RAID help

[Bob565656]

I was thinking of creating a RAID-5 with five 2TB drives. Since I want to keep this cheap, I have two options:

1) Install Windows Server 2008 R2 and do software raid5.
2) My P5Q3 motherboard supports RAID 5 and I can do it thru that.

One of my main concerns is this: do the drives that are part of the raid have to be on all the time? Since this will only be used for backup, I want it to remain off most of the time. Can I achieve this with either of my two options? Thanks

 

[zigzag3143]

I was thinking of creating a RAID-5 with five 2TB drives. Since I want to keep this cheap, I have two options:

1) Install Windows Server 2008 R2 and do software raid5.
2) My P5Q3 motherboard supports RAID 5 and I can do it thru that.

One of my main concerns is this: do the drives that are part of the raid have to be on all the time? Since this will only be used for backup, I want it to remain off most of the time. Can I achieve this with either of my two options? Thanks

You want RAID 5 2-TB capacity and cheap? The drives cant be spun down (i dont believe) in hardware but may be able to in software google it.


Ken J