Which Integrated SATA RAID controller to use?

[Radius]

Hi everyone.

I'm in the process of planning the assembly of a new system based around a Gigabyte 8KNXP motherboard. I have 2 80GB Seagate SATA drives that I plan to use in a RAID-0 configuration.

The 8KNXP has 2 separate integrated SATA controllers. The first is integrated into the Intel ICH5R I/O Controller and supports RAID-0 only. The other integrated SATA controller is the Silicon Image SiL 3112. This controller supports RAID-0, RAID-1 and hot plugging.

Has anyone benchmarked the performance differences between the ICH5R and the SiL 3112? Since the motherboard came with an external SATA connector and the SiL 3112 supports hot plugging, I would like to use the ICH5R raid controller for my system drives, then use the SiL 3112 controller for external drives and hot plug.

Unless, of course, the SiL 3112 controller is considerably faster than the ICH5R.

I read the THG review of the 8KNXP, along with a host of others with no real conclusions.

Anyone have an idea?

Thanks,
Radius

 

[Crashman]

The ICH5R controller is on a special 266MB/s bus, the Silicon Image controller is on a standard 133MB/s PCI bus, I don't know if this helps you or not.

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[jammydodger]

ICH5R, esspecially if you have PCI cards.

<font color=blue>P4c 2.6@3.25
512Mb PC4000
2x120Gb 7200.7 in RAID0
Waterchill KT12-L30
Abit AI7
Radeon 9800Pro
</font color=blue>