So I have a few questions. I am looking to make sure I have good performance with protected data. If my system crashes I want to make sure my data is safe. I don't want lose any music,movies, pictures, games etc... Which option would you say is better.

Get a Raptor 160GB(not purchased yet) for OS and games then Create a RAID 5 Array with the 4 320GB drives(just purchased).

OR

Not buy a Raptor. Do RAID 0 with 2 of the 320GB drives. Then use 1 320GB for an internal back up. Then use a 320GB as an external backup.

Or if anyone else has another suggestion with the 4 320GB Drives that I have now.

Thanks!

RAID 10? It's also called RAID 1+0. You have a mirrored set of a striped array, or is it a striped array of a mirrored set. I can't recall which, but I know that 10 has better fault tolerance than 01. It'll allow one or two drives to fail, depending upon which exact drives, as opposed to just one with the RAID 5 system. I don't exactly know what you mean by protected data. If you are concerned with a hard drive failing, a RAID system is nice. If you're concerned about your data not vanishing, a RAID system isn't so nice. I had a bad power supply take out the logic board on all of my drives once. Thankfully, I was able to get a matching logic board and pull my data off. Also, your RAID systems can't protect against an accidental delete. A spindle of DVDs is cheap, and makes for a nice backup of static content like movies and music.

I'd suggest looking at some of the better performing large hard drives on the market. Some approach or beat the Raptor on a few benchmarks, like sustained read. They cost around the same, or less, and have a lot more room. If you really want to protect your stuff, you'll need one of your backups disconnected from the power grid with all of your data on it (external) or even better, at an off site location you can easily access for updates.

I vote no raptor

Raid 5 the 320's and just work from that. Should be faster than 1+0

Wouldn't running the OS only form the RAID 5 slow down performance compared to a Raptor?

To protect your data, devise some external backup. Raid does not protect your data, it just makes recovery faster. Raid does not protect you from loss of data due to viruses, user mistakes,...etc.

As to performance, the benefits of raid are negligible, unless you have a specific type of typical workload. This would be like reading high volumes of sequential data. There is nothing faster than the raptor150, but you do pay a premium for it.

My suggestion:
keep it simple
OS on one drive, perhaps a raptor.
Input data on one drive
output data on one drive
one drive for external backup

So what would u suggest with the 4 320GB Drives that I have then?

Exactly as above.
one for OS, two for storage and work, and put the last in an external storage box for backup. Your backups will be compressed, so you do not need as much space for that. Try to arrange your work, so that inputs are on one drive, and outputs are on another. If you can't know this, just spread things around.

It's simple.

Raid is primarily for server environments where downtime for recovery can not be tolerated. It is also characterized by many simultaneous requests and high queue lengths. In the single user environment, raid can actually hurt. People get seduced by very nice synthetic performance benchmarks that do not apply to the single user desktop environment.

Go to www.storagereview.com for a good tutorial on raid, and hard drive performance, along with application benchmarks.

---good luck---

Wow, a lot of stuff being bandied about here...

I believe nMathew says it best regarding the 1+0 array. Contrary to jwolf2601s comment, RAID 1+0 is significantly faster on writes than RAID 5 due to RAID 5s additional parity writes. It is also more fault tolerant than RAID 5 for the reasons submitted by nMathew above. And let's face it, the vast majority of our work on our home PCs is the storage of our vast quantities of porn

So, you have 4 drives of 320GB capacity? That would create 640GB of highly available, very fast (and expensive) storage. Of course, it does not include any backup as RAID 1+0 requires a minimum of 4 drives to implement.

Or, it could be RAID 5, netting you more storage bytes for the buck and leaving you with a single 320GB drive for data backup.

The solution for you truly depends upon your personal needs. As Geofelt says, "Raid is primarily for server environments where downtime for recovery can not be tolerated". While this is basically true, more and more individuals are creating their own libraries of content for their HTPCs or Media Centers and want/need a robust method of storing that content. I believe that RAID is definitely the way to go. Personally, I have 6TB of drives on an Areca 1220 and it is still growing. I do have a a backup drive (500GB) that stores only critical information. Everything else is either on DVD or not backed-up at all.

Good luck in whatever you choose to do.