I am consider using windows raid 0 and raid 1 over two hardware 4x2tb raid 5 arrays. (thinking Seagate green drives). 2x Rocketraid 2680 controller but that could easily change.
So, that would give me a 3tb partition in raid 51 and an 6tb partition of raid 50.
Is that a good idea? Anyone know if the raid 6tb partition will be (much) slower than a hardware raid 50?
I am very open to other configurations. My bottom line is I have 11 drive bays on the case, I need Windows 2k8 r2, and I need high redundancy + not so high redundancy. I am just plain paranoid about using 2tb disk as they are. The windows OS partition won't be on the array. I have many terrabytes of data I need to keep.
I plan to have no backup strategy as I have no tape drive, up/downloading terrabytes of data over internet is slow and cumbersome (if your experience is otherwise, let me know. I have around 3tb of data I must not lose), and I loathe stacking more HD around the house (as if there rn't enough external harddrives floating around already).
Background info: i7 2600 (no k can't be bothered overclocking.) 16gb ram. will be doing lots of virtualisation / sql server / photoshop (processing DSLR raw files) / Visual Studio / Media en,de,trans coding 1500 dollars of budget (excluding hard drives, including raid controllers)
Thanks in advance for your input.