Adaptec vs intel

What board is this?

Hi, The mother board is a supermicro x7dal-e+

It has options in bios of intel or adaptec for raid functions and I am just wondering what way to go. Also, after loading windows it has an intel and an adaptec drive management software I can install. Not sure what is the better choice of either?
Thanks

After looking at your manual I do not see anything about the adaptec controller. THe intel controller doesnt seem to be a true hardware RAID, the same as what you get with desktop chipsets they have. The adaptec might be hardware RAID. IF it supports the options you want then give it a shot. Make sure to connec the right drives to it. I just seee the 6 headers for the intel SATA connections though. I'm a little confused.

Hi,
The x7dal-e+ i have in the (BIOS) in setup has an option of intel or adeptic as raid options. You are right as I only have 6 sata drive headers but I also have an additional supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 which support an additional 8 sata or sas drives and has marvel contrler. My system case supermicro SC743T-645 / SC743T-645B has an sata backplane with 8 hot swap drive bays, I have a SUPERMICRO CSE-M14T-B which has an sas/sata backplane which holds an additional (4) 2.5 sata drives. I am using the (4) drive bay along with an sata cd/dvd on the motherboard direct to sata ports and the AOC-SASLP-MV8 to supply the necessary (8) sata cables with sideband to the (8) drives in the backplane. I plan to run operating system on the (4) bay drive with a hot spare and the other two for whatever as these are WD 500gb sata 10K drives and run like lighting. I have 6 500gb sata and 2 250gb drives in the (8) bay hot swap which I wan to use (4) of the 500gb for the raid 5 and put only data on them and the other 4 in that alignment as just additional drives to back up other omputers with that I have on my network.

I really just didnt understand why I have two options of raid with intel and adaptec in my bios as the manual does not give any real details on the difference of using one or the other. When you sleect enhanced mode, you get an option on the next line to use intel or adaptec, only two options for raid? I am new to raid and setting it up so very confused on the difference here of using one or the other. After loading OS, I install my MB disk and load all the stuff not loaded by windows and i have intel and adaptec management systems for raid also. I have loaded it through with intel and seamed to work fine once I got the controllers to work correctly and make all my drives appear, but I was wondering if anyone had any information on the difference of the intel vs adaptec option I have to go with since I have to install over again anyway.

Thank you so much!

The adaptec controller is hardware RAID. Read the following to get a background on RAID and decided what you want to do.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/43125-32-raid

I have read that many times in the recent past and it is a great post for sure. That still doesnt answer my first question of the adaptec vs intel. Just wondering if anyone know about this? When install OS system in raid and with this contrller card do I install all drives prior to loading OS system is another question I have?
Thanks

I might be a little bit grump about this but, quoted directly from the FAQ
5. Software RAID vs. hardware RAID. Which is better ?
For the most part deffinitely hardware RAID. However, software RAID has some few advantages, but its beyond the scope of this FAQ to discuss this further. For further details on advantages/disadvantages of software RAID, check PCGuide.

Follow the link to PC guide to get more detail.

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/perf/raid/conf/ctrlSoftw...

The adaptec controller is hardware. You have to decide if you want the OS or your data on the hardware (adaptec) controller. You have quite a bit of hardware there that costs a lot of $$$. We dont know what you are using it for, what OS you have, how many people are relying on that system, what your storage requirements are etc. So there is no way to make this decision for you. Plus you are the one administering it and would have to deal with things if something fails.

It is best to set up the raid for your OS before you actually install the OS. I would install every drive in the chassis too. It would not hurt to setup the adaptec raid on the backplane the way you want it too.

My $0.02 is boot off the intel controller in a raid 10 or a raid 1 and store your data on the adaptec with whatever array/arrays you see fit that has some redundancy.

Hi agian and sorry if I wasnt clear on this as I wasnt asking about the hardware vs software, In my BIOS after selecting the SATA Enable, Enhanced enable, I have anoption for raid - Options adaptec or intel and what I dont know is the difference at this point between the two or does it even matter which one I choose? Is there a difference between or is one better than the other? I am using Vista Ultimate x64 as OS, Running SQL 2008 and Visual Studio 2008. This server is basically for Database creation and management. I want my OS on one of the 2.5" drives that run directly off my mB SATA ports. Also hooked to them are the other (3) 2.5" drives, one for Raid 1, one for Ghost or something similiar, and one as a hot spare. The other 8 drives i want 4 of them in Raid 5 for data, and the other 4 are just pplain drives for other purposes. All 12 drives are Hot Swap!

I hape this clears things up and sorry for not being as specific as I could have been.

Thanks
Dave

hmm, it seems the adaptec is software RAID too. The drives connected in the 8bay backplane are connected to the adaptec controller. The drives connected to the motherboard are connected to the intel controller. Boot of the intel just as you are saying. I'm not sure I understand something. Is it making you choose between adapted or intel as a raid controller, or can you use both? I would hope you could take advantage of them both. If not, go with the adaptec since it handles 8 drives and you are doing the raid 5 with stuff in that backplane.

Thanks again,
I dont think the intel or the adaptec are software based as its in the (Bios) set up or CMOS area. When in Cmos I get to choose SATA (enable/disable), then the next is Enhanced (enable/disable), If I enable enhanced, it then give a choice between adaptec or intel? I assume this is not software as its on the MB in CMOS. Then when I exit COMS it reboots and I press Ctrl+I and another oprtion is ctrl+M. Which gives me a chance to set up raid beefore loading OS. Then its ready for OS and I can add drivers once I get into Windows set up for raid and other things like my controler card which uses a marval controller. Separate from this MB raid controler. it is just so confusing these days. The marvel controler just controls the (8) drives and supports raid 0,1,5,10. I am wondering if there is a conflict here but Supermicro says there isnt. But in the least, I still cant get it to work!
Merry X-mass btw
Thanks
Dave

I think I finally although very painstaking figured it out. My add on card is only raid software supported. I need to spend the 500 and get a supermicro card that is hardware raid. Merry x-mass and happy new year!
Dave