RAID 1 HDD For Audio Recording?

[friendforafoe]

Hello Peeps,

Just bought a brand spankin new comp for audio recording (if you want the specs, just ask!) and it currently has a 1TB drive in it. I have another 1TB drive (both operate at 7200rpm) that I'll be installing in it with the original intention of using one drive for programs/plugins/OS and the other for purely audio files/samples. One of my bandmates suggested I consolidate those drives in a RAID 1 configuration for stability as well as having the ability to have back-ups available in case one drive fails (which in case you don't know, essentially turns my two 1TB drives into a single 1TB HDD). I'm all for stability as this comp is for my band Friend For A Foe as well as any other bands I may produce/mix, but I know that a RAID 1 config decreases your write speed a bit and would like to know if this will affect anything recording-wise? I wanted to have everything separate so audio etc aren't going through the same pipeline as the OS/programs/etc.

So basically I have three options:

1) 1TB HDD for the OS/programs/plugins and 1TB HDD for audio/samples

2) 1TB RAID 1 HDD for everything (programs, the OS, and audio/samples)

3) 1TB RAID 1 HDD for the audio/samples and buy an additional HDD for the OS/programs

Thoughts? Suggestions? Previous experiences?

Thanks for your input guys!

Cheers,
Chris

 

[drope934]

HDD are cheap nowadays, maybe a Raid 5 with smaller HDD will be great.

If you want some speed AND security, I'd buy a SDD drive for the OS/programs (120Gb is ok I think) and put the audio on raid 5 with 4hdd of 320gb.

In my case, I'm using Raid0 (not safe at all, it double the risk of loosing everything) and it works like a charm and really really fast!

 

[arv_foh]

I use 2 WD Velociraptors in RAID0 and keep daily backups with Time Machine. Working great for me. My system runs fast and never has any hiccups when tracking.

 

[friendforafoe]

Haha thanks guys ... I would probably have to buy some sort of housing unit/microcase if I ever went for a RAID5 configuration as I think I only have two extra ports for HDDs right now. I'm not too concerned with speed as my Intel i7-2600 is running at 3.4ghz and have 8gb stock RAM (upgradeable to 16gb on this current motherboard, but that's almost too much haha). So even though my write speed would be mildly affected, I shouldn't have any issues recording if I were to go into a RAID1 config?

 

[Fbarre]

Don't know but you could get an external solid state drive just for recording. Copy the files to the raid1 config as soon as you're finished. They are fast and silent which helps with recording in the same room.