HELP! Gigabyte vs Intel SATA-2 Controller...

alexdar

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Mar 1, 2008
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I have a GA-EX38-DQ6 MB which offers both Intel ICH9R (yellow) and Gigabyte SATA2 (purple)controllers. What's the difference, besides 6 vs 2 ports? I've tried to look everywhere for an explanation - the MB user manual offers no explanation and Gigabyte's website is pretty lacking.

I have 2 500GB SATA HD's that I want to install as RAID-0 (striped), as well as two optical SATA drives. Is there some benefit to using the G-SATA over the Intel for the HD's?? I have heard that some RAID controllers can be CPU-hungry and therefore slow. Anyone have an idea which one?
Thanks!
 

janwillem

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Dec 17, 2007
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use the orange controllers for raid 0. It's faster than the purple ones since it uses the p35 raid chipset. The gsata controller is more like a software raid, allthough it uses a pci-e interface.