Rampage IV extreme Raid questions for HDD and SSD.

[jpsgaming]

Hello all,

I have a question that I am currently unsure on.

I have a nice system running on an ASUS Rampage IV extreme mobo.


Specs for storage controllers are as follows,

Intel® X79 chipset :
2 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), red
4 x SATA 3Gb/s port(s), black
Support Raid 0, 1, 5, 10
ASMedia® PCIe SATA controller :
2 x eSATA 6Gb/s port(s), red
2 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), red

I currently have 2 HDD's (Sata 3 6GBs) running in Raid 0 on the only 2 intel 6GBs the red ports. (that still annoys me on only 2 intel 6gbs ports)

I have a new Corsair Force GS 240GB SSD coming in tomorrow. It will have my OS boot and a few games and most used apps on it.

I am of course going to install the SSD onto the Intel 6 GBs port (one of the red ports)

That means I am going to have to move my Raid 0 mechanical drives to another controller (I understand the loss of data Ive made backups already)

Would the best performance be to install them to the Asmedia 6GBs ports as Raid 0 again...
Or install them Raid 0 to the Intel 3gbs Ports and Raid 0 them.

I ask this because I know Intel has better speeds and I can use RST with them on an intel controller but will it be faster then the asmedia 6gbs ports?

Or just install them on the asmedia 6GBs ports?

Also if its better to go with the asmedia Sata Raid 0 should I use the asmedia drivers or the windows 7 built in drivers (or does that even matter since I think the 7 drivers are AHCI only)

THanks

 

[Pinhedd]

Platter drives don't gain anything from SATA III, they can be run on SATA II without issue. Put your SSD on one of the Intel 6Gbps ports and the platter drives on two of the Intel 3Gbps ports.

The ASMedia controller should not be used for anything at all, except maybe eSATA. It doesn't have an EFI compatible firmware ROM which causes all sorts of issues. You cannot EFI boot off of any of drives attached to the ASMedia controller and you cannot boot off the Intel controller if you have something plugged into both the eSATA and SATA ASMedia ports.

 

[Dereck47]

and you cannot boot off the Intel controller if you have something plugged into both the eSATA and SATA ASMedia ports.

Wow, that's crazy. Is that Asus specific, or any board that has ASMedia ports?

 

[Pinhedd]

Wow, that's crazy. Is that Asus specific, or any board that has ASMedia ports?

I'm not sure. It's definitely a problem with the RIVE though and hasn't been resolved as of firmware 1404. It may have been resolved with 2002/2003 but I haven't tested yet.

 

[jpsgaming]

Thank you for the fast replies

I will install the SSD to the 6GB intel and put the raid 0 HDDs on the 3GBs intel ports.

 

[jpsgaming]

Best answer selected by jpsgaming.