What MB for 3770k with PCI-E 3, RAID 5?

[mikek753]

Hi all,

Please, help me to select MB based on:
1. CPU 3770K
2. PCI-E v 3.x for something like HD7890 or HD 7950 or later HD8870
3. in addition to 2 SATA-3 (6Gb) has to be 4 SATA-2 for HDD RAID 5
4. USB3

I don't really need NAS that BTW costs from $500.
Will be just MB based RAID 5 work Ok? I need reliability and nice to have performance.
Should I better to look for dedicated RAID card for this matter and which one?

What I need from RAID is to be able replace failed HDD when needed and have RAID work on 3 HDD while 4th will be replaced.
No, I don't really need HOT replacement - it isn't server, but workstation that doesn't run 24/7.

Thanks.
Mike.

 

[lehtv]

Almost any ATX Z77 motherboard has those. There are a handful of boards that have less than four 3gb/s boards, that's about it. Some of the best deals on newegg at the moment:

Asrock Z77 Extreme4 $105
Gigabyte Z77X-D3H $100 AR

And here are the rest: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...SpeTabStoreType=&AdvancedSearch=1&srchInDesc=

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Will be just MB based RAID 5 work Ok? I need reliability and nice to have performance.

Unless you run some exotic setup Intel on-board RAID or software RAID should do fine...
No reason to get an expensive dedicated RAID card.

If you use Intel on-board RAID, then if your MB fails the array will work on another (Intel) MB with the same, or higher, O-rom...

 

[mikek753]

Unless you run some exotic setup Intel on-board RAID or software RAID should do fine...
No reason to get an expensive dedicated RAID card.

If you use Intel on-board RAID, then if your MB fails the array will work on another (Intel) MB with the same, or higher, O-rom...

No, I don't want any exotic.
Just plain and good RAID for 4x3TB HDD RAID, with SSD for boot

What MB would be good?
Would be nice to have MB with USB3 front panel that can be used instead of floppy or etc on standard case.
Yes, 2 PCIe v.3 would be good to be able add 2nd GPU later.

tnx

 

[mikek753]

Do I need this Marvell 88SE9172 chip to be on MB for my needs?
I don't need extra on top of 2 + 4 SATA
Does this Marvell 88SE9172 chip adds extra 4 or 6 SATA to standard Intel 6 SATAs?

tnx

 

[lehtv]

What MB would be good?
Would be nice to have MB with USB3 front panel that can be used instead of floppy or etc on standard case.
Yes, 2 PCIe v.3 would be good to be able add 2nd GPU later.

Both of the boards I linked fit those requirements. Newegg says the Gigabyte Z77X-D3H board has only one PCIe 3.0 slot but Gigabyte's website states it is SLI compatible with PCIe 3.0 x8/x8.

Do I need this Marvell 88SE9172 chip to be on MB for my needs?

I don't know what boards come with that chip, but you said you need 2x 6gb/s and 4x 3gb/s. Intel Z77 chipset provides those, so the answer is pretty obvious.

Also, the motherboards I linked have two extra 6gb/s ports for a total of eight SATA ports.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Do I need this Marvell 88SE9172 chip to be on MB for my needs?
I don't need extra on top of 2 + 4 SATA
Does this Marvell 88SE9172 chip adds extra 4 or 6 SATA to standard Intel 6 SATAs?

tnx

I would not use those Marvells (pun might be intended... ) for anything that requires performance. Thing is that an add-in controller is limited to a single PCIe 2.0 lane. That's 500MB/s, 2x SATA3 is (theoretically) 1200MB/s. So there is a severe bottleneck for an SSD...

Just use the onboard Z77 ports, they provide the best performance outside SAS/PCIe-gear...