Intel matrix?

[alan1h]

Hi, I have been reading Toms forums for years but, this is my first post.
... I did a quick serach but, didn't see much re: Intel Matrix raid opinions.

I'm setting up a new PC and trying to decide the best approach to storage.
Gaming PC.

Thinking of two Seagate sata 320HD (Asus P5 Deluxe) on Intel controller
using the matix storage controller driver, has anybody done this?
Raid 0+1 on two drives?
Looking for OS one one HD and games on another...with redundant data/storage for music files.

any opinions?

Or, is it less complex and safer to just have one drive and other external HD for data backup?
Thanks!

 

[13thmonkey]

You are aware that you can either have Raid 0 or Raid 1 with only 2 disks?

To have 0+1 or 1+0 (10) you need to have 4 disks minimum or an even number of disks greater than 4.

But if you have 3 Disks you could do Raid 5 if your controller allows it.

 

[steckman]

My understanding is that Matrix RAID from Intel allows you to stripe part of the disks and mirror other parts. Therefore you could have 2 * 250GB drives, and have say a 200GB striped array and a 150GB mirror. If you lose one disk, you lose the data on the striped portion, but you can recover the data on the mirror.
It sounds interesting (and feasible) to me, but I have no personal experience with it.

 

[13thmonkey]

I stand corrected if that is so.

Seems like a very dangerous thing to do IMHO

 

[steckman]

You can find Intel's description here. If the technology works as described, I think it is a great idea. I just haven't had a chance to experiment with it. If my next motherboard has the feature, I will try it out instead of the mirror I plan on doing otherwise.

 

[13thmonkey]

sweet

 

[alan1h]

yes, that was my understanding after reading the intel info.

My plan...
(2) 320 HD
Raid 0 320GB, RAID 1 (mirror) 160GB?

Sounds great, if it works without too much cpu penalty.

 

[audiovoodoo]

I think you'll find a performance hit from mixing the raid types that will negate any performance increase from raid0. But like you I have not had a chance to play with this. It interesting stuff.

Does the Intel controler allow for Raid5? Adding an extra disc might be a nice way to go if it does.

 

[alan1h]

Using an Asus P5B deluxe motherboard:
Storage Devices
PATA 1 x ATA100 up to 2 Devices
SATA 3Gb/s 7 x Internal SATA 3.0 Gb/s ports
1 x External SATA 3.0 Gb/s port (SATA On-the-Go)
SATA RAID RAID 0/1/5/10 Matrix RAID
Additional RAID Controller JMicron JMB363


... but, rather not have three drives in my mid size case.
Thanks,


BTW, more interested in the mirror data than just speed and I gain more HD usable space than just a standard raid 1.

 

[steckman]

If Matrix RAID makes you put the striped portion on one volume (like C and the mirrored portion on another volume (like D, then I don't see why you would take a performance hit. It would very quickly know which portion of the drive to write to, so the striped reads/writes should see a performance benefit. I wonder if there are benchmarks out there somewhere.

 

[kmitty]

Did almost that exact set up on latest build - been running it for a couple of months now without issue. Asus P5W DH delux Mobo, 1 x WD 74GB Raptor for the OS + applications then 2 x WD SE16 320GG set up in a combined RAID 0/1 config using Intel matrix. The only 'painful' bit of the experience was a) having to attach a floppy drive to do an F6 driver load and b) getting the right Matrix Raid drivers. I use the Raid 1 mirrored partition for 'important' data (still backed up obviously) and the Raid 1 striped partition for transitory stiff such as video editing projects where the speed is useful.

 

[audiovoodoo]

... but, rather not have three drives in my mid size case.
Thanks,

Fair enough. It does get warmer and more noisy. I played with software raid for a while then gave up and went back to single drives an rsync

BTW, more interested in the mirror data than just speed and I gain more HD usable space than just a standard raid 1.

Indeed.. I'm interested to see what it has to offer but I've not seen anything on my travels. If the controller is really designed to support this then perhaps my fears on performance are unfounded.

I'll have a look tomorrow. I can feel the pub calling

 

[sruane]

Yes, I'm using Matrix Raid.
I have a Raid 5 partition and a raid 0 partition in the same array:

http://www.ruaneweb.net/images/MatrixRaid.bmp

 

[alan1h]

Interesting reading:

http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Features/intelmatrixich6r/2.html