So where does that leave us? Must we be forced to choose between performance and value? Luckily, ATA's cost-per-GB has dropped so low that it makes sense to use this huge advantage to push the limits of ATA performance. (Applying the same techniques we outline here to SCSI setups would make any bank account cry.) Let Ars show you how.

As you've probably guessed, the principal weapon in our bag of tricks is RAID: combining several disks into arrays. We've benchmarked the leading controllers on the market as well as Windows' software-RAID to see what kind of speeds this technology can offer us. Meanwhile of course, the redundancy offered by levels 1, 5, and above, while not a replacement for true backups, offers its own set of advantages for the prosumer who values his data.

The fun doesn't stop there, though. Even if you don't need hundreds and hundreds of gigabytes, today's obscene disk capacities may still have something to offer. By using only the fastest portions of a disk or array of disks, you can trade some capacity for improved seek times -- the same tradeoff offered by the SCSI world, notably, but without the accompanying price tag. How much of an advantage does a so-called "short stroke" array offer? Ars investigates.

A final advantage found in many high-end SCSI or fibre channel setups is expandability. Assembling a great ATA RAID setup may give a nice feeling of virtually infinite storage in the short run, yet becomes nothing but pain when you become addicted to the "infinite storage" lifestyle and run out of room -- all current controllers would require you to rebuild from scratch. We'll discover what compromises are possible, keeping our favorite benchmark tools handy of course.

Experienced system builders realize ATA simply wasn't designed to cope with the requirements of a hot-rodded storage subsystem. So along the way, we'll have answers to the ancilliary questions likely to crop up when assembling the massive arrays discussed in this article. What effect does the typical master/slave topology have on performance? What will my power requirements be, and how should I cope with them? What kinds of cables can I safely use in a crowded media server? Read on.

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