Best RAID configuration

[BrianT]

I would get one more HD as a system drive and then set up the 4 drives you mention as RAID 10.

For less than $100, you could get a ~250 system drive on the mainboard controller and be way ahead of the game. Free the RAID controller and drives for only audio.

RAID 5 on that controller will not be great for audio, especially recording.

[amino]

Thanks for the suggestions. I think I'll go for that.

In fact I already have an available 120 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 PATA disk, and since it will be the only drive on the IDE channel (the DVD is on SATA) I could just as well use it as a system drive.

I've been a bit sceptical about RAID 5 all the time, but since I decided to skip the typical ICH9R controller on the mainboard and get a dedicated controller instead I thought it would be OK. Is RAID 5 really ever a good idea? Disks are cheap today and my common sense tells me that RAID 10 must be considerably faster...

[BrianT]

As cheap per GB as disk space is, RAID 10 all the way for me.

There's little to no hit in performance even if you lose a drive. Replace and rebuild ASAP, but no need to bring a session to a screeching halt, even if a drive dies.