Which RAID Controller on A8V Deluxe?

[Confused]

I am using an A8V Deluxe mobo and want to set up RAID 1 with two Raptor 76GB 10,000RPM hard drives. The A8V Deluxe comes with two RAID controllers, the VIA VT8237 and the Promise PDC20378. Is there a difference between these two controllers? Would one be better than the other for my RAID 1 setup?

 

[pat]

I think you mean RAID10 (stripping) instead of RAID 1 (mirroring) with 2 fast Raptor? Not that they cannot be used for security array, but it is a bit expensive for storage, imho. If you have enough IDE connector, I would keep the promise unused and use the VIA one instead if it is like the nvidia one, a chipset solution that dont use the pci bus.

On my board, the nvidia controller use less CPU cycle than the Promise one. But I would try both for performance. Simply set up an arrayon both, quickly install Windows on it and test it.

I've used the Promise in my last 2 board and never been disappointed thou. But chipset native usualy perform better than onboard solution.

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!

 

[Confused]

For the Promise controller, there is both a single Parallel ATA133 connection and a pair of SATA connections. The VIA controller just has a pair of the 7-pin SATA connections. So for my two-HDD array, you recommend I stick with the VIA controller and leave the Promise vacant?

If I were to test both for performance, would I have to go through the whole BIOS setup and Windows install with the drives hooked up to one controller, and then wipe everything clean and start over on the other controller?

And I did mean the RAID 1, mirroring. I bought the two with the intent of using a RAID 0 array, but then it was decided that doesn't increase performance much for regular PC use, so I decided to do a RAID 1 array for security instead. This machine is going to be used for regular Windows programs like Internet Explorer, Outlook, Word, Publisher, and Encarta, as well as games and CAD programs, and possibly to watch videos. Would any of those uses benefit much from a RAID 0 array?

 

[pat]

With two Raptor, you'd better go with RAID0 on VIA to have one 150 gigs(approx) HDD instead of going with RAID 1 and end up with 74 Gigs of storage. Else, that will be a waste of money.

You might not see as much improvement on speed with standard programs, but with video, yes. RAID 0 loves big files....

So go with RAID 0, on VIA, disable the promise in the bios to shorten boot time, and do a backup on cd of important files, instead of wasting a raptor for that.

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!

 

[Confused]

Ok, thanks pat for your help

I will be going with the VIA controller for my two drives.

I have been doing some thinking and more research on the RAID subject, and one thing I realized is that I would still have to back up my data if I used a RAID 1, because there's the chance of getting a virus or worm. The RAID 1 would copy the virus to both drives, right?

So then I was thinking about RAID 0 vs. JBOD. I heard that for small-time use, JBOD can be faster than RAID 0 if you place things right, like putting the programs on one drive and the paging file on the other drive. However, I am unsure how to tell the computer to put certain things on certain drives, when the JBOD makes the computer think it's all one big drive. I'll look into it a bit more, but for the sake of HDD space I'll probably do RAID 0 and back things up on CD, DVD, and/or USB thumb drives.

 

[pat]

I can do JBOD on my machine but I rather have them in RAID because it gives me more speed, especially with large swapfile with Windows.

I can advise you on partition. make a 40-60 gigs for Windows and programs. Put data and other thing on what remain. inner (near middle) surface of the disk are faster than outers, so you always be sur that data wont get stored near middle and programs wont install near the end wasting speed with long acces time. I dont know if you see what I mean but just write me back if not


-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!