Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.gigabyte (
More info?)
Hi,
Unless you use the ITE (aka Gigaraid) controller you cannot use PATA discs
in RAID on an 8KNXP unless you purchase a new IDE PATA RAID controller (EG
Promise as already mentioned by you). These aren't too expensive thankfully,
but the SATA ones are very competitive price wise.
If I were you I would check out the ITE RAID firwmare and driver versions
and perform a trial install along with benchmark. There were *many* reports
that the old drivers ran like legless dogs, but there were also a few that
reported that some driver updates of a few months ago indicated this was a
thing of the past. Very little news since.
If you have the opportunity then swap the PATA drives for SATA and use the
onboard ICH5R raid controller. ICH5R is reliable, easy to use, and Intel has
had a couple of updates for it in recent months. With the Intel RAID you can
build a RAID 1 set while online in Windows (this is called RAID ready) - so
the documentation and one person on this news group have said. I have yet to
try it, however I do wilfully break my RAID 1 mirror in some situations and
let Windows rebuild it afterwards.
- Tim
"EtienneD" <edieppedalle@bigfoot.spam> wrote in message
news:4147483a$0$23865$626a14ce@news.free.fr...
> Thank you again, I'm ready to follow your advices if you can be a little
> more specific on how to use ICH5R Raid with Pata drives and Raid 1.
> By now I'm not sure to understand how it's possible.
> I read further many more forums and, I'm afraid, I have to agree with
> what
> you think:
> GigaRaid controller looks like a very poor one.
>
> EtienneD
>
> "Richard Dower" <richarddower@hotmail.com> a écrit dans le message de
> news:
> ci72j0$edb$1@kermit.esat.net...
>>
>> "Tim" <Tim@NoSpam.com> wrote in message
> news:ci5aeb$shb$1@lust.ihug.co.nz...
>> > Richard,
>> >
>> > Huh? Are you telling the OP to get SATA / PATA converters?
>> > Are you having one of those special moments?
>> >
>> > The OP is correct, the ICH5R only connects SATA drives - there is no
>> > socketing for PATA on it other than the stock IDE which are limited to
>> > plain IDE.
>> >
>> > Etienne:
>> >
>> > The latest drivers are supposed to have overcome the performance issues
> of
>> > the past although I understand that the ITE firmware is quite overdue
>> > an
>> > upgrade in the Gigabyte bios (it is loaded as part of it). So, you
> should
>> > be able to get at least satisfactory performance out of it. Either that
> or
>> > buy a reputable IDE PATA RAID controller... I would go to the Gigabyte
> web
>> > site and ITE, and check all driver versions available. If the GB bios
>> > is
>> > not up to date then email GB and complain loudly. They seem to forget
>> > these kind of things.
>>
>> Or one cold get a SATA controller card,
>>
>>
>
>