P5AD2, RAID 5, and more than 4 SATA drives ?

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (More info?)

Hi,

I'm trying to figure out what is the cheapest way to build a PC with
RAID 5 that can support up to 8 hard disks. I want to start with 4 or
5 hard disks, and I want to be able to add same-size drives as time
goes by. Note that the only reason that I want RAID 5 is for the
protection it provides. The performance gain (or loss) is not
important to me.

Now, according to http://www.tomshardware.com/storage/20041119/raid5-01.html,
it IS possible to have software RAID 5 on Windows XP.

So, what I'm really trying to figure out is this : what's the lowest
price I can pay in order to have a system that supports up to 8 hard
disks in a RAID 5 configuration.

I know I have the option of buying an 8-channel RAID 5 controller
(adaptec for example). What I want to know is : is there a cheaper
solution.

The P5AD2 motherboards support, it seems, up to 8 SATA hard disks.
What's not clear is : can 8 SATA hard drives be set up as an 8-drive
RAID 5 array with that motherboard, using Windows XP's software RAID 5
implementation ? Also, how easy would it be to increase storage space
by, for example, adding a fifth drive to a 4-drive array ? And so on
up to 8 drives ?

Thanks.

 

[Paul]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (More info?)

In article <3318afc0.0502151718.65f75f5a@posting.google.com>,
snakedjip@yahoo.com (Snake Djip) wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I'm trying to figure out what is the cheapest way to build a PC with
> RAID 5 that can support up to 8 hard disks. I want to start with 4 or
> 5 hard disks, and I want to be able to add same-size drives as time
> goes by. Note that the only reason that I want RAID 5 is for the
> protection it provides. The performance gain (or loss) is not
> important to me.
>
> Now, according to http://www.tomshardware.com/storage/20041119/raid5-01.html,
> it IS possible to have software RAID 5 on Windows XP.
>
> So, what I'm really trying to figure out is this : what's the lowest
> price I can pay in order to have a system that supports up to 8 hard
> disks in a RAID 5 configuration.
>
> I know I have the option of buying an 8-channel RAID 5 controller
> (adaptec for example). What I want to know is : is there a cheaper
> solution.
>
> The P5AD2 motherboards support, it seems, up to 8 SATA hard disks.
> What's not clear is : can 8 SATA hard drives be set up as an 8-drive
> RAID 5 array with that motherboard, using Windows XP's software RAID 5
> implementation ? Also, how easy would it be to increase storage space
> by, for example, adding a fifth drive to a 4-drive array ? And so on
> up to 8 drives ?
>
> Thanks.

Enter "Software raid5" here, then click "SR Discussion Forums".
http://www.storagereview.com/search.html

Here is a sample discussion about monster arrays
http://forums.storagereview.net/index.php?act=ST&f=2&t=18670

Here is a cheap SIL3114 controller. $30 for four SATA ports.
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=15-124-020&depa=0
http://www.syba.com/us/en/product/43/02/05/index.html
http://www.siimage.com/products/product.aspx?id=28 (SIL3114 page)

Have fun,
Paul

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (More info?)

I have the P5AD2 Premium mobo and love it. It actually has three separate
onboard RAID controllers. The INTEL ICH6R controller which allows for up to
4 SATA hard drives as RAID 0, or RAID 1. The second RAID controller is a
Silicon Image 3114R controller whcih will provide RAID 0, 1, 1 0, RAID 5,
and JBOD (Just a bunch of disks), again, using up to 4 SATA hard drives. The
third controller is an Intel ITE8212 IDE RAIDcontroller which provides
normal IDE or RAID 0,1,0+1, and JBOD using 2 Ultra DMA 133/100/66 IDE hard
disks. Bang for the Buck tells me that this mobo goes a long way to meeting
that need.

As a bonus this awesome mobo also comes with two Firewire IEEE1394b
connectors and PCI Express , two gigbit LAN controllers as well as a WIFI
802.11g, 8 USB 2 ports.

If you need more info, log onto the Asus website and download the manual.
Hope this helps a bit.


"Snake Djip" <snakedjip@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:3318afc0.0502151718.65f75f5a@posting.google.com...
> Hi,
>
> I'm trying to figure out what is the cheapest way to build a PC with
> RAID 5 that can support up to 8 hard disks. I want to start with 4 or
> 5 hard disks, and I want to be able to add same-size drives as time
> goes by. Note that the only reason that I want RAID 5 is for the
> protection it provides. The performance gain (or loss) is not
> important to me.
>
> Now, according to
> http://www.tomshardware.com/storage/20041119/raid5-01.html,
> it IS possible to have software RAID 5 on Windows XP.
>
> So, what I'm really trying to figure out is this : what's the lowest
> price I can pay in order to have a system that supports up to 8 hard
> disks in a RAID 5 configuration.
>
> I know I have the option of buying an 8-channel RAID 5 controller
> (adaptec for example). What I want to know is : is there a cheaper
> solution.
>
> The P5AD2 motherboards support, it seems, up to 8 SATA hard disks.
> What's not clear is : can 8 SATA hard drives be set up as an 8-drive
> RAID 5 array with that motherboard, using Windows XP's software RAID 5
> implementation ? Also, how easy would it be to increase storage space
> by, for example, adding a fifth drive to a 4-drive array ? And so on
> up to 8 drives ?
>
> Thanks.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (More info?)

Thanks for the replies.

I've downloaded the mobo manual. It seems that all drive connector
groups on the motherboard can be set as non-RAID, and I am guessing
that this means that I could use all hard disks with XP software RAID.

From what I understand, there are 8 SATA connectors on the board (for
up to 8 SATA drives), and there are also 3 IDE connectors, 2 of which
can be used for on-board hardware RAID, or not... This would mean a
maximum of 6 IDE drives.

Since I'm going to be using a DVD-Writer in this machine, and since
I've read somewhere that it's not a good idea to connect an optical
drive on the same connector as a HD, my conclusion is that this
motherboard would theoretically let me connect 8 SATA HDs and 4 IDE
HDs, for a total of 12.

The first question that comes to my mind now is : can I mix
same-capacity SATA and IDE drives in a XP software RAID setup ? What
are the implications if it is possible ?

The second question is : since I'm using XP to control the RAID array,
this means XP has to be on a separate drive (does it?). Should I buy
a 10k drive for the OS, and regular 7.2k drives for the data ?

My last question is : what's involved when I decide that I want to add
another drive to increase capacity ? Let's say I have 4 drives in my
RAID array, and I decide to add a fifth one ? Is this at all possible
without reformatting (and losing the data on the existing drives) ?

3 questions, and really hoping for 3 answers

Thanks again