Using RAID controller with single drive.

[Warpspasm]

I have an ASUS P4P800 Deluxe motherboard and I have a single WD 120 hard drive connected to the EIDE controller. I've heard that you can connect a single drive up to the RAID controller for better performance. Here are my questions:
Is that true?
If so, how much performance can you expect to get?
Does it have any negative impact on stability?
Do you just plug the ribbon cable into the RAID pin socket?

Thanks.

 

[arsend]

I long while back, Tom's HD did an artical on this. Although you will see a slight increase in performance, you will probably not be able to tell as it will be less than 2 - 3 %. If you get two drives, it will increase more. What does increase in a RAID array is not the Maximum transfer speeds of the individual drivers, but the combined average speeds of mulitiple drivers working together. For more info on the advantage of RAID arrays, check out the Tom's Artical <A HREF="http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/20010906/index.html" target="_new"> here.</A>. This artical is very old, but with the exception of serial ATA drives, and faster SCSI drives, nothing has changed much in terms of performance (like video cards or CPUs).

If it works for you then don't fix it.

 

[zepper]

Actually it's just that the RAID chipset is a better optimized controller than the one integrated in the mobo's chipset. You may have to go into your BIOS to make sure that the RAID function is disabled and to configure your drive on the channel. There should be a section in your mobo manual that describes how to set up drives on the RAID channele and how to use the channels as non-RAID. If not, look for a .PDF about it on the driver CD, the mobo mfr's web site or the RAID chip mfr's web site. If the RAID chip is Promise or HighPoint, it can only support hard disks. If it's SiliconImage, it will support any type of IDE drive.
..bh.



----------
Perhaps the only reason for your existence is to act as a warning to others...

 

[Warpspasm]

I looked at the Asus website and it appears that the P4P800 Deluxe uses a built-in VIA6410 RAID controller. Whether that's good or not I don't know. My biggest question is whether or not it's really worth the effort to change to the RAID controller for performance. I also wonder if there is any difference in stability.