P5B does not support RAID!

[Wiz33]

Just a word of warning for those oconsidering he P5B (non-deluxe) as the so call RAID 0,1 support from the JMicron just does not work. It only have 1 internal SATA connector and one eSATA external connector. While theorotically you can use a eSATA multiplier board ($80-$120) to to give you up to 5 SATA connector so you can run RAID. There is an additional problem that once you set the JMicron controller to RAID in BIOS. It knocks out you primary (and only) IDE bus so you can't using any optical drives unless you get a SATA version. It really messed me up my new PC and I ended up having to spend another $70 to get a PCI-E 2 channel SATA II RAID card to get my RAID setup running. Isn't this borderline flase advertising?

 

[Zap]

Welcome to the forums.

Do the SATA ports built into the Southbridge support RAID? It was my understanding that the JMicron controller was primarily added for the EIDE port. If setting it up for RAID drops optical drive support, then why don't you blame Intel for dropping all EIDE ports from their chipsets?

 

[Compellor]

This board doesn't support RAID on the southbridge. The best way to do RAID on this board is with two PATA drives rather than two SATA drives. The downside would be having to use a SATA optical drive(s). If you want SATA RAID on the Intel southbridge you need to get the P5B Deluxe. Most people wanting RAID would want to use Intel's SATA RAID controllers anyway. The JMicron IDE controller was really just put on the P5B non-deluxe for legacy PATA support.

 

[Wiz33]

Originally posted by: Zap
Welcome to the forums.

Do the SATA ports built into the Southbridge support RAID? It was my understanding that the JMicron controller was primarily added for the EIDE port. If setting it up for RAID drops optical drive support, then why don't you blame Intel for dropping all EIDE ports from their chipsets?

The Southbridge is only ICH8 (not ICH8R) so it does not support RAID. It's just really confusing that you read the spec on ASUS page and you think it will do RAID out of the box and it can't and there is minimal documentation regarding the all these.

 

[Saldrin]

Yeah, I was really upset about his. I got mine from Newegg, and it lists SATA raid (0,1) and then lists "additional raid" as the JMB363. Link:Newegg.com From the way that sounds, it should be two sata raid options...

I even downloaded the manual before I made the purchase it it says nothing about having to use the external eSATA port, All the manual (pdf) states is plug in the drives, enable the controller in the bios and then setup the raid.

I am turely pissed I wasted $150 on this board. I'm not understanding the purpose of this board, one IDE port and a BS SATA raid scheme? I've read that people that did get it working using the eSATA cable and then lose out on the IDE and can only use 2 sata ports. Asus should be ashamed of selling this! But I guess I am just to blame since I didn't check enough of the forums on this issue. I wish your warning was posted about three weeks ago, I would have gotten the Gigabyte board I was pondering instead.