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thescruff wrote:Billy,

The computer has 1 RGB and 1 DVI port for the monitors, does it make any difference or should I use the adapter cable to DVI

Or should I just link the two monitor together.

Scruff,

What monitors do you have?

If you have DVI on the monitors and VGA card, then use it.....monitors don't get linked in any way physically.

If you need to use an adaptor, then use it to convert DVI to VGA.

Both my monitors are VGA and my graphics card has 1 DVI and 1 VGA, so I use two VGA cables and one DVI-VGA adaptor.

BG

This is why I asked, I have one of each on both monitors and 1 of each on the computer.

I also have leads with DVI one end and VGA the other.

Super cool....bit of flexibility never hurt anyone (reminds me of a woman I know....another time).

Use DVI-DVI on one monitor
Use DVI-VGA on the other

DVI-DVI would be best on the better monitor, whichever that may be. Mmmmm digital goodness.

Sorted.

I can do DVI to DVI on the Dell, that would leave a VGA port on the computer and one of each on the other monitor.

I could use the DVI port with the adapter to VGA, or a straight cable VGA to VGA.

thescruff wrote:I could use the DVI port with the adapter to VGA, or a straight cable VGA to VGA.

Correct - either way is fine, won't make a jot of difference to quality.

Thank you Billy, I see you can also do the same with a projector.

Indeed you can.....a PJ is just treated the same as a monitor.

With a PJ you can do:

VGA-VGA
DVI-DVI
DVI-HDMI

Wouldn't touch any of the analogues with yours.....

Billy speaking to a guy with the plan that he can do the Raid array so I don't mess up.

He was saying a mirror drive/s would be better, any thoughts please.

What was his reason for prefering the mirror? He may think write performance will be lower with RAID 5 and there's a parity calculation overhead, but I don't think you'd find the performance a problem and your CPU will be quick enough for the parity calcs. RAID 1 (mirror) is simplier, but if you've got three identical disks you may as well use them in one large array unless you want two 2TB drives in Windows (1 2x 2TB RAID 1 and the individual 2TB disk).

Not sure exactly, but he did mention major problems if one disc goes down.

My objection would be reloading the system if he went for the mirror options, it would mean wasting a weeks work.

You have 4 disks, don't you - 1 SSD and 3x2TB

Hmmm.

Rich is indeed correct, but I find myself sat in three camps on this.

Software RAID has it's problems in life and will always be a compromise to full hardware controller based RAID. I've used software based RAID 5 setups in the past and got my fingers burnt, due to some computer hardware problems.

I'd almost be tempted to go with the mirror option. It improves read speed to a degree, but means you arn't putting all your eggs into one basket. I'd work it like this:

SSD - Boot drive / applications / user profile / sppeeeeeeeeeeeeeed
HDD 1 + 2 - Mirror RAID configuration (a good place to store your stuff, improved read speed and has redundency). Gives 2TB of space to play with.
HDD 3 - Used as a backup to the backup possibly? Or could be used for non-essential stuff.

It's always handy to have that drive that isn't part of the RAID set. What happens in the future if you reaaaaaaaaaly need to get some data off that machine in a nice easy way? The RAID array doesn't transport so easily, but the sing drive would nicely.

It's up to you.....I can see pros/cons for each way myself. How much storage space do you need and how important are your backups and data?

(sorry...this may not help)

BG

thescruff wrote:Not sure exactly, but he did mention major problems if one disc goes down.

My objection would be reloading the system if he went for the mirror options, it would mean wasting a weeks work.

To add to this....make sure that SSD is a standalone and NOT part of the RAID set.

BG

Either RAID 1, or RAID 5 provide you with protection in the event of a disk failure. The idea is that if a disk fails everything keeps working as normal. You just power down the system and replace the failed disk. The data is then copied from the remaining disks in the array onto the new disk to provide you with full protection again.

Not sure what he means by major problems if one disk goes down as that's the whole point of RAID!

You still need backups to provide you with protection from viruses etc. RAID just provides disk failure protection. If you're still unsure I can explain further.

Storage 3-500Gb max.

I also keep the remote for back-up pdf etc.

As Billy says, you could put the 2x 2TB in RAID 1 and remove the third 2TB disk from your system and put it in an external enclosure e.g. eSATA for backups.

In my personal system I run 1x SSD for apps etc., 2x disks in RAID 1 for data, music photos etc. and 1 disk in an external enclosure for backups.