Question about RAID controller on Soyo Dragon+

[Essos]

Can the RAID controller on this board run in like a single mode? So you don't have to use RAID, but you can use say 8 total IDE devices? Can only hard drives go on the Promise controller, or could i say put a ZIP drive on it and a CD-ROM? Any insite you could give me about this board would be very helpfull. I'm torn between the new Soltek board, and the Soyo Dragon+, any thoughts?

Thanks in advance!

 

[JameyF]

Supposedly (I don't own one so I can't verify) you can use 8 independent IDE drives on the Dragon +. This is one of the great advantages it has over other raid boards. You should be able to use any combination of drives on any of the channels.

Others please give more input if you own one to verify that what I have read and understood is accurate.

 

[IntelConvert]

<< Can the RAID controller on this board run in like a single mode? So you don't have to use RAID, but you can use say 8 total IDE devices? Can only hard drives go on the Promise controller, or could i say put a ZIP drive on it and a CD-ROM? Any insite you could give me about this board would be very helpfull. I'm torn between the new Soltek board, and the Soyo Dragon+, any thoughts? >>

Yes you can, BUT you may want to read this thread (and others) about slow IDE operation when using the RAID controller in that way!

 

[Outfits]

Yes the raid controller will work SE, but you cannot use a CDRom to boot from them. VIA-chipsets slow down PCI cards there seems to be a problem if you are running a high end system.
It also appears to be suggested by Soyo that you use ide 1 for cdrom/dvd drives and ide 2 for hd. I personally havent noticed
any slowdown problem but I'm not doing video editing or running a raid server.