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Notebooks w/ RAID?

Posted by Cliff on from the fault-tolerance-for-devices-that-really-need-it dept.

macemoneta asks: "Are there any notebooks available on the market that support (bootable) RAID (at least two 40GB+ drives as RAID0 and or RAID1)? While the rest of the components in 'desktop replacement' notebooks are quickly getting up to snuff, the hard drives are anemic in performance, capacity and reliability compared to desktops. Being able to use software RAID to create high performance meta devices and high reliability meta devices would really kick notebooks into high gear. Before anyone complains about size, weight, power and heat remember that notebooks have gone from 12 inch screens to 16 inch screens and 486 to P4M in the last few years. Most desktop replacement laptops use the batteries as a UPS, since they usually only last 90 minutes or less anyway."

4 of 62 comments (clear)

  1. laptop drive limits by OpenMind(tm) · · Score: 4, Informative

    I'm not sure this is a good idea. Laptop drives, even the recent IBM enhanced models, are rated for a much lighter activity cycle than desktop drives. That is, push them as hard and as long as full-size drives , they are likely to fail on you. IBM is trying to fix this to make their 2.5 in drives suitable to blade servers. Still, RAID historically pushes drives hard enough to decrease the time between failures quite a bit. Combine this with drives designed for low load, and you're asking for trouble. I think the recommendation of a firewire external drive was a good one.

  2. Look at the Eurocom 8880 by compwizrd · · Score: 4, Informative

    The Eurocom 8880 has the capability for FOUR hard drives at once

    http://www.eurocom.ca/products/showroom/specs888 .c fm

    Has the capability for two cdroms/dvd-roms/etc at once.

    15.7" screen as well.

    No mention of weight, I suspect you don't wanna know.

    Eurocom has always been a little bit ahead of everyone else on getting things out :)

    I believe the TV tuner option replaces one of the media bays though

  3. Cheaper option by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 3, Informative

    Wow, so many links to expensive hardware. Pick up a used Pismo powerbook (last black one). You can take out the CD drive, and replace it with another laptop drive. Sleds are available from VST, probably find some used ones too. OSX has software RAID-1 built in.

    You could use any of the black line, but the Pismos often had 500MHz G3's.

    --
    My God, it's Full of Source!
    OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  4. Side point by macdaddy · · Score: 3, Informative
    I bought an Asus A7V333 with the onboard RAID. Once per minute regular as clock work the load spikes to 30% on top of what's already running. Once a minutes, regular as clockwork. Up and down real quick. Games stall, MPEGs stall, etc... The problem is apparently the RAID. I have 4 120GB WD 8MB cache models. 2 as regular drives. 2 as a stripe on the OEM Promise FastTrack133 builtin controller. If I disable RAID with the jumper, no spike. If I re-enable, regular spike. If I leave enabled and disconnect the 2 striped drives, no spike. It's got to be the RAID. Asus won't return my calls. I guess this means I'll never buy an Asus again and probably never buy a board with onboard RAID again. A buddy of mine blames it on the Via chipsets. Could be.

    That said, I'm not so sure you want to buy anything with onboard RAID. Perhaps you should look at a speedy Firewire drive.