RAIDers of the Lost Laptop

[mr_pikachu]

I'm planning to get a new computer soon, and I'm trying to figure out a technical term that I've never seen. It's called RAID (http://www.gateway.com/dw/features_benefits/raid.php) - Redundant Array of Independent Disks - and it apparently boosts the speed at which data is retrieved. (The theory makes logical sense to me from reading the description, even though I would have expected any impact to be negligible.)

Normally I wouldn't be so puzzled, but I'm considering the Gateway P-172X FX (http://www.gateway.com/systems/series/529598006.php?cmpid=cphm_bllbd_p172x_oneday)... I'm just a little confused as to why the price is the same for perfectly identical specs whether or not you go with the supposedly superior RAID version.

Is there something I'm missing here? Is RAID an untested system, is it known to weaken system stability, or is there something else? Could it just be the added risk of losing all your data if a single drive fails, rather than just half of it? Or am I simply reading way too much into a good deal?

If anyone has some experience or outside knowledge of RAID, I'd appreciate your thoughts. Thanks in advance.

[starjake]

Well, I've never heard of RAID (outside of the insect-killing variety), but I personally would reconsider the Gateway...my father works in IT, and he's told me on several occasions that anything recent made by Gateway isn't exactly fantastic. They're known to crash frequently and generally just function poorly. For a strong, high-quality laptop, I would suggest an Acer or HP or something like that.

And, out of curiosity, why would anyone want a function that has the word 'Redundant' in it, anyway? Isn't redundancy normally considered a bad thing?

[The Blue Avenger]

In response to Starjake: Don't get an HP laptop, either. They're prone to having power issues that HP isn't very helpful in fixing.

Also, redundant in terms of drives can be very handy indeed - if you've got the same data on multiple drives, if one drive is lost, then the data isn't necessarily gone. Also, I think it may help in speed - you can pull data from many different sources at once - but I'm not too sure.

Mr. P: Your link says that the computer uses specifically RAID 0 - which means that the data is broken up and stored among different drives. It offers increased speed, definitely, but the downside is that if one disk goes down, all of your data's gone. Since any file will be broken into chunks, if one disk goes down, your files will all have parts missing. So, I'd imagine they're the same price because the RAID version offers better speed, but the chance is higher of your data going bye-bye.

[mr_pikachu]

Yeah, that was kind of what I figured. I still might go with the RAID version, as I do have a second hard drive for backup storage, but I wasn't sure if there were any other potential detriments... that's what I'm most curious to know at this point.

[mr_pikachu]

Okay, now I'm mad. Today I went to examine the P-152X FX one last time before ordering it, but it's disappeared from the Gateway website. After running a search for it, I've discovered that every link either takes me to a page with a blank space where the unit should be or prompts an error message. Both RAID and non-RAID are inexplicably gone, leaving lesser laptops behind.

Anyone know what's going on? A recall, maybe? It doesn't make much sense for it to be discontinued... I mean, they only started selling it a couple of months ago! I'm baffled and rather annoyed right now.

[The Blue Avenger]

A Google search turns up nothing; plus, in your original post, you mention that you're looking at the 172-X. You sure you got the name right?

[mr_pikachu]

Bah, I typed it wrong in my last post. The original name was correct... but I still can't find it.