PC World"s tests RAID technology...Once reserved for servers and high-end workstations, RAID technology for linking multiple hard drives is gaining favor with PC users looking to improve performance affordably. Tests by PC World show they"re on to something: Two RAID-connected drives completed some tasks in 40 percent less time than one drive of the same type.
RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) technology comes in many flavors, but two are finding desktop popularity, thanks in part to low-priced add-in PCI cards and to some system vendors (such as Alienware, Falcon Northwest, and Polywell) that offer PCs with the technology. RAID Level 1, or mirroring, writes all data to two drives at once, ensuring the information survives if one drive fails. More popular with performance buffs is RAID Level 0, or striping, which interleaves data between two drives to create a double-size drive with about twice the effective throughput.