2 raid0s on asus P5AD2..help.

[pagan666]

im trying to set up 2 raid 0 modes on asus onboard raid controller( sillicon and intel)

one Raid0 as boot and another RAID0 as data.

4 SATA HDs are available for this..

according to toms HD FAQ, i should set up boot raid0 with 2 masters, and data raid0 with 2 slaves

is this correct??

and im not even sure if i could set up 2 raids on one controller,

im planning to set up two Raid0s on Intel controller..

(SATA1+SATA2) as bootraid (SATA3+SATA4) as data raid

if this setup is wrong, then please gimme detail instruction to set up 2 RAID 0 modes.

 

[snotling]

first, there is no Master and Slave in SATA... you only need a master and slave if you have two drives on one cable, that's IDE.

second, you should have your system array on the Intel controler and your DATA on the Silicon Controler.

third, you might want to consider using RAID-1 instead of RAID-0 for DATA because RAID-0 doubles your chances of drive failure and the performance gain on a "storage" disk is not that important while data protection is.

Fourth, You would gain more punch out of your "system" drives by installing your Operating System on the first and other software on the second rather than using a RAID-0

 

[pagan666]

Well.according to the MB manual, each controller supports 4
SATA HDs..Do i still need to set up one raid on each controller?? is this the only way?

When Hell Is Full, The Dead Will Walk The Earth...

 

[pagan666]

on the MB manual, there are master/slave on intel controller...

however, its not possible to set up 2 raids on a controller?

or it just performs better when you set up one raid on each controller?

When Hell Is Full, The Dead Will Walk The Earth...

 

[snotling]

you can use only the Intel controler if you Want then! and disable the other in the BIOS

or use them both as I suggested before, Performance wise there is not much gain or loss either way. I think the Intel controler is faster, not being tied to the PCI bus for bandwith (a good thing with any multi-HD scenario especially RAID-0 and RAID-5)

on the other hand, the silicon image chip is a little easier on your CPU. (also a good thing when using multiple hard drives especially in RAID arrays) But it's limited bandwith (PCI) might cause a slight bottleneck in intensive RAID-0 and RAID-5 acitvity.

This is all verry theoretical, in real life, unless you're building a Database server or Professionnal Workstation for 3D animation, Movie editing, CAD or intensive "photoshop" you don't have to worry about it too much.

PS about your Master and slave mention in the manual, it is most probably because the controler also offers RAID functionality with standatd ATA drives ;-)<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by snotling on 11/05/04 11:31 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[pagan666]

first of all, thanks for the valuable information...

this is my first time using both SATA and RAID.

my Raptors will be used for boot raid and barracudas with NCQ will be used for data raid also with mode 0..

im not sure if silicon image supports NCQ.

so i want to go both raids with intel controller.

but manual doesnt mention how to set multiple raids, and help much noobs like me.

and im planning NOT to make any partition on both raids.

Making partition seems to shorten life of HDs.

my new HDs with several partitions didnt last more than an year. but my 10years old seagates(first 7200rpm ide model)
still works great. i havent made any partitions on those HDs due to their small size (9Gb and 6Gb).

but the space of the data RAID is gonna be quite big w/o partition.( 160Gb+160Gb)

and setting up RAID0 with NCQ enabled would be a good idea?

or should i set NCQ disable when setting up especially raid mode 0??








When Hell Is Full, The Dead Will Walk The Earth...

 

[snotling]

your setup is not a verry recomendable one unless you intend to store HUGE amounts of DATA for a VERRY SHORT time...

On NCQ and RAID-0 I wil not comment because I never tested or read any tests about it I don't Know if YOUR Silicon image chip supports NCQ but I'm pretty sures Silicon Image makes one that does...

This is a Harddrive-forum Topic if you tried and didn't get much responses there it's because many of them have decided against RAID-0 and won't talk about it anymore. because it's unsafe and not that much of a performance improvement. I will once again advise against it for your DATA array unless it's Short term storage.

as for telling you how to do it I wouldn't know how to explain it because I don't Know how your RAID BIOS looks. usualy it's pretty simple, you assing drives to arrays, determine the type of each array and finally save the configuration.

once you re-boot you must supply WinXP with the drivers for your Mass storage device on a diskette (F6) and bingo, you arrays will appear in WinXP's setup like Normal drives! drives!

 

[pagan666]

ive never set up any kind of RAID before, so i just want to try Raid 0 for the maximum performance at this time.

like u said, HDs on RAID 0 fails often i may change to Raid1 or just use as 2 physical drives in the future.

well, if its just fine to set up 2 raid 0 on intel controller, the ill just live with it for now.

even HDs w/o raid fail and need to be reformatted once in a while..

thank you
and i may need more help when my system arrives.








When Hell Is Full, The Dead Will Walk The Earth...