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What Is The Difference Between A Software Raid & Hardware Raid ?

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  • In order for RAID to function, there needs to be software either through the operating system or via dedicated hardware to properly handle the flow of data from the computer system to the drive array. This is particularly important when it comes to RAID 5 due to the large amount of computing required to generate the parity calculations.
  • In the case of software implementations, CPU cycles are taken away from the general computing ENVIRONMENT to perform the NECESSARY tasks for the RAID interface. Software implementations are very low cost monetarily because all that is necessary to implement one is the hard drives. The problem with software RAID implementations is the performance drop of the system. In general, this performance HIT can be anywhere from 5% or even greater depending upon the processor, memory, drives used and the level of RAID IMPLEMENTED. Most people do not USE software RAID anymore due to the decreasing costs of hardware RAID controllers over the years.
  • Hardware RAID has the advantage of dedicated circuitry to handle all the RAID drive array calculations outside of the processor. This provides excellent performance for the storage array. The drawbacks to hardware RAID have been the costs. In the case of RAID 0/1 controllers, those costs have become so low that many chipset and motherboard manufacturers are including these capabilities on the motherboards. The real costs rest with RAID 5 hardware that require more circuitry for added computing ability.


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