Raid with ASUS Rampage IV Formula

[JohnJones]

I was wondering if the ASUS Rampage IV Formula mobo supports 4x RAID 0 with SATA III. Their website was not particularly helpful either. I am going to be using 4 SSD's in RAID 0 SATA III, and am looking for advice from anyone who used it, knows it works or doesn't work, and if it doesn't, can suggest an alternative. This is my first post (tell me if i'm doing it wrong), and I have had a bit of experience building. I should be able to decrypt whatever you are recommending me, if I can't, google can help

EDIT: I am using the ASUS Rampage IV Extreme now, but I am still wondering if I can use 4 SSD's in RAID 0 on the SATA III ports, and if I can't, in the SATA II ports.

 

[JohnJones]

Bump.

 

[Idonno]

No you can't raid all 4 Sata 6G ports. Only 2

From Newegg specs: SATA RAID 2 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s) (red) and 4 x SATA 3Gb/s port(s) (black) Support RAID 0, 1, 5, 10


From asus.com/Rampage IV Formula/Specifications/Storage:
Intel® X79 chipset :
2 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), red
4 x SATA 3Gb/s port(s), black
Support Raid 0, 1, 5, 10

ASMedia® ASM1061 controller :
2 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), red
2 x Power eSATA 6Gb/s port(s), red

According to this two (internal, the powered ones are eSata) sata III ports are on each controller and I'm 99.9% sure the ASMedia controller is the one that doesn't support raid since your Raid console is Intel.

According to Neweggs specs only 2 sata III ports support raid which makes sense since for a four drive raid array they would all have to be on the same controller.

If you really need/want to raid 4 Sata III SSD's (without using the slower Sata II ports) you will have to buy a PCIe Sata III raid card.

Another option would be a RevoDrive. Something like this maybe: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=20-227-744

240GB for $699.99
Performance:

Max Sequential Read
Up to 1500 MB/s

Max Sequential Write
Up to 1225 MB/s

4KB Random Write
Up to 200,000 IOPS

Or this if you need more space and a little more speed: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227764

480GB for $1,299.99
Performance:

Max Sequential Read
Up to 1600 MB/s

Max Sequential Write
Up to 1500 MB/s

4KB Random Write
Up to 240,000 IOPS

Honestly though unless your making large transfers to an equally fast destination I'm not sure that you'll see much difference between one Sata III SSD and two in Raid 0 let alone four in Raid 0

But I'll not here to judge your needs, wants or desires, just to help with your question.

 

[Idonno]

I'm starting another post since the last one was getting fairly long.

As far as other motherboard choices that will support Raid 0 on four Sata III ports: The X79 like Z68 and P67 before that only natively supports two devices at Sata 6Gb/s speeds. As a result all X79 boards rely on third party controllers for additional Sata III ports.

So running Raid 0 on four onboard Intel Sata III ports is not a possibility at this time.
There are some options for Raid 0 on four onboard Sata III ports through third party onboard controllers although it seems that there is a host of issues that go with that.

One board that is capable of supporting Raid 0 on four Sata III ports is the "ASRock X79 Extreme9" here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157285&Tpk=ASRock%20X79%20Extreme9

Here is a good review: http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/02/09/asrock_x79_extreme9_lga_2011_motherboard_review/3 "Drive Performance" in that review is a real interesting read.

Yet another solution and one that I use is a program by SuperSpeed called SuperCache 5 here: http://www.superspeed.com/desktop/supercache.php It's not cheap at $79.95 but there is a 10 day free trial.

I use 2-Sata II SSD's in raid 0 (because my Sata III Marvell ports are crap) and 4 - 2TB 5400rpm Hard Drives 3 of which are in Raid 0. Using SuperCache 5 with a 5 sec lazy write enabled my transfers from the SSD's to mechanical hard drives are very fast. A 1-2GB transfer is almost imperceptible. The windows green transfer bar doesn't even appear. The files just immediately appear in the other drive and a 4GB transfer takes about 2.5sec to the 3-5400rpm raid 0 array and 3sec to the single 5400rpm drive.

If you use SuperCache 5 with a 5 sec lazy write enabled it's a good idea to have a back-up battery and then only real limitations are how much ram you assign to it.

Bedsides buffering your transfers it has other advantages as well. Since they are all explained in the link I provided I wont get into it here.

Again $79.95 isn't cheap but IMHO as long as you have enough ram and preferably a back-up battery their are no cheaper viable alternatives that will give you that much of a performance boost.

 

[jaquith]

You can RAID all 6 Intel X79 SATA Ports (6Gb/s + 3Gb/s). In a larger RAID I would recommend at least an x4 PCIe RAID Card, and as options battery backup if the data is important, 512MB or 1GB Cache and if you're really wanting obscene speeds then add to it the FastPath SW & Key with an LSI RAID Cards.

Remember the vast majority is random 4KB R/W and there's no SSD out there that saturates 4KB R/W on even the SATA2 ports (3Gb/s 300MB/s). The tests like ATTO or CDM are copying large files to show the 'max' R/W speeds which is not remotely close to real world use unless you're constantly copying back and for to another RAID SSD or the RAID array itself.

Alternative choice is a RAM Disk:

 

[JohnJones]

Best answer selected by JohnJones.

 

[JohnJones]

Wow, thanks for all the replies! This is for a gaming computer, and I'm fairly set on the MOBO, but I am open. I looked at that board as well, but I like the looks and (probably mostly gimmick) features with ROG. I would even be happy with 2xSATA II and 2xSATA III all in RAID 0. I don't really want to do a RAMdisk, but I know what they are like... Maybe I will just go for 2xSSD RAID 0 on the SATA III's, and 2xHDD RAID 0 on the SATA II's. So the question now is; can I run two RAID arrays without an external card?

 

[Idonno]

So the question now is; can I run two RAID arrays without an external card?

Yes, two separate RAID arrays isn't a problem.

This is mine

 

[JohnJones]

Yes, two separate RAID arrays isn't a problem.

This is mine
http://i831.photobucket.com/albums/zz232/Idonno1/Raid.jpg

Awesome! I guess thats what I will be doing then. The extra storage and lower price is always appreciated.

 

[Idonno]

Good luck! looks like your building a real nice PC. I think you'll be very happy with the ASUS Rampage IV Formula MB.

 

[JohnJones]

Awesome! It will be a nice PC, I'm going to use an i7-3930k, crossfire video cards, and a custom water loop. First build for me, but I have done some (simpler) ones for other people.

 

[nikorr]

This topic has been closed by Nikorr