RAID5 on A8N-SLI Deluxe : is it hard Raid5

[toto]

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

Newbie as I am, I can't decide, after reading the manual of the A8N-SLI
Deluxe, whether the RAID 5 is hard or only soft RAid 5 (they just say that
it 'needs a soft patch').
And if it's only a soft Raid 5, can someone tell if it's really bad (huge
CPU ressources needs, slow performances ???). Does this have any interest,
compared to structly soft RAid 5 solutions (with XP)

TIA

 

[Guest]

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

"Toto" <toto@mangetasoupe.tw> wrote in message
news:Xns96DB59ABA8FB7totomangetasoupetw@140.99.99.130...
> Newbie as I am, I can't decide, after reading the manual of the A8N-SLI
> Deluxe, whether the RAID 5 is hard or only soft RAid 5 (they just say that
> it 'needs a soft patch').
> And if it's only a soft Raid 5, can someone tell if it's really bad (huge
> CPU ressources needs, slow performances ???). Does this have any interest,
> compared to structly soft RAid 5 solutions (with XP)
>

I'm running sataraid5 I beleive it is S/W as you need to install the raid
driver/software on the CD or D/L the latest off the ASUS website, my cpu
usage is 1% for everything running at idle, transferring a DVD file from a
drive on si3114 to a drive on the Nvidia takes the cpu usage to 14% and
takes about 3 minutes for 4.7GB



If you have questions about using individual sata drives see this thread
below

"A8N-SLI Deluxe : using SATA_RAID connectors just for extra SATA drives (not
RAID)"

I certainly wouldn't spend 700$ on a addon raid controller until I tried the
one on the motherboard first


> TIA

 

[Paul]

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

In article <Xns96DB59ABA8FB7totomangetasoupetw@140.99.99.130>, Toto
<toto@mangetasoupe.tw> wrote:

> Newbie as I am, I can't decide, after reading the manual of the A8N-SLI
> Deluxe, whether the RAID 5 is hard or only soft RAid 5 (they just say that
> it 'needs a soft patch').
> And if it's only a soft Raid 5, can someone tell if it's really bad (huge
> CPU ressources needs, slow performances ???). Does this have any interest,
> compared to structly soft RAid 5 solutions (with XP)
>
> TIA

This thread should answer the question. Its slow...

http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=377238&highlight=a8n-sli+raid5

This thread also mentions some problems getting the SIL3114 to handle
disks individually. It seems the vanilla IDE driver would not install.
The Asus FAQ suggest JBOD as a way to set up the disk, and use of
a RAID driver.

http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=390717&highlight=a8n-sli+raid5

As for how to build a RAID 5, this is how you build a RAID 5:

1) A8N-SLI Deluxe
2) Install BIOS 1013 - release notes say:

"Fixed system cannot detect ARC 12xx Serial ATA RAID Host adapter."
3) Buy a member of the ARC 12xx family (ARC1220 $695)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16816131004

4) Place the controller in the second big PCI Express slot. I.e. A
PCI Express x8 card will fit in an x16 slot.
5) Connect up to eight SATA disks to the controller. Make
some of them the array, and have room for a spare or two.

No motherboard RAID chip is going to have hardware XOR.
You would be quite disappointed with the results of a softRAID.

The best configuration on motherboards, is RAID 0+1, which
is two striped arrays that mirror one another. That gives
both speed and reliability.

To see what an ARC1220 can do, take a look at the picture
at the bottom of this page:

http://www.datamine.tk/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=461&PN=1&TPN=2

The speed is 350MB/sec read speed, and the config is:

Areca 1220, PCI-Express, 2 x Xeon 3.0 Ghz, 8 x 74 Gb Raptors, RAID 5
(July23/2005).

You will not match that with any motherboard RAID chip.

In that configuration, you don't have to buy Raptors, as cheaper
disks will still give awesome performance. The real benefit of
the Raptors in that example, would be seek rate.

Paul

 

[Guest]

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

Toto wrote:
> Newbie as I am, I can't decide, after reading the manual of the A8N-SLI
> Deluxe, whether the RAID 5 is hard or only soft RAid 5 (they just say that
> it 'needs a soft patch').
> And if it's only a soft Raid 5, can someone tell if it's really bad (huge
> CPU ressources needs, slow performances ???). Does this have any interest,
> compared to structly soft RAid 5 solutions (with XP)

It is software RAID, as with any RAID options on the Silicon Image or
the NVIDIA "RAID controller". The software RAID 5 in WinXP may even be
faster..

--
Robert Hancock Saskatoon, SK, Canada
To email, remove "nospam" from hancockr@nospamshaw.ca
Home Page: http://www.roberthancock.com/