RAID 5 + RST

[backeberg]

Hi.

I have a Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H motherboard. It has 2 x SATA3 and 4 x SATA2 ports.

I want to upgrade to a 4 HDD RAID 5 plus a SSD for Intel RST. The HDDs are 1Tb Seagate 7200.12 and the SSD is a 60 Gb Intel 330. Both the Intel and Seagates have SATA3 interfaces.

My intention is to install the SSD in one of the SATA3 ports and the HDDs in the SATA2 ports. Is this the best configuration?

Any advice will be a help.

Thanks

dvb

 

[Dereck47]

My intention is to install the SSD in one of the SATA3 ports and the HDDs in the SATA2 ports. Is this the best configuration?

Yes, it is. Make sure the SATA port the SSD is connected to is in RAID mode.

 

[Pinhedd]

Yes that is the best configuration.

Please keep in mind that RAID-5 can have poor write performance in some situations and has significantly higher read delays than single disks

 

[backeberg]

Thank you Dereck47 and Pinhedd.

Yes, I am aware of the performance hit which is why I decided to add the RST to try and compensate. Data integrity is paramount hence the RAID 5.

What do you think?

 

[backeberg]

I just had a thought.

If the SSD is in Port 0 and the HDDs in ports 2,3,4 and 5 then my optical drive will have to be connected to port 1 (SATA3).

Is this okay?

 

[Dereck47]

It should be ok. The ODD will default to AHCI mode. Some ODDs only work in IDE mode. If you have any issues you'll have to buy a external USB ODD.

 

[backeberg]

Best answer selected by backeberg.