external hard drive to the router and configure this storage to be available to everyone on the network. Why would you choose to buy a NAS instead of this simple solution?

There are a few reasons. First, you’d be limited to the speed at which the router is capable of reading and writing to the hard drive. Even the most high end routers will have slow read/write times (about 13MB/s). This would strain the router and hard drive if you try to stream and HD video to your home theater, for example. If multiple family members try to access files at the same time, the transfer speed would be unbearable. A NAS is a specialized device and allows multiple users to access data simultaneously. You can stream an HD movie to your tablet or home theater while someone else is backing up their computer.

A dedicated NAS also has the ability to provide more storage than plugging in a hard drive to the router’s USB port. A single NAS could have multiple drives while you’d only be able to plug in a single one to the router. Most any NAS will have the ability to set up a RAID configuration, so that if a hard drive were to fail, you could simply hot-swap it out and all of your data would be restored.

With a NAS you’d also be able to access your files and data from anywhere in the world. You simply have to configure the remote access feature and you’ll have your own private cloud. If you forget an important presentation or piece of homework, you’ll be able to access it from any device, without paying a monthly fee to companies like DropBox.

Hardline Liquid-Cooling a PC

A PC Cooler than the Other Side of the Pillow?

Why choose a hardline liquid-cooled computer? Well because it’s the coolest — seriously. No, literally.It’s the top-of-the-line customization/cooling strategy you can implement to get the maximum output from your high performance gaming computer. Just like a car, all that digital horsepower needs an outlet, like an exhaust. Where do electrons and heat go? What prevents your PC from bursting into flames?

Featured in the brand new AVADirect Avalanche Gaming Computer, PETG hardline liquid-cooling tubing takes liquid-cooling a PC to the next level. It’s like having a digital sports car. You have the ability to get the most out of your machine by optimizing the parts and rounding it off with the best performance based cooling. Think of PETG tubing like the best cold air intake on a car.

Before we cover the reasons why PETG tubing is a massive step above the rest: let’s review the science behind what PETG actually is. PETG (Polyethylene terephthalate glycol-modified) pipes are tube-shaped polymers produced by chemically-combining carbon molecules and then either extruding or casting the resin to take on the physical attributes of the tubing.

Another popoular alternative is acrylic tubing. Acrylic polymer compounds were crafted in the late 70’s to replace glass in some situations combining the durability and functionality of plastic pipes.

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But why would you want rigid tubing in a custom PC? Here’s a few key reasons

1. First, as with anything customized, is just raw & pure aesthetics. Visual supremacy. Are you someone that enjoys tight, crisp, visually enticing straight lines? This is an attractive feature for any enthusiast that requires a quality look and feel when configuring a new gaming pc….PETG is most likely the tubing choice for you. Due to the rigidity of PETG, it allows the PC builder to give you much straighter lines than any flexible tubing ever could give you – conform the tube loop into any desirable shape and allow the liquid to take any route you need it to (which is great if you want to customize a really intricate loop).
2. Next, is the lack of plasticizer. If you’ve ever seen a cooling loop which has discolored tubing or a gunk build up, chances are it’s probably that plasticizer (which is used to make flexible plastic tubing softer). PETG tubing has none of this, and so will not discolor, cloud up, or cause your loop to clog from coolant discharge.
3. The final key benefit is durability. Industry experts can attest, once you have configured the right loop, you will find that these tubes can and will last a long, long time. They take heat from your PC more effectively, and ensure that your hardware is running at ridiculously low temperatures.

Configuring custom PETG tubing for a high powered PC can be tricky without the technical knowhow and experience. That’s where boutique custom computer builders come in.  Here at AVADirect, we have prototyped and tested a few different configurations for the optimal cooling performance… We designed the Avalanche. The AVADirect Team voices and guarantees this system will run in the top percentile of any benchmark, overclocking, or game test.

Recently, the Avalanche was reviewed by CNET – see what they have to say about hardline liquid-cooling and positive effects it has on the configuration.

Performance-wise, the Avalanche backs up its impressive benchmarking scores with real world results […] I dare you to find a game that the Avalanche can’t run with all settings maxed out at 1440p. It’s just that powerful. I hooked the machine up to an ASUS Swift ROG G-Sync monitor (1440p) and a few 4K monitors for comparison. The Avalanche barely skipped a step making the jump to 4K […] the final product is not only a liquid-cooled machine that outperforms every similar rig we’ve tested, it’s also a work of art. ”  -Jeff Bakalar, Senior Editor, Senior Editor / Reviews – CNET.com

Choosing a CPU: Intel vs AMD

It is not always easy to make choices and compromise when buying gadgets. Deciding which CPU to choose could be especially challenging when it comes when buying a new PC, whether it is a ready-made one or a custom configuration. Although the choices are limited – there are only two major CPU manufacturers for consumer PCs: Intel and AMD – it’s not an easy decision to make. So, let us see “who is who” nowadays on the CPU market and help you to make it a right decision.

First of all, it would be worthwhile to identify which tasks the future PC will be dedicated to performing the most. For example, if the computer will be used in a narrow, specific field like scientific research or massive data processing, or, if it will be an extreme gaming station or home theatre PC. Of course, you should not only consider the CPU, but other components, too, since overall performance of the system depends on all key components. For example, a last generation, top of the line video card and single core CPU that was launched, say, 5-6 years ago wouldn’t be a great combination for a good gaming, since the CPU will be slowing down the whole system due its weaker performance in comparison with video card. Don’t get it wrong – they would be still compatible and the PC will be working fine in general, but the performance in games will be quite questionable or even disappointing.

Value

By looking at the line-ups of both Intel and AMD, we will find out that AMD chips are a bit less expensive. However, that doesn’t make AMD chips a better value due to lower computing performance per dollar. Here it is important to understand how much money you are ready to invest into CPU by identifying the circle of tasks the future PC will be doing.

If budget is limited, but you are still planning to have an acceptable performance in gaming, for instance, AMD on-board graphics solutions have better performance than Intel for a lower price. For example, AMD’s Quad-core A10-7870K 3.9GHz is currently priced for around $140 and similar performance Intel Core i5 4440 3.1GHz is $180. Of course, AMD here is not a gaming powerhouse, but it will exceed the performance Intel HD Graphics solution, so you might be better off with AMD if you need to play games with medium details and 1080p resolution on a budget.

However, if budget is not a question here, Intel definitely will be preferable choice, since their chips still having superior computing performance per dollar. A piece of advice here – if you planning to buy a brand new processor on the day it is launched, you might end up paying considerably more, rather than you wait a couple of months, because usually prices drop dramatically after introduction of the new chips.

Overclocking

In the low-end segment, overclockers usually prefer AMD processors to Intel, since AMD supports this CPU tweaking feature in a more consistent way. The whole AMD A-series and six chips that go under $100 with an unlocked multiplier can be easily overclocked from 3.2GHz to 4.5GHz, whether Intel offers only one budget CPU that can be overclocked 4.3GHz – Pentium G3258 at around $60.

In mid-range segment, AMD also offers several chips with overclocking features, while Intel doesn’t really. However, if we would talk about high-end segment of Intel’s processors, there are several that support overclocking (and some even with eight physical cores) and AMD here would be no match – these CPUs are much faster at stock clocks than anything AMD can offer so far, not to mention overclocking. You just can’t buy anything as quick as these for home use.

All in all, whether a wide overclocking support of AMD’s chips make them a better choice in a long run might be arguable. It would very much depend on both the general workload of the system and how much effort you are willing to put into overclocking.

Gaming

As its already mentioned, some AMD chips outruns Intel HD graphics in a budget gaming segment with their integrated Radeon graphic solutions – AMD has been heavily investing in graphics technologies (especially for laptops) since they bought ATI back in 2006. Although it would be worth to mention that the latest Intel Iris Pro technology implemented in the last generation of Core processors, is a big improvement over the previous HD Graphics systems.

However, when it comes to the question of serious gaming – integrated graphics systems would not be a preferable solution over dedicated graphic card. And here Intel processors may be a better choice due their impressive performance alongside the high-end graphics cards. AMD chips just are not that quick as Intel, which would have a significant slowdown of the system. Of course, by choosing Intel processors you’d have to consider a serious investment, but then again if you are serious about high-end gaming, that would be obvious and the only choice.

Power consumption and heating

AMD is managing to produce CPUs that are competitive to Intel ones, the drawback of their efforts appear to be a higher power consumption of their chips. As a comparison we might take the abovementioned Intel Pentium G3258 with TPD (Thermal Design Power) of 53W against similarly prices AMD A6-7400K with 65 watts TPD. Not to mention that according to benchmarking Intel chip is faster by most performance indicators and in some areas by a significant margin. Which means Intel would run faster while using less power. Hence, less heating and no need for more powerful and bulky cooling solutions for desktop systems. For example, Intel’s newest Core i7 5775C processor even when overclocked up to 4.2GHz is running under 60 degrees on the stress tests, which once again confirms that Intel is doing a better job than AMD at keeping their CPUs cool.

Custom PCs

If you’re planning to build up your own custom PC the situation here would be pretty much the same – AMD would win on the price for budget solution, but for serious performance demands we would rather recommend to go with Intel. And don’t forget the bottlenecks of AMD chips – power consumption and heat radiation. So if you still want to stick with AMD, you’d have to seriously think about proper and sufficient cooling. It doesn’t mean that Intel based systems are less demanding in this regard – proper and efficient cooling never hurts. It just mean that for Intel there’s less effort is required.

Another factor of consideration would be variety of the motherboards – Intel has a wider choice of boards (hence, more possibilities while estimating the budget) for any Intel’s CPU socket design in comparison to AMD.

And the winner is?

As a mainstream manufacturers of CPUs AMD and Intel have been in competition for decades now. There were ups and downs for both at different times. But as we can see today, Intel processors are slowly outweighing AMD ones by several factors, especially if you have a high budget – Intel chips here are faster, far more power efficient, which directly affects heat and noise producing into a lower rates. It could be especially critical, when you’re looking for a laptop – less power consumption will greatly improve battery life.

Nevertheless, there is no categorical and short answer who is the best – it depends on what you’re planning to do and what you’re willing to spend. Yes, Intel is generally superior, but AMD will make sense in certain scenarios as well. It’s all about putting up pros against cons and realizing what are you actually want to achieve. And if at the end of the day you’d still won’t be able to make up your mind – just go for Intel’s solutions. Most probably, it would be a win-win situation for you.

SSD vs HDD: What is SSD?

Up until a few years ago when you were shopping for a computer there was just one characteristic defining the storage space: the number of gigabytes (GB). Recently it could have been even measured in terabytes or TB, and this meant that you had 1024 GB in your hard drive (or sometimes 1000 if it was measured by the hard drive manufacturer). Sometimes there were other metrics like the spin speed or cache. These numbers are for serious computer enthusiasts and it measured the speed performance of a hard drive. Typical spin speeds for hard drives include 7200 RPM and 5400 RPM and rarely 10000 RPM.

Now there is a new type of storage called Solid State Drives, or SSDs. These drives use flash memory chips to store your data, like thumb drives we all use to carry files between computers. This is opposed to another kind of chips that store data on your computer, the Random Access Memory, or RAM. These chips store data temporarily that the CPU output and would need to access again later, such as when you’re multi-tasking, or copy and pasting. This type of memory needs power to store the information, and this data is erased when the power is turned off.

Solid State Drives, on the other hand, don’t need power to retain data. Although it may be easy to confuse SSDs and RAM, you should remember that SSDs and HDDs do the same job – storing your information, personal files, applications, and operating system. In today’s media-driven online world, users frequently demand storage space of at least 500 GB, sometimes even 1 TB or more if they have more photos, videos and music to store. However, large SSDs are expensive and still quite rare. Currently, SSDs are more expensive than their HDD counterparts, so you may be wondering, why would you ever choose one?

Benefits of SSD: Speed

The answer is largely speed. Once you have a high-performance computer, such as a custom gaming PCwith an i7 processor and a 980Ti graphics card, other components may limit the performance of applications like gaming, etc. If you’re a graphic designed or engineer, some of the information that you use while working is stored on scratch disks because it won’t fit on your RAM chips. Solid State Drives have faster read and write times and enable faster access to your data.

This means that your computer will boot faster, launch applications and games faster, load cut scenes faster, and perform large data and graphics manipulation faster. You’ll be amazed by the increased performance you experience when you upgrade your computer to an SSD.

Benefits of SSD: Durability

Another reason SSDs are often chosen over HDDs is durability. Solid State Drives have no moving parts, and this means there are less things that could wear down or go wrong. If you drop your computer, your data will be safer as compared to a hard drive where the spinning discs and read write heads will crash into each other and perhaps break, forever destroying your data. For this reason SSDs are a common choice for laptops and other portable equipment.

Which SSD to Choose

There are many SSDs to choose from, and selecting one for your computer can be difficult. There are two major considerations when picking an SSD: size and connection. Obviously you want to get the biggest SSD you can afford. Storage space is often one of the last priorities when it comes to allocating budget for a new custom computer, but consider all of the speed and durability benefits of including a solid state drive. Your operating system, games, and important applications, like AutoCAD and Photoshop will load almost instantaneously. You’ll want an SSD large enough to fit your operating system (for fast boot times), major applications and games (for fast load time) and your most-often used files (for fast edit time). Having enough space for not just your OS and programs, but also your files enables your computer not only to boot and load the application quickly but also load the data file, manipulate it, and save it.

PCIe vs SATA3 SSDs

Another major consideration is how you’ll connect the SSD to your computer. There are two options here: SATA and PCIe. The most common one is SATA, or more specifically SATA 3 or SATA III. This is a standard connection that is also commonly used to connect HDDs and optical drives to your motherboard. These types of SSDs are the most common, are much less expensive than the PCIe variants, and would go in a designated mounting area inside the computer case, usually next to, near or in the HDD mounting area.

The other kind of SSD that use the PCIe connector are much more expensive, but they allow for ultimate transfer speeds. Traditional SATA revision 3.0 offers data speeds of approximately 600 MB/s. While this is faster than the read/write speeds for traditional HDDs, this can cause a bottleneck for SSDs as they are capable of faster data transfers. The newest PCIe 3.0 is capable upwards of 4GB/s data transfer. These drives are expensive, and take up a PCI slot, which is typically where the graphics cards, sound cards, and WiFi adapters go, if you’re not using the motheboard onboard components. If you have a small case or a mini-ITX motherboard you may not have any of these slots available. Furthermore, this type of bandwidth is above and beyond what gamers would need; PCIe SSDs are typically reserved for servers and workstation PCs for engineers, graphics designers, etc.

What SSD or HDD is Right For Me?

The typical setup we recommend for most gamers is a combination of hard drive and SSD. A 1TB HDD should be able to hold all of your data that you don’t frequently use, or large media files that you periodically access, but the application doesn’t depend on load time. Hard drives with spin speeds of lower than 7,200 RPM shouldn’t be considered for modern computers. Think movies or music – the viewing program will be able to load up the file into cache so that you can play it, but the transfer speed doesn’t really matter so long as you’re able to meet or beat the play rate. A 250 GB SSD should be enough for you to hold all of your operating system, application and critical files. This will be the boot drive and you’ll be able to start up your computer and any applications or games quickly.

However, if you’re looking for a thin and light notebook, consider just an SSD alone. Typically we don’t store many files on our laptops, but have them on network drives, external HDDs, other computers, or keep them in the cloud. For these situations a 250-500GB SSD would be a good choice. These can be pricey, but offer incredible benefits in terms of battery life and durability. Remember, there aren’t platters or discs that the computer has to spin up to speed, so the battery life would increase.

If you’re a graphic designer, video editor, scientist or engineer who must manipulate large files, consider a large PCIe SSD. These would be used as your primary drive and would give you incredible loading speed, such that you would never even notice how long it would take you to open a large file in an application like AutoCAD or Adobe Premiere Pro.

Lastly, there is a final solution. These are so-called hybrid drives that combine SSDs and HDDs together into one unit. Typically they combine large hard drives with smaller SSDs, but the computer system manages which files are where for you. Instead of installing the OS and applications on the SSD and the data files on the HDD, like we recommend above, you just install everything on what looks like one drive to you. The computer automatically determines which files are the most popular and caches them on the SSD for quicker loading. You can also combine an SSD and HDD into a hybrid setup yourself instead of having to buy a hybrid drive.

You may think that all SSDs of the same size, and connector type are all the same, but they are not. Each SSD may have a different controlled and NAND chips. The controller is an embedded processor that execute firmware code and is responsible for managing the data among the different NAND memory chips. For a while it was considered that the Sandforce controller used on Corsair, OCZ, Patriot Memory and others wasn’t any good. Similarly, early Samsung SSDs had performance issues. Today these problems are largely resolved and both Samsung SSDs and those that use Sandforce controllers are considered to provide good performance.

SOHO Servers – Small Office and Home Office

Every business, whether it is a big corporation or a small company, eventually comes to the point when it has to think about their growing demands of digital information flow – how to efficiently operate, store and secure it. Today we would like to talk about small business in particular – how we can manage digital information assets and what solutions are available.

SOHO – Small Office Home Office

SOHO is usually associated with small, private business or self-employed individuals who are running their own office from home. It is also often described as being small in both size of the office and number of employees. And just like the majority of today’s businesses, employees use PCs in a local area network (LAN) and have access to the internet. Internet based technologies allow them to use email, Web, VoIP, and remote access software to communicate with customers, partners, third parties, suppliers etc. Small scale databases or data banks also can be part of it. Many small offices will have a local file server where they can share files amongst each other quickly over the network. These are sometimes called “the share” or “the server” by the users.

Handling the space

Space is a primary consideration of the SOHO environment and the computer equipment used for it. And one of the most popular solutions for it is racking solutions. Networking equipment and custom servers that allow running has already evolved to the point of being much smaller and much more efficient. Being able to do more with less allows small business to be able to operate a network in a much smaller space than ever.

Very often the network and server (or servers) are hosted in a back area of the small or home office, which, in a way can be extremely tight in space, making hosting server and network equipment an obstacle. Nowadays, people work from home more than ever before, thanks to the internet and advanced technologies. Working from home should not require a tradeoff of your wardrobe cabinet for a bulky server rack. So, whether it is a residence or commercial property, space will always be a concern.

SOHO servers

We wouldn’t touch too many aspects of SOHO networking environment or which racking cabinet should you choose. Let’s talk a bit about servers that can be used for need of small office.

What is the typical set up for small office in terms of computing equipment? Five to ten desktop computers, a couple of printers, cable or wireless modem Internet connection and some other shared peripherals that could be specific for the business – it all can be handled by a small dedicated server. Of course, if you have only a couple of desktops and make only a few demands on a network, then maybe you won’t need a so called dedicated server for it – it’s easy enough to set up a share on a desktop system and use that box as a shared desktop/server. Otherwise, the reliability, data safety, flexibility and other advantages of a dedicated server are worth the relatively low cost.

SOHO servers are always a compromise between different extremes and it is very important to understand, which server subsystems are likely to be a bottlenecks – a client/server application that exchanges large amounts of data to clients may stress the network interface. A shared database that resides on the server may stress the disk subsystem but, at the same time, place fewer demands on CPU and memory. A server-based application may overload the CPU and memory, but not the disk subsystem. And so on and so forth. So, you have to identify you needs and foresee the probable outcome in terms of server’s efficiency taking into consideration such bottlenecks.

General requirements for SOHO Servers

Reliability

First and the most important – the server must be reliable. Ideally, it should run 24/7/365. Other than regular downtime for maintenance, upgrade hardware or software updates, you want to expect your server to keep on ticking.

Backup Safety

You don’t want to lose your data ever and you want to keep it that way. So, you should very cautious about backups. Server should have a redundancy in the disk subsystem and ever lose the data in case if it fails between the backups. Otherwise you might lose the hours, days or even months of the very important work or data.

Flexibility and easy access for maintenance

Initial configuration of the server should have a powerful processor, enough memory, and disk space that will allow to add or change its functionality incrementally without upgrading the hardware all the time.

Maintenance is an important part of being a flexible server – the easy access to the internal systems, the lesser time for maintenance, hence lesser downtime of the server in total.

Expandability

While choosing a form factor, don’t just think about today’s needs – think ahead and try to foresee the future demands of your server expansion. MicroATX board in a small case would give a lot of advantages to such a server. It’s small and so can be put anywhere. It doesn’t consume much power, produces little heat, and doesn’t make much noise. But! Expandability of such small system at some point, can be difficult and you likely will end up with the situation, when advantages will be outweighed by disadvantages. If you would decide to install more hard drives to expand your RAID array, for example, microATX form factor would be to limiting for that purpose. But if you’d choose a full ATX motherboard and a mini-tower case – you’ll get you room to grow in the future. As always – the choice is yours!

What is RAID?

If you’ve been doing research about computers, servers or workstations, you may have heard of RAID. But what is it, and do you need it? RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) is a useful way to provide redundancy in case of HDD failure, but should not be considered a backup solution. While there are many different RAID setups, we will tell you about most common ones and how to choose amongst them in this easy to follow guide.

Determining if RAID is right for you

Before you can implement RAID in your system or purchase a new custom computer with RAID, you must first recognize the need for it. For example, you need to be able to answer following questions:

1. How important is my data to me?
2. What means of backup do I already have?
3. If my HDD fails, would I be able to continue using my system?
4. How long can I wait before I can obtain replacement parts?

While there are many more questions to be asked and answered, these 4 are the most fundamental ones and the reasons why RAID exists in the first place.

Knowing the importance of your data will be the most determining factor when choosing RAID. Also, whether or not you have existing means of backup is another important point to consider. If your data is important, but you wouldn’t be severely impacted if it was lost, then RAID may be too much for you. Other means of backup such as external drives are probably better choice. If on the other hand you need your operating system to work on regular basis, having a HDD failure can impact your work severely. Having to wait many days before you can obtain a replacement from manufacturer and re-install everything can be a real hassle.

Making the decision to go for RAID is only the first step of the puzzle. Some users only need basic RAID features, while others need a lot more. Once you’ve decided RAID is the right choice for you, you must then find out which RAID system you will need for your particular system.

Which RAID is best for me?

Your answers to the above four questions will help you determine which RAID arrangement is right for you. But on top of that, you must also understand basic RAID systems and what they do, so the following section explains that. We’re only including the basic and most common RAID configurations, but there are others out there, too.

RAID 0

Not exactly a RAID setup. The only reason it’s been added to this guide is due to the fact it provides extra performance and that its technology is used in other, more complex RAID setups. RAID 0 offers no redundancy. It uses 2 HDDs to create a RAID volume. Both drives are used to their full capacity and the data is split between the drives. If either drive fails, the volume is lost and cannot be rebuilt. If you want to use RAID 0, keep in mind you will not have any backup. Use it only for performance reasons.

RAID 1

This is a basic mirroring setup. 2 HDDs are required and the RAID controller is constantly making an exact copy of one drive to another drive. This RAID is most popular for people who want basic backup and are happy with a single point of redundancy. The speed of the drives is limited, but in case of a single HDD failure you will be able to continue running your operating system until the volume is rebuilt with the new drive. Usually rebuilding is done automatically while the system is running, but some RAID controllers do have an option of on-demand rebuilds and integrity checks.

RAID 5

RAID 5 is more complex system compared to the other 2 in that it uses 3 or more HDDs, and it splits the data across in a striped or block method. If data disappears from one of the HDDs due to failure or other issues, it can be rebuilt using information from other drives. This improves the speed compared to RAID 1 but it again maintains a single point of redundancy. Basically, you can only have one HDD fail in order to keep running. If you have a 3 HDD RAID 5 setup and 2 of your drives fail, the volume is lost. We recommend that you do not use RAID 5 for business-critical data.

RAID 10

This RAID setup is composed out of the RAID 1 and RAID 0 levels. The top level is RAID 0 and the lower level is RAID 1. If a HDD fails, it will affect the RAID 1 (mirroring) portion of the RAID without affecting the RAID 0. RAID 10 while more secure than RAID 5 has a huge impact on available disk space as most of it is used for mirroring.

Equipment

Once you’ve figured out which RAID is best for you, you must look into the equipment to buy, such as type of hard drives, amount of drives, dedicated RAID cards, etc.

Most consumer level motherboards provide RAID functionality for levels 0, 1 5 and 10. While you can run RAID on these boards, they are not as robust and reliable as dedicated RAID controllers. Also, the choice whether you want to buy consumer level HDDs or enterprise level HDDs makes a big difference too. Enterprise level HDDs are known to perform well in heavy use scenarios, such as business servers and others. Consumer-level HDDs aren’t designed for the increased workload that comes from a RAID setup, and may fail more quickly.

Therefore the most robust setup you can have using these components is a dedicated RAID card and Enterprise level HDDs. Of course, this is the most expensive setup. The same exact RAID setup can be achieved with on-board controllers and regular HDDs for much less, but the reliability of those setups is significantly reduced. You can also mix and match equipment. For example you can run enterprise level drives off the on-board controller, or you can also run standard drives off the dedicated controllers. These mixed setups also have mixed reliability scores, but upgrading at least one component is still better than the basic, on-board controller and standard HDD setup.

Conclusion

RAID setups will allow you to keep your data safe and keep your system running in case of a HDD Failure. However, keep in mind that other issues can still hinder your system unusable. Things such as motherboard failures, power supply and cpu issues and others can provide unexpected downtime. RAID is a system for redundancy of HDDs only. It doesn’t provide redundancy for possible power failures and other issues not related to HDDs. For those looking for a truly redundant setup, multiple workstations or parts need to be available on standby. As a business owner, this is something you might want to consider. For a small home office use, this may not be necessary. You need to make a clear assessment of how much downtime you can afford if issues other than a failed HDD occur and how you can go about getting your work done without a system. The RAID will continue to work and your data will be safe as long as the failures occur with single drives and they are replaced promptly.

Although most RAID setups will continue to run in DEGRADED mode even after a HDD failure, it is important to replace the defective drive as soon as possible before another one fails, in which case data will be lost.