GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3P RAID Setup?

[bobthebuilder1]

The GA-P35-DS3P from gigabyte has several SATA connectors.

Product homepage: http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Sup...el.aspx?ProductID=2533
Manual: http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Sup...pe=Manual&FileID=17958:shocked:

On page of the PDF you'll notice that some of the SATA slots are powered by the Intel ICH9R southbridge and some of the SATA slots are powered by the GIGABYTE SATA2 chip.

If there any distinct advantage or disadvantage to using one over the other? The setup that will be used is a simple two-drive RAID 0 array. The southbridge has a heatsink on it whereas the GIGABYTE SATA2 chip does not. Will using the SB over the GIGABYTE SATA2 create more heat, or does it really matter? Does one offer better throughput?

 

[teddy3501]

i would choose the the intel raid as it offers more options incase you want to add more drives in the future.

 

[jto168]

Intel's ICH9R controller will be better for RAID arrays (also the reason why there's only two Gigabyte IC SATA ports as oppossed to the six Intel ports).

The Gigabyte IC (jmicron) RAID controller is not as efficient as the Intel ICH9R, and as a result is slower for burst and sustained read/write speeds.

 

[bobthebuilder1]

Final question, why did they add it in then? Just in case someone wanted to run two separate RAID setups? One through the Intel and one through the GB?

 

[Drexl]

Well, one reason was to provide an IDE connector, but I guess they figured why not add a couple more SATA connectors as well. There's also the ability to use one chip in AHCI mode and the other in IDE mode, in order to mix drives that don't support AHCI with those that do support it. (I don't see anything in the manual about setting AHCI/IDE on a port by port basis.)

 

[Ubul]

What is the best setting from the following for Vista 64:
1. SataRaid Mode:AHCI --- / --- SATA Port0-3 Native mode: Enabled
2. SataRaid Mode:AHCI --- / --- SATA Port0-3 Native mode: Disabled
3. SataRaid Mode:RAID --- / --- SATA Port0-3 Native mode: Enabled
4. SataRaid Mode:RAID --- / --- SATA Port0-3 Native mode: Disabled

Should I install a driver during Vista install or Vista own driver is sufficient?

 

[Ubul]

I forgot that I want a Raid-0 setup.