Setting up a A7V333 system

[greenkiwi]

Hi-

I my A7V333 motherboard just arrived and I have started to setup my system. I was wondering where I should connect all my drives. I have three drives that will be on the system: 80GB WD Hard drive, DVD-ROM and a CD-RW.

I have the RAID version of the board, so there are 4 different IDE connectors, however, the RAID connectors don't seem to work with the CD or DVD drives.

Should I connect them up in the following manner?
IDE1-Master: DVD-ROM
IDE2-Master: CD-RW
RAID-IDE1-Master: 80GB Hard drive

Can i have just one drive on the raid controller and have it work? I haven't really ever used the promise controller before (all my other boards have had the HPT controllers.)

I figure that I want to have every drive on a different controller. At the very worst, I'll connect the cd & dvd to the same controller and the HD to the other, but I'd much rather they all be separate.

Thanks,
GreenKiwi

 

[Yeti]

I have one of these mobos, but I only have 2 drives in it so far (might move more from my other system... we'll see), so I can't say for sure. BUT - as far as I know you can use the RAID controller as a regular IDE controller NP.

 

[upec]

You can use the RAID controller as regular IDE controller.

 

[wwilco]

Unless you plan to use RAID for fault tolerance or critical data backup, there is no need for using RAID. However, to use these connectors for a read/write performance boost, I believe you would need two identical hard drives. I would put your hard drive on the primary (non RAID)IDE connector, and the two CD Rom/DVD drives on the secondary (non RAID) IDE connector.

 

[greenkiwi]

But wouldn't having both the CD and DVD on the same controller cause lower performance? I'm going to give it a try with the CD and DVD on the first two controllers and the HD on the first Raid controller. I tried it and the software made me set up a raid device with only one drive... weird. oh well.. guess that's just how it works.

I think that I like the Highpoint devices better.

 

[Yeti]

I've read (but haven't tested or seen in official literature) that you can disable the RAID controller (jumper on the mobo) and still use the two RAID IDE channels as regular hard drive controllers.