2 Volume Intel RAID vs 1 Intel + PCIE RAID Controller Card - Which is Faster

[Merlin1716]

Got fooled by ads for the ASROCK X99 WS-E MoBo listings.
They have BOTH an X99 Intel Controller PLUS a Marvell 9172 RAID Controller
Turns out you CANNOT run BOTH in RAID mode simultaneously.
As a rhetorical question - so WHAT good is having two controllers ??
-
I have 2 x 512GB SSDs that I want to run in RAID1 for the Boot system drive
I have 4x3TB HDDs that I want to run in RAID5 as the Data drive
I also have a 120GB SSD for the winblows swap file and video rendering (that will stay ACHI on the Intel controller)
-
Will it be better to have a SEPARATE RAID controller card for the 4x3TB RAID5 data
And Boot from the on-board Intel X99 RAID1 system drive
OR
Will it make no difference and I should use the INTEL Controller for the SSDs in RAID1
PLUS a second Intel volume in RAID5 for the data drive ??

 

[giantbucket]

i generally prefer native solutions over add-ons. surprising that you can't have a RAID from both the intel and marvell ports, though (but obviously your RAID can't straddle them both).

so, i'd say option 2 is what i would go with - intel RAID1 and intel RAID5.

 

[Merlin1716]

Thanks - - I think that is what I will try - -
I am now struggling with installing Win7 on a RAID1 drive - -
But that will be another thread - -

 

[giantbucket]

might need to install RAID drives after creating the raid set but before installing the OS. thankfully Win8 doesn't need that, it just recognizes it automagically.

 

[Merlin1716]

So - - THAT'S what I did - -
Configured both RAID1 system and RAID5 Storage with the Intel RST
Seems to work fine. Learned I HAD to disable Link Power Management in BOTH Windows AND Intel RST -
or the power changes would force BOTH RAID1 and RAID5 random volume rebuilds.
I DID F6 install the Intel RAID drivers during the initial system install - - there was also a BIOS option that had to be configured
http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-325718-2.html#5471331
But I did get it all working.