RAID0 reliability on ASUS P8Z68-V PRO vs ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3

[KamalS]

I am stuck on deciding between ASUS P8Z68-V PRO vs ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3.

Fry's does not stock ASRock and Microcenter is OOS on the ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3. I would prefer buying the CPU and MB from them rather than NewEgg(ease of replacement).

Four questions:

1. As I will not be buying a separate RAID card, I was wondering how reliabile is the onboard RAID on ASUS P8Z68-V PRO vs ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3?

I am not interested very much in the performance deviations between the two boards, but reliability under RAID 0 is very important.

The HDD I will be using are a pair of the $60 SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache (are the Hitachi 1TB better?)

These drives will have 4+ OS and programs and hence, I guess read performance is more critical.

However, I do not want to be busy rebuilding RAID volumes every few months, unless the HDD itself is at fault (I don't want the point of failure to be the onboard controller)

To summarize, my question is: which onboard RAID is more of a toy controller?

2. I don't recollect which, but one of these MBs have a limitation of not being able to use SRT when RAID is being used.

Which one is it?

3. In your experience, is the MTTF of 64GB SSDs comparable to the MTTF of the RAID 0 volume I would have on the chosen MB, or are the SSDs better in reliability?

4. What was that site that shows you the price of your components from various vendors. I am not talking about pricewatch.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

1. The onboard controller for both is the Intel Z68. They also both have 2 additional SATA III via Marvell
http://www.intel.com/cd/products/services/emea/eng/chipsets/ec-z68/overview/474562.htm

Compare the boards here (I listed the GEN3 Asus model to make things more comparable):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007627%20600158412&IsNodeId=1&srchInDesc=GEN3&page=1&bop=And&CompareItemList=280%7C13-157-264%5E13-157-264-TS%2C13-131-790%5E13-131-790-01%23

One difference is that Asrock doesn't offer a industry standard 3 year warranty.

2. SRT in my opinion is a technology w/o a niche to fit....at least in the enthusiast market.

http://www.ukgamingcomputers.co.uk/difference-between-h67-p67-z68-and-h61-chipsets-a-22.html

Finally, another feature of a Z68 chipset is known as SSD caching which is where it allows the use of a small (say 10 or 20 GB) Solid state hard drive to act as a cache for a larger ‘traditional’ hard disk. If you are already planning the use of a Solid State drive this feature is redundant.

3. MTBF is a fake statistic in the sense that we really know that no units are likely to last that long. While it is an "indicator" for relative comparisons, these comparisons are based upon many assumptions. The SSD market is just to young to assume and reliable "absolutes".

4. There's dozens of em. I don't bother much anymore. Just type "Buy [insert product name here] in a web search window and you will come up w/ nextag, cnet and many others.