Match harddrives in a RAID 3?

[BrianS]

If I have a RAID 3 array at work, do all the drives need to be the same drive? same size? Is it "Best Practice" to have them all be the same or any other reason you need to have the same drives?

I am trying to solve a dispute between a co-worker and myself so please answer quickly.

 

[netBooger]

It is a little late but no they don't need to all be the same size. But your storage space will only be equal to the smallest drive.

Further Explanation:
The capacity of a RAID 3 array is equal to the smallest member hard disk drive capacity multiplied by the number of disk drives in the array, minus one disk for parity. Example 1: (6) 200 GB drives in a RAID 3 equals 1 TB capacity (6 x 200 GB = 1.2 TB, minus 200 GB for parity). Example 2: (1) 73 GB drive and (2) 146 GB drives in a RAID 3 equals 146 GB capacity (3 x 73 GB = 219 GB, minus 73 GB for parity).

 

[JogaBonito1502]

Why use RAID3? RAID5 does the same thing and is more efficient at it.

 

[bilbus]

I would choose a more popular raid level.
Striped parity is faster anyhow

 

[root]

Thread was duplicate, which is why this one received very little attention.
http://www.computerforums.org/showthread.php?p=862611#post862611