*** Official ASUS P4C800/Deluxe (875P) Thread ***

[jose]

I don't have this board but I'd like to know. What the max # of drives that can be used in a raid 0 on this board ?

A friend is considering this board for video editing. He is also looking a Xeon based mobo (asus pp-dwl) which has 64bit pci slots.

Thank you for the info.

Regards,
Jose

 

[shleepy]

Hi, guys! Long time no post.

I finally got around to setting up RAID 0 with my 2 Maxtor 80Gb 7200RPM 8Mb cache ATA133 HDD's.

However, I think I did it wrong, as the performance decreased relatively greatly. Either that, or I still need to do something that I have not yet done. This is what I did:

1) zero-filled the drive that was installed already (with the official PowerMax software from Maxtor)
2) installed the second identical HDD
3) went to BIOS, enabled the Promise Controller, and set up RAID 0 with the FastBuild thing
4) used the Maxtor CD to partition the "drive" (10Gb on C and 150 or so on D)
5) only thing I could do to set up windows was this: get the WinXP CD to boot, but had to put in the latest driver for the Promise controller via floppy, so that Windows XP setup would see the "160Gb drive". Then, when it was done doing something and had to restart, I took out both the CD and the floppy with the driver, and continued with the Windows setup (insterting the windows CD @ the prompt).
6) finished setting up windows
7) installed all the drivers (note: I DID NOT install the primise controller driver, as it seemed to be installed already)

Well, after running, 3DMark03, I got a more than 400 point decrease in the score! I ran PCMark2002 to make sure that it was the HDD's that made the difference, and they were. The reading, especially, suffered a lot.

One thing that bothers me is that all programs see the Promise controller, with the RAID 0, as SCSI.... I dunno if that'll help anyone solve the mystery, but I doubt it.

Please tell me what you think I did wrong or what I have yet to do to improve the performance!!! Greatly appreciate it!

 

[Xeon]

Originally posted by: jose
I don't have this board but I'd like to know. What the max # of drives that can be used in a raid 0 on this board ?

A friend is considering this board for video editing. He is also looking a Xeon based mobo (asus pp-dwl) which has 64bit pci slots.

Thank you for the info.

Regards,
Jose

Well, you have two controllers, the promise controller and the ICH5R but they both only have two SATA connectors for each controller so that means you could set up two RAID0's that both had two drives each. You could always add a PCI based controller however and add as many as will fill up the slots that you have available.

 

[jose]

Xeon, thanks for the info.

Which would you think is better ?

2 - 75g raptors raid 0 source drive $1100
2 - 75g raptors raid 0 destination drive
1 - 120 wd se os & prog drive

vs

1 - 75 g raptor os & prog drive $1600
1 3ware 8 port sata controller w/
4 - 120g se sata's raid 0 source array
4 - 120g se sata's raid 0 dest. array

Regards,
Jose

 

[rpr]

Anybody having any problems with USB 2.0 speeds with this board?

It takes at least twice as long to view photos from my flash card reader (which is USB 2.0 compliant) than it did with my old setup which only had the older version of USB support. I do have USB 2.0 enabled in the BIOS.

 

[Elvis2]

Why is my CSA performance so bad? I have Verizon DSL and a bandwidth speed test says I was d/l'ng At 115 kps! Terrible. I tried my Lynksis 10/100 nic and it went up to 566kps. Still slow to some of you cable guys but ok for me as it still beats the hell out of dial up I'm sure I have some setting wrong. Can someone set me straight?
Tia.

 

[Xeon]

Originally posted by: jose
Xeon, thanks for the info.

Which would you think is better ?

2 - 75g raptors raid 0 source drive $1100
2 - 75g raptors raid 0 destination drive
1 - 120 wd se os & prog drive

vs

1 - 75 g raptor os & prog drive $1600
1 3ware 8 port sata controller w/
4 - 120g se sata's raid 0 source array
4 - 120g se sata's raid 0 dest. array

Regards,
Jose

Well I think that just depends on how badly you need the space. I personally would go with the first setup as it would eliminate you having to go through the PCI bus and I think your performance is going to be better with the first one as well. I having actually tested this to be absolutely sure but logic tells me that it would be.

 

[shleepy]

Anyone have any comments on my last post? I'm getting a bit worried about the poor performance...

 

[Xeon]

Originally posted by: CannibalisticH0b0
Anyone have any comments on my last post? I'm getting a bit worried about the poor performance...

Just follow THIS and you'll be ok.

 

[jose]

Xeon:

I think I'll recommend to my friend to go w/ a p4c800e /3.0c/1-2gigs of ram and
to get a 15k 36gig scsi drive for os & progs and to use
the 2 seperate arrays of 2 - 75gig raptors. Thanks for the help.

I also checked your rigs, which one feels faster, depending on what task you do ?

Regards,
Jose

 

[computer]

FWIW: My 2.4c CPU seems to be limited to 3.2Ghz (265x12). So I'm leaning towards the PC4200 since that should allow me to run 3.2Ghz at 1:1. However, that is only at the most relaxed timings (3, 8, 4, 4).

So I guess it comes down to, is it a fairly safe bet to assume that the Geil PC4000 will overclock to 265Mhz (530Mhz DDR) at the stock CAS 2.5 timings withhout any board mods??? If so, that's my best choice! Otherwise, I'll be underclocking the Geil PC4200. Right?

Then you should get the PC4000 since the 4200 is only CAS3, and any good PC4000 should be able to do DDR530. No, it's not always a safe bet though. If what you get won't O'clock to DDR530, then RMA it to the manufacturer. My Geil 4000 UP is doing DDR561 @ 1:1 and at 2.5-4-4-7, which is its default timings for DDR500.

 

[computer]

I have also found that you can't rely on the reviews to get real world data on these components and benches, they are ok for just general information on what's good but that's about it. Their exagerated due to severel reasons, 1) The manufacturs send these review people their very best stuff which doesn't dictate production run stuff, 2) When doing their reviews they pad things to make them look better then they are because they want to maintain a good relationship with these manufacturers so that they'll continue to send them their free equipment for testing.

If you want REAL data, you have to talk to the actual people getting the production versions of the equipment so I ALWAYS talk to them before making a decision on components. You will get way better data there than any other place. So spending the extra time to talk to people and post questions in as many forums as possible is highly recommended.

That is the case many times, but not always. I've seen some pretty bad reviews for all types of hardware. What I usually do is search for the item, and in an advanced search add words like 'horrible, suck, sucks, terrible, worst', etc., etc., for "any one of the words", in order to look for any bad reviews. That's why I got on this thread BEFORE I bought the mobo so I could learn what was really going on.

 

[computer]

Yes, well consider that the IC7 doesn't even come with LAN, and that most people can't do better than 10/100 on their network anyway.

I think you mean it doesn't come with a Gigabit CSA LAN, right? It has a regular 10/100 LAN doesn't it? Incredibly, Abit has no manual for it at their site!

 

[computer]

Why is my CSA performance so bad? I have Verizon DSL and a bandwidth speed test says I was d/l'ng At 115 kps! Terrible. I tried my Lynksis 10/100 nic and it went up to 566kps. Still slow to some of you cable guys but ok for me as it still beats the hell out of dial up I'm sure I have some setting wrong. Can someone set me straight?

Wow, that's alarming. Please let us know what you find out. Have any of you noticed this other than Elvis? On my first 800-E Deluxe I did hook up my router to it and I got the same performance as my P4B533 w/Intel PRO1000MT Gigabit PCI NIC. Have you tried any updated drivers or did you forget to do any DSL tweaks? BTW, 500+ KB/sec is awesome. What did you do to get that? I rarely get over 500k on mine (1500k/256k aDSL from BellSouth) and it's really tweaked out.

 

[computer]

Micheal how long have you used those Omega drivers? Have you (or anyone) used them with the AIW series and can vouch for that? Do these drivers ONLY replace ATI's chip drivers and are not for any of the media/capture/TV tuner functions? I notice Omega has WMD drivers at their site for the AIW cards, is this the exact same thing from ATI's site, or something "special" as well that MUST be installed with the Omega drivers? FINALLY, what kind of tweaks to they add, is it anything like "PowerStrip"?

 

[Xeon]

Originally posted by: jose
Xeon:

I think I'll recommend to my friend to go w/ a p4c800e /3.0c/1-2gigs of ram and
to get a 15k 36gig scsi drive for os & progs and to use
the 2 seperate arrays of 2 - 75gig raptors. Thanks for the help.

I also checked your rigs, which one feels faster, depending on what task you do ?

Regards,
Jose

Hello Jose

Yeah that would be a great setup with this MB. I also run an SCSI for my Primary OS drive (reliability and smokin speed) + Raptor. Soon I'll get another Raptor to run a RAID as well.

With the Xeon box I have it's used as a server and if you were planning on using that machine as a server then I'd probably go with the other Asus board, but since it sounds like that's not what this machines purpose is, I'd definately go with the P4 and the P4C800-E Deluxe instead. It's going to give you better overall performance for the Video editing work.

 

[rpr]

Sorry to beat a dead horse to death, but one more memory question.

Would CAS 2 memory at 5:4 timings (i.e. Mushkin Level 2 PC3500) be preferable to CAS 2.5 memory at 1:1 timings (i.e. Geil PC4000)???

If I understand the consensus on the memory parameters (system speed>CAS timings>DDR speed), then I am leaning to the Mushkin PC3500 at 5:4 timings running at 2,2,2 timings.

Correct???

 

[computer]

Given if the CPU speed is the same, no. You're going to get more performance from your hypothetical situation from 1:1 memory. You'd really have to have a good bit faster CPU speed on the 5:4 scenario to beat the 1:1. All things being the same (except for timings slightly different), 1:1 is always faster...it's going to give you much more memory bandwidth and performance since it's a much faster DDR speed than 5:4 or 3:2 settings. Now things may get a bit closer if you're comparing 2-2-2-5 @5:4 to something horrible like 4-6-6-8 @1:1 (if such a thing exists). Remember that anytime you run something other than 1:1 (which would be "DDR 400" in the 800-E Deluxe BIOS), you're underclocking the memory. For example, at the 3:2 setting ("266" in the BIOS) means your DDR[whatever] memory is only running at 266mhz. Your 5:4 setting is the "320" (mhz) setting. So, your PC3500/DDR433 memory would only be running at DDR320mhz.

 

[Xeon]

Originally posted by: rpr
Sorry to beat a dead horse to death, but one more memory question.

Would CAS 2 memory at 5:4 timings (i.e. Mushkin Level 2 PC3500) be preferable to CAS 2.5 memory at 1:1 timings (i.e. Geil PC4000)???

If I understand the consensus on the memory parameters (system speed>CAS timings>DDR speed), then I am leaning to the Mushkin PC3500 at 5:4 timings running at 2,2,2 timings.

Correct???

Since you have a 2.4C, go with either the PC4000 2.5-4-4-7 or even better, the OCZ PC4200. Even though it's CAS3 it will spank all the other memory out there with this processor. The 2.5-4-4-7 will scream with this processor as well however and allow for a great overclock even if you just go with the PC-4000.

This is provided you have a cpu that will do it and also that you get good sticks of RAM. OCZ has been much more consistent with their ram than Geil, but you can always just send it back if it's not performing as it's suppose to.

 

[shleepy]

Originally posted by: Xeon

Originally posted by: CannibalisticH0b0
Anyone have any comments on my last post? I'm getting a bit worried about the poor performance...

Just follow THIS and you'll be ok.

No... that doesn't help. I already set everything up, and my main concern is that I did something wrong with the RAID drivers or WinXP screwed it up for me. I didn't follow that guide when setting up the system, so there are a few steps which I find kinda pointless, regarding HDD's. I didn't see anything that could've helped me, though.

 

[Tom]

On the subject of RAID 0..

The P4C800-e Deluxe only has one ata133 connector to set up PATA RAID 0, right ?

So if I hook up two PATA drives(not SATA), to this one ATA133 connector and set them up in a RAID 0 array is there a speed penalty because both drives are hooked to the same ATA133 connector as master and slave ?

(as compared to an add-on pci radi card that would have 2 ATA133 connectors ?)

 

[shleepy]

Ooh, interesting question, I'd like to know the answer to that, too, since my RAID is connected via 1 cable.

 

[Xeon]

Originally posted by: CannibalisticH0b0

Originally posted by: Xeon

Originally posted by: CannibalisticH0b0
Anyone have any comments on my last post? I'm getting a bit worried about the poor performance...

Just follow THIS and you'll be ok.

No... that doesn't help. I already set everything up, and my main concern is that I did something wrong with the RAID drivers or WinXP screwed it up for me. I didn't follow that guide when setting up the system, so there are a few steps which I find kinda pointless, regarding HDD's. I didn't see anything that could've helped me, though.

The best guide is the manual that came with your board. See pages 5-33 to 5-37 for setting up RAID on the Intel ICH5R. For RAID on the Promise controller, start with page 5-25. Just some basic tips:

1) Make sure your drives are NOT set to master/slave

2) Make sure the SATA cables are hooked up to the right board connectors. Use SATA1 & SATA2 for the ICH5R and SATA_RAID1 & SATA_RAID2 for the Promise controller.

3) Check your bios settings. If you're using the ICH5R, disable the Onboard Promise controller in the bios.

4) During POST, hit Ctr+I to get into the Intel bios. This is where you set up your array. Hit Ctl+F if you need to set up an array in the Promise MBFastBuild utility.

5) At the beginning of the Windows installation, hit F6 when prompted. Later, you'll be asked to insert a floppy with the RAID drivers. The Promise drivers can be found on your motherboard CD. You can download the Intel drivers at the following link:

Download Finder

What you want to download is the Floppy Configuration Utility Version 2.0. Just unzip the file to a formatted floppy. After installing the RAID drivers, leave the floppy in the A-drive because Windows still needs to copy files from it. You'll be prompted to eject the floppy when the installation program has to reboot.

I think we need a RAID thread. [

 

[shleepy]

Xeon, my Windows is already installed with RAID set up.... it's the fact that the RAID's performance is MUCH poorer than having 1 HDD installed that bothers me. And it's not SATA RAID, it's ATA133.

 

[Xeon]

Originally posted by: CannibalisticH0b0
Xeon, my Windows is already installed with RAID set up.... it's the fact that the RAID's performance is MUCH poorer than having 1 HDD installed that bothers me. And it's not SATA RAID, it's ATA133.

The stripe size you chose could be the thing that's ruining your performance. What size did you choose?

BTW, it doesn't matter if it's ATA, they are essentially setup the same way and Yes I know your windows is already installed, I've pointed you in directions where you will be more likely to find out what you did differently or wrong and solve your own problem. It's much more productive than me asking a million questions to try and figure out how your setup and what you've done during that process. Make sense?

Hope this helps,