Raid configuration in Asus P9X79 WS, P9X79 Pro and P9X79 Deluxe

[ffrodrigues]

Hi everybody,

I would like to know if it is possible to create the following configuration using Asus P9X79 WS, P9X79 Pro or P9X79 Deluxe:

1 disk SSD 120 GB - Boot
2 disks ssd (raid 0) - Intel Controller
2 disks ssd (raid 1) - Marvel Controller

My objective is to use both Intel and Marvel Raid Controllers at the same time with different raid types.

Is it possible?

Thank you very much

 

[jaquith]

Welcome to Tom's Forum!

Possible then yes, advised on the Marvell then no. The Marvell® 9128 is a PCIe x1 v 2.0 controller or max is 500MB/s / 2 = 250MB/s (real world less) plus latency for the SSD's in RAID 1 on the Marvell.

Instead if you're not interested in adding a RAID Card then keep everything on the Intel SATA ports:

* Boot Intel SATA2 (300 MB/s) ; the OS and Applications are all about 4K Random R/W with lowest latency. Marvell are often data only on most MOBO's i.e. not bootable, but on the ASUS X79's are bootable so if you boot off the Marvell then ideally use (1) one SSD and you'll get 370MB/s~390MB/s but there will be some added latency. In other words you'll be splitting hairs in real world performance. Also, as I recall on many of the ASUS X79's you'll lose your PCIe x1 slot i.e. Marvell 'on' = PCIe x1 'off'; check your manual.

* RAID 0 Intel SATA3 (600MB/s each or up to 1200MB/s) ; RAID 0 I would assume you want the fastest possible R/W at a variety of file sizes and que depths.

* RAID 1 Intel SATA2 (300 MB/s) ; the Intel still is faster and offers the lowest latency.

 

[ffrodrigues]

Hi,

Thanks for the response,

I don't know what I should buy. (P9X79, P9X79 PRO, P9X79 Deluxe, or P9X79 WS)
Could you help me, please ?

Thank you very much

 

[jaquith]

Depends on what your 'use' is and by that I mean your requirements. A generic answer is the Pro or Sabertooth X79, but if you want a more business or need a Xeon CPU then the WS (Workstation) model.

 

[ffrodrigues]

I would like a configuration that supports:
64Gb RAM, RAID 0 for 8 vm's(Self Study) and RAID 1 for important documents.

Thanks a lot.

 

[jaquith]

If ASUS then I would opt for the ASUS P9X79 WS, Xeon E5 and ECC or better a Supermicro LGA 2011, RDIMM and Xeon E5. RAID 1 is fine for failures but doesn't protect against corruption so in addition backup.

The problem is the consumer MOBO's aren't designed to run 7/24/365 like the workstation/server MOBO's, Xeon's and all RAM produces errors but ECC corrects those errors to avoid both corruption and/or a drop-out.