Soyo Dragon+ RAID

[SDaigneault]

OK, so I'm sort of an amateur, but here goes.... I ordered a computer from ibuypower.com. Came yesterday, and everything was great. I had them use a Soyo Dragon+ motherboard, because I wanted a RAID-0 setup. I have two 60GB IBM Deskstar 7200 rpm hard drives. When I booted up and checked out the computer, it looks like there is no RAID configured. I see two distinct drives.

I opened the motherboard manual, and found that they wanted me to install the drivers, but didn't really tell me how. It was confusing (the English didn't make any sense). I did find the drivers on the CD though.

Anyway, the question I have, is:

Can I set up the RAID-0 configuration now that the OS (XP) and minimal software is installed? If yes, has anyone done this with the Dragon+ MB, and if so, could you give me some pointers?

Is this something I want to be doing? I thought it'd be good to use the RAID, since it came with the MB, and would increase disk read/write speed.

On a side note, I checked the internal/CPU temps after installing a game and playing for a little while... the case temp was about 31C and the CPU was 44C. Is that OK? I have an AMD1900+, 512DDR, and a Radeon8500. (the whole system was $1850! and included a CDRW, 52xCD, 100MB ZIP, Audigy Gamer sound card)

Thanks for any help you can give!

 

[SDaigneault]

Just went through some of the postings on Dragon+ and RAID. Sounds like I'm outta luck, unless I'm willing to strip the whole system. Also, sounds like I'd have to make sure that the hard drives are on IDE channels 3 and 4, both set to master (although, some said that it should be set to "normal"?).

Honestly, I'm not sure I would even be able to know what IDE channel these drives are on, how to switch them (would I have to just change the cabling?), how to install these drivers, etc.... I mean, I'd love to try, but then I'd be scared when something didn't work. Maybe it's just better to have the two drives, and use them seperately?

 

[WarpSpeed]

To run in RAID configuration, you will need to connect both drives to the RAID connectors, not to the IDE connectors, and then boot from floppy or CD, having the RAID drivers handy for complete reinstallation. With IBM drives, consider setting jumpers to Cable Select if that is an option. You will see very significant improvement in performance of harddrives if you run in RAID. You should have gotten a manual; read it. If not, see if you can download it from Soyo.

 

[SDaigneault]

Thanks for the advice. I went to Soyo's site and downloaded the most recent drivers. I also have the guide that came with the motherboard, but again, the instructions in the guide were not written well at all... some of the sentences used such incorrect English, it was so confusing.

I've never done anything much inside a computer, except for change RAM. What would the RAID connectors look like? Do you know of a site that has a guide on setting up RAID, that may explain more of this in detail? What about the jumpers... is this a hardware setting that I'd have to do?

I'm sorry for being so elementary... this is my first time at really getting inside my computer and trying to work it out.

 

[WarpSpeed]

I don't personally have experience with the Soyo board, but from looking at their website, I would guess that the IDE 3 and 4 connectors (the yellow ones) are the RAID connectors. You will need to attach one hard drive to each connector using a UDMA66 cable on each. If they are already connected, then you will need to enter the Promise controller function during the boot process and set up your array. I don't know if you will need to make anything different from floppy, CD, and IDE as your boot devices in the BIOS (I don't think so); that's why you need to read the manual. As stated before, you will need all the software for a complete reinstallation. At this point I would recommend on-hands help if you haven't done all these things before, such as installing harddrives and operating systems. It's a lot easier to learn with someone looking over your shoulder.
Sounds like a great system. If you don't really need high-end hard drive performance right now; that is, if you're not doing video capture and encoding or other such work, then you might as well hold off and get used to what you've got. Start looking around in your own community to find someone who can give you advice and help on these matters. Good Luck!