Idiot's Guide To RAID

Does anyone have a link to a webapge where I can basically find the topic of my thread?
I have a SFF pc and just switched the old, slow 3.5" HDD for a 2.5" one, which seems to offer about the same level of read-write performance.
It occupies about 1/6th the volume of the old drive, is much quieter, runs very cool and gives better airflow in my case.
However, I have the option to get a second 2.5" HDD of very similar spec. All my files are backed up onto the original 3.5 ", so I don't need the second 2.5" drive for added security, but....
I keep hearing about how a simple RAID array will make the PC faster and less prone to disaster. My mobo supports RAID, but the user guide is hazy on the details of how to set it up.
All drives are SATA.
So back to my question. Can anyone point me at a webpage that gives step-by-step instructions on how to set up RAID and what the benefits might be?
My SFF is stuffed with goodies and I like the idea of squeezing RAID in there too. But only if there'll be a tangible benefit.
I can clone the current 2.5" HDD to a new one with no problems (thanks to some great advice from this board in another thread). But that's about where my knowledge stops!

 

You could start by looking through this thread in the Hardware forum

 

Thanks for the stuff so far. Yeah, RAID 0 sounds like a disaster waiting to happen, RAID 1 sounds like it will speed up reads but slow writes. I need to think about how much I write to figure if it will be worth a penalty. Mostly it's games, office apps and DV editing - the latter is massive files, so that will suffer a lot, games are mostly just sucking info off the HDD so should see a boost, office apps somewhere in the middle.

The SATA 2.5" drive I have is a 7200rpm Travelstar. Like I say, I have an option on another one, but it may be £75 wasted, or at least, with little benefit.

The threads so far talk about the benefits of one against the other, but I'm still looking for a step-by-step guide to set one up. Also, if I get an array going and can't live with the downsides, is it pretty straightforward to go back to single disk OS?

Cheers.

 

DV editing would be the most disk intensive. You need to read the DV file from one HDD and write it to another. Reading is faster so you can have the reading file on the HDD with Windows/applications (the editing program). Write the edited file to a "data" disk that is solely doing the writing.

Matt

 

Thanks for everyone who dived in, but I think I'm going with the "if it ain't broke" approach. The system is working well, absolutely rock solid (touches wood) and I have the OS and programmes cloned onto a spare HDD if I need it. So, for the slim benefits of Raid 1 versus the additional cost and time penalty writing big DV files to two hard drives, I think I'm going to stay with what I have for now.
Thanks again to all who offered help and advice.
As usual, one of the very best, most helpful forums on the net.
Clogman.

 

clogman--See the article in the June 2006 PC World (Hardware Tips section). In my copy the article starts on page 140.