new to RAID setup

[Endymion]

will be getting an abit th7 II with an onboard raid controller, and 3 quantum drives for a rig i am building, but i have never worked with raid. can you explain how it works in terms of partitioning etc? if there are 3 drives, do i put a parition on one for the os and leave the other 2 unpartitioned, or should i not even partition? i hesitate to have the os on the same drive as data...

 

[grimzod]

Hi,

Nice motherboard. You should use ide1 (non-raid) for a single drive and your operating system

What operating system do you plan on using?

Did you want RAID 1 (mirroring for fault tolerance) or RAID 0 (striping for performance) for the other two drives?

After the os is up and running you can install the controller and other drives. The mobo manual gives precise instructions on how to install the RAID controller drivers starting on page 4-1. If you wanted to use the raid drive/s as a boot device the process is more complex.

 

[Endymion]

raid 0
win2k
thanks, that is good to know, i will use a smaller drive on hand for the os, and the other 3 drives in the raid setup

 

[QuestionsandAnsweres]

well actually u should only get 2 drives unless u have 3 ide channels

having 3 hard drives on 2 channels for raid isnt going to be much better than 2 hard rdives on 2 channels

what happen with 3 hard drives on 2 channels is the min transfer rate will go up to what a 3 hard drives on 3 ide channels would be

but the max will stay the same as a 2 hard rdives on 2 channel swould be


basically helps little but not to great

if u already bought the hard drives then go for it. if u havent just go with 2 drives

 

[Endymion]

hmm, i asked that earlier, but no one answered, that is good to know
should i go with 4 drives in the raid config then, and 1 for the os?
how should the drives in the raid all be set (pri/sec master/slave) or does that matter?

 

[rommel]

you dont have to do that....you would have to if you didnt have the onboard raid controller and wanted to setup a software raid config using the administrative tools in win 2k....you can stripe across dynamic disks....anyway...use 4 drives total making two pairs, master and slave, on each channel of your raid controller...then format and fdisk....you can set up mirroring /striping using 4 drives...two will duplicate and two will be used to stripe....this doesnt give you the optimal performance that raid 0 would give you but its good and it is a bit safer in that you have duplication of your data should you lose a drive

 

[Endymion]

data duplication isn't the issue, we want the performance that raid 0 offers

 

[QuestionsandAnsweres]

well

4 drives on 2 ide channels will perform the same as 3 drives on 2 ide channels (if not WORSE)

 

[rommel]

then theoretically 4 drives should give you even better performance then two drives...but not in all applications of corse...so get another drive and set it up like i described....make sure though that all the drives are identical to one another....if this is not the case you might have problems or the system will follow the limitations of the slowest drive

 

[QuestionsandAnsweres]

if u really want 4 drives with raid buy a raid controller that has 4 ide channels.

like the 3ware 6400 which cost around $175 tho. yet performance would ROCK

 

[Endymion]

does it matter that the drive for the os/programs is not the same? is it independant of the raid configuration?

am getting the abit th7 II, it has an onboard raid controller...

 

[rommel]

no i have to disagree with you Q&A....i have done both...and it seemed to be eqivilant or slightly faster with 4 then 2...i am scsi now but i jsut a month or so ago ahd a system using a tx2 controller and 4 ibm 60gxps that ran really well

 

[Endymion]

i haven't ordered anything yet, we have a 40GB drive that we were going to use for the os/programs, and then either 3 or 4 identical drives for the raid setup...
should i get 3 or 4 drives for the raid config? i haven't worked with raid before, so i am a newbie on this one...

 

[QuestionsandAnsweres]

are u saying that 4 drives on 2 idea channels (meaning master/slave config) is just as fast as them being on seperate ide channels ?

 

[rommel]

yeah that would rock....lol....a 4 channel 3ware would be better but kinda kills the whole onboard feature of his board

yeah you can boot from your slowest drive...in raid the drives you use should really be identical in size make and performance to insure the best results

 

[Jfrag Teh Foul]

I set up a Raid0 on my system for the first time yesterday...

I am using a MSI Turbo Raid Mobo with the Promise Fasttrack100 controller. The drives were 2 Seagate Baracudas.

The way I set it up was by making the array bootable itself. I guess the biggest reason I did it that way was because I only had two drives to begin with. I don't know and can't say that its the best way to do it but I did get a noticable increase in speed, and thus far runs very stable.

BTW, if setting the array as bootable is not a good way to go... please lemme know before I get too far along with my current config.

 

[Endymion]

there are 4 idea channels on this board, are they all controlled by the raid setup, or only 2 of them? if that is the case, i can put everything else on one set, and the raid drives on the 2 that are controlled by raid....is this right?

 

[QuestionsandAnsweres]

heres a pic of toms thing on raid

YAWN

proof that 4 hd on 2 ide channels is lots slower than 4 hd each on its seperate channel

unless u doing raid 0+1 or raid 5 etc

 

[Endymion]

that is just a logo...

 

[QuestionsandAnsweres]

if u havent bought the mobo yet. buyt a mobo without raid and get a add-in card that has 4 channels. LOTS FASTER.

 

[QuestionsandAnsweres]

ya i know tom does some stupid crap

go here and look for yourself (make srue u clear your temp internet files before u go)

here

 

[Endymion]

damn, so that board only controls raid on 2 channels?

and if i do that, i plug my os drive into the ide channel, and the raid drives into the raid card?

 

[QuestionsandAnsweres]

yes. win2k can make it 4channels yet takes more cpu utilization...

have u ordered the board yet?

 

[rommel]

no on your board there are two ide channels adn two raid channels....if you dont need the drive space take two identical drives preferably ata100 7200rpm and set them up on the raid controller....format and fdisk...set your other ide devices as master on the regualr ide1 and 2 controller....like if you have a dvd drive put it on ide1 and cdrw on channel 2...make each master of their perspective channel...this will give you good all around performance.

as for you Q&A....the topic wasnt 4 channels verses 2 channel....so read that yourself...lol

 

[QuestionsandAnsweres]

uhh he wants to put 4 ide drives on raid using 2 ide channels..