[s-cars] NAC- need advice on photo workstation, RAID and some other ???s

[Taka Mizutani]

Teddy-
I'm thinking of a 3-4 drive RAID 5 array, with EMC Retrospect software
running
my backup to external USB HDs, sequentially backed up weekly (I don't have a
constant influx of data to require daily backups).

The reason for the RAID array is also for future expandability- I do foresee
hitting
that 2Tb limit eventually.

If I have file corruption, my only saving grace would be the backup, that's
correct.
At least with hardware RAID as opposed to software RAID, the chances of
array
corruption are much lower- software RAID sucks IMO.

Since I missed out on getting a couple more WD 320s at Best Buy on
clearance,
I'll get some more when I place my order for the SATA RAID card.

One more thing- more directed not to you, Teddy, but to others:
What are the consequences of mixing different capacity drives with a RAID 5
or
RAID 6 array?

I've narrowed it down to the Promise 8350 and the Areca 1220, both 8-port
SATA
RAID cards running a dedicated Intel RAID processor w/ onboard cache (256MB
IIRC)
on a PCI-E bus (x4 on the Promise, x8 on the Areca), both supposed to be
blazing
fast, esp. the Areca.

Taka