Need Advice on raid..

[Teikoshen]

heya..

here's my question..

i currently have exhausted all my IDE slots on my Mobo..

1 hd, 1 zip, 1 dvd and 1 cd-rw

i'm thinking of getting another 1hd.. but problem is running out of IDE slots..

is there anyway i can get more IDE slots?
1) my friend suggested on using raid, since my mobo is equipped with raid capabilities.. but i don't know much about raid.. anyone have any good sites or any can tell me what exactly does raid do?
2) i don't really wanna use a promise card since i heard it kinda slows down the booting speed of the computer

here's my currently comp specs

Iwill 266-R
Athlon Tbird 1ghz 266fbs
Maxtor 30gb 7200rpm HDD
512mb DDR pc2100

thanks in advance

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by teikoshen on 10/03/01 11:17 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[CALV]

Depending on the board, you can probably use the extra 2 raid connectors for 4 additional ide devices, I believe though that not all boards allow the use of these unless you use raid, I know mine- kt7a does allow this.
Failing that, you can pick up a controllercard that fits into a pci slot to give you extra channels, they arnt expensive.

Next time you wave - use all your fingers

 

[Guest]

hey,

The KK266R and KA266R have got IDE Raid built in. This is ATA 100/66/33 so you can go ahead use it with your disks.

RAID means Reduntand Array of Inexpensive Disks. Basically, you can plug in a couple of drives and use them as one.

The options you've got are RAID 0 and RAID 1.

RAID 0 is using both drives simultaneously. There is no data protection, but it's fast, and get the the full capacity of your two *identicle* drives (or 2x the smaller drive if they are different).

Raid 1 - also known as mirroring - means that if a drive crashes you're ok as the data is on *both* drives, but you only get the effective capacity of one of them, as the other contains the same data. reading can still be fast if the controller is any good.

<A HREF="http://www.adaptec.com" target="_new">www.adaptec.com</A> has some good info about raid.

 

[Teikoshen]

ic... ok thanks! that answers my question

 

[mark_h]

like rjb263 says , also you dont need to use raid if you dont want to
you can just use the ide ports as 2 extras, giving you 8 ide channels in all
hope this helps???

 

[Teikoshen]

hmm well the thing is.. i've tried using a promise card before.. that time i had my old pc.. was like a 400 celeron.. or something similar. using an Abit rev2 mobo.. can't remember the full specs

the promise card kinda made my bootup time 2xs or more longer.. that's why i'm trying not to use my promise card..

since my current mobo is equiped with raid capabilities.. might as well just take advantage of it

just hope that the set up goes smoothly