Suggestions for Raid

With the Intel MOBO raid, you get this monitoring software that runs in the background, confirms the status of your RAIDs at bootup, and repairs any problems in a 1 on the fly...

Thanks for the information. Does the utility pop up with an alert if something is wrong and/or does the speaker beep indicating a problem?

No speaker beep - what will happen is, during the boot, your BIOS runs a block of RAID code that 'discovers' the drives, one by one, and highlights them in red if any are showing inconsistencies. Then, when the system boots, the above screen pops up with the drive pair colored yellow, and keeps you informed of its progress at the background 'rebuild' with a precentage counter...

Thanks billbat. I guess it helps since you have software running in the O/S it will notify you this way and every time you reboot. I can live with this. Are you able to put the computer to sleep without any issues?

Now do you or anyone else see any difference with buying a new board over getting the raid card? I'm guessing there shouldn't be any difference but may be missing something.

I can't sleep my computer - to high an OC, way, way too many oddball devices on/in it; were one to run standard clocking on a less complex system, I'm absolutely sure the RAID stuff would not be an added problem - if it were, I'd have heard about it here...


There certainly will be a difference - even on the RAIDed MOBO there will be about a 15% difference in speed between the Intel port's RAID and the GigaByte (jMicron) port's RAID, as well as a difference in the reliability of the software/firmware itself. Partially, this is due to the fact that there are extra busses involved - the Intel southbridge, which does the Intel RAID, is 'hung off' the northbridge, which 'talks' directly to the CPU; the jMicron chip is 'hung off' the southbridge, adding another layer of comms; that Rosewill will be 'hung off' the PCIeX1 bus, which is 'hung off' the southbridge, etc., etc., ad nauseam. Think of the size and reputation of the companies involved - pretty much intel has more money, experience, and personnel than god, and Rosewill makes what - mostly cheap gadgets? Don't get me wrong, I have Rosewill hardware in my system, and it does what it's supposed to, and does it well; but trust them with my RAID? Never happen!