Looking for the right raid card for my setup

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GregTheHun

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Hi all,

I was wondering, I was looking at my motherboard's manual (http://static.highspeedbackbone.net/pdf/e4437_M4A78-E.pdf , page 40) and I noticed that I can either run one card at x16 with only using one card or two x8 cards in both slots.

However, do you think it would be possible to run one x16 card in one slot at full speed (GTX 750 Ti) and a raid controller that's x4 on the other slot with only running one SSD drive off of it.

The reason being is that money is tight for me and I wanted to be able to add in a good enough card to get my SSD running as fast as possible without upgrading completely... yet. I didn't know how this would affect performance, if it would. (Probably does a lot)

Thank you.
 
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USAFRet


Correct. The x8 vs x16 difference for video cards is minimal at most.
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GregTheHun

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Well, the only reason I asked is because both are PCIe cards and it said in the manual that both would run at x8 if one was is in each of those slots. I also don't want to run a RAID I'm using a sata 3 raid controller to get my SSD up to it's full speed with an x4 card in a PCIe slot. (I understand there will be some microstutter, but better than half speed, if it does in fact go any faster)

So, my main concern is whether or not both PCIe slots run on the same lane. If they do, will that mean that speeds for both slow down, even though I'm using one x16 and one x4 card? Any other thoughts?
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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A single SSD drive does not benefit in the least by being connected to a PCI-E RAID controller.
2 SSD's in a RAID array is not any better.

Your GPUs and the SSD have nothing to do with each other. Lose that RAID array card, unless you have a real, proven need for it.
 
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GregTheHun

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OK, you're still not understanding my question, I did put a link in my original question to my motherboard's manual on their site. What it clearly describes is that half of the PCIe lanes get cut when you use two x16 graphics cards on the motherboard with both slots.

My ultimate goal is to have one video card (x16 slot) attached on my motherboard as well as an x4 SATA 3 Controller card (which happens to have RAID functionality, if that helps a little more) attached to both PCIe slots. The problem I'm concerned about is whether or not there will be a slowdown of both cards because of this setup?

I know I lose the benefits of even having a controller card attached to that, but what I would like to be able to do is have my SSD drive attached to the card to bump up the speeds from a 250MB/s to closer to 500MB/s with the controller card. If that's at all possible. Also, at the same time have my video card attached and not have it affect the speed of either card.

I'm sure this is not a possibility due to the fact that both lanes seemed to be attached in a way as to cause the problem previously mentioned, but I didn't know if anyone else has had a similar issue with it.
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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A current model SATA III drive already runs at ~500Mbps through a normal SATA III port. No card needed.

Now...if your motherboard is lacking SATA III ports, that is a different situation.
And with investigation, it appears that is the case.

So....a PCI-E SATA interface. Let's lose the 'RAID' concept, which was throwing me off. I think just about any PCI-E SATA III card will work, even a x1. Which should not affect whatever lives in the x16 slot.
 
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GregTheHun

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Yes, that's exactly right. My motherboard has a SATA 2 port, not a sata 3 port, it's an ASUS M4A78-E board in case you're curious to look. At page 40 of this pdf, http://static.highspeedbackbone.net/pdf/e4437_M4A78-E.pdf

It says that if you put two cards (full x16 cards) in both slots they both will run at x8 throughput, not at the full x16. What I didn't know is if you, or others, think it might affect speeds of either card since the one I have for my video card is obviously an x16 card, but the SATA card I'm looking at is using an x4 connector.

From what I've tried is using an x1 card in one of my spare x1 slots, the problem is that it actually is slower than my onboard SATA connectors, even though the one I bought I made sure was made for SATA 3 speeds. Then I did some more research into it, but it appears as if x1 is not a good match to get the full SATA 3 speeds.

Now, should I buy the card and possibly get a dud (most likely) and have it run at SATA 2 speeds. Possibly still it might even affect the speed of my card due to the fact the manual says that the video card might run at x8 speeds, or should I just buy the SATA card and see if it works anyway. Since I don't believe the GTX 750 Ti probably uses the whole x16 buses anyway?
 
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GregTheHun

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So, ultimately, if I'm understanding this correctly. I may see a few frames/second difference, but nothing on the scale of half. Even if I do use the second card for my main SSD boot drive at 6Gb/s SATA 3?
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Correct. The x8 vs x16 difference for video cards is minimal at most.
 
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