Onboard RAID uses RAM

nmarmon

Prominent
Mar 4, 2017
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510
Hi,

I was wondering if the RAID that comes integrated on some motherboards use the RAM as cache. And if it is software RAID or hardware RAID, thanks.

Regards!
 
Solution
I was on RAID 1 back when I was on the Asus Rampage Extreme X48 platform and I've only seen about less than a GB being used by Intel's RST/Matrix Storage Manager. Since I was on an array with smaller platter drives(500GB) and that you need identical drives for the aforementioned array, I ditched it for JBOD and larger drives.

Now, I'd agree with marko55's point about ram being used as cache. Which also brings me to the question, what sort of RAID are you looking at and what sort of data volume are we looking at in terms of transference? If we're talking about a NAS, you're going to need a GB of ram per TB of storage. I would need to dig that info up for you, if a NAS is what you aim to build off of an onboard RAID controller.

In all...

nmarmon

Prominent
Mar 4, 2017
24
0
510
Hi, it is on the intel platform. I want to use the onboard RAID. I have read something in some forums, but in the end I'm not clear on this.

I have read for example this thread in other place: https://www.reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/1tgsvy/motherboard_raid_controller_where_is_my_cache/, and I suppose moreless than in some cases it uses RAM for cache.

Then, I have other question: Is someone use the onboard RAID of some motherboard? I only want to know if anyone has use it and moreless How you have managed to get it going.

Again, thanks for your answers.
 

marko55

Honorable
Nov 29, 2015
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11,660
It will absolutely use RAM in cases where you use RAID-5 and turn on write caching. For a large enough file transfer I've actually seen it eat up as much as around 10GB of RAM when transferring a huge file from say an NVMe SSD over to the RAID-5. The risk here is if a power loss were to occur in the middle of a write, as there's no batter backup capability on your chipset RAID, outside of connecting your machine to a UPS (which isn't technically the same thing). If you don't enable write-back though it will not use RAM to cache anything as you're writing direct to disk, but it will be much slower.

I've used the intel chipset RAID in a few situations. For parity RAID (like raid-5) its much slower than a good RAID card, but for simple RAID 0 and RAID 1 it works fine. I wouldn't hesitate to use it really; just always always back up your data to some other media/drive all the time.
 

Lutfij

Titan
Moderator
I was on RAID 1 back when I was on the Asus Rampage Extreme X48 platform and I've only seen about less than a GB being used by Intel's RST/Matrix Storage Manager. Since I was on an array with smaller platter drives(500GB) and that you need identical drives for the aforementioned array, I ditched it for JBOD and larger drives.

Now, I'd agree with marko55's point about ram being used as cache. Which also brings me to the question, what sort of RAID are you looking at and what sort of data volume are we looking at in terms of transference? If we're talking about a NAS, you're going to need a GB of ram per TB of storage. I would need to dig that info up for you, if a NAS is what you aim to build off of an onboard RAID controller.

In all honesty, the onboard/chipset based RAID found on mainstream grade platform's aren't meant for professional duties otherwise that would, in essence, mean add-on RAID cards used in data servers are overpriced. Bleeding edge technology watered down = reduced costs and thus reduced performance.

You're welcome though just trying to help out.
;)
 
Solution