Hardware raid

[Veritech]

Whats the cheapest way of using raid 5.

all the pci cards i've seen so far are scsi, and those drives cost a mint, i
would prefer sata.
Are there any motherboard that support it onboard?

thanks

--
"Blu-Ray"
2600+Sempron (O/C @1.924Ghz)
512Mb DDR 400
9600 pro 128 (O/C @ 425/540)
Gigabyte 7VT600P-RZ mobo with 400mhz fsb
Raidmax cobra case with 420w psu
Dual 12" Blue CCFL
Blue LED fans
"Cheap and very cheerful"

 

[Bennett Price]

Whats the cheapest way of using raid 5.

all the pci cards i've seen so far are scsi, and those drives cost a mint, i
would prefer sata.
Are there any motherboard that support it onboard?

thanks

Do a google search on "sata raid"

 

[Paul Murphy]

Do a google search on "sata raid"

And the OP should be aware that the "cheap and cheerful" RAID solutions
(particularly common on consumer class motherboards) will be 0 or 1 or
0+1/10 and not RAID 5 capable, they'll also be software RAID. For full
hardware RAID (such as the sort built by 3WARE), you pay allot of money. I
have a 3ware 7500-4LP RAID card in my machine (which I bought second hand
via eBay) and although its capable of handling RAID 5, it performs faster in
RAID 10 mode - that will be the case with all RAID cards. The 3Ware website
is at www.3ware.com

Paul

 

[S.Heenan]

And the OP should be aware that the "cheap and cheerful" RAID
solutions (particularly common on consumer class motherboards) will
be 0 or 1 or 0+1/10 and not RAID 5 capable, they'll also be software
RAID. For full hardware RAID (such as the sort built by 3WARE), you
pay allot of money. I have a 3ware 7500-4LP RAID card in my machine
(which I bought second hand via eBay) and although its capable of
handling RAID 5, it performs faster in RAID 10 mode - that will be
the case with all RAID cards. The 3Ware website is at www.3ware.com

Agreed. If the OP wants to do "proper" SATA hardware RAID, the 8000 or 9000
series is a good choice.

 

[Veritech]

i had a feeling that it was software raid, but thought as there was a
physically controller on the motherboard this may not be the case.
Out of interest what kind of load does it put on the CPU in RAID 1?

thanks for the replies

 

[S.Heenan]

i had a feeling that it was software raid, but thought as there was a
physically controller on the motherboard this may not be the case.
Out of interest what kind of load does it put on the CPU in RAID 1?

Less than 3% according to 3Ware.
http://3ware.com/products/serial_ata9000.asp

Using the 9500S-4LP and four 37GB 10K WD Raptors in RAID0, expect to see
140MB/sec.

 

[Veritech]

sorry my mistake, i meant what was the cpu load using software raid not
hardware raid
thanks for the info anyhow

 

[DaveW]

There are NO motherboards that support RAID 5 SATA, or IDE for that matter.

 

[S.Heenan]

sorry my mistake, i meant what was the cpu load using software raid
not hardware raid
thanks for the info anyhow

On the order of 5-7% using a Barton at 2300MHz, IIRC.

 

[Veritech]

Thanks a bunch guys

There are NO motherboards that support RAID 5 SATA, or IDE for that
matter.

 

[kony]

Thanks a bunch guys

I just noticed that Raidmax power supply in your sig...
I wouldn't try running RAID 5 off of that, if that was your
intention as it's a liability already. It's certainly not a
true 420W power supply.

 

[Veritech]

Thanks for the concern but i wouldn't dream of doing such a thing.
besides i've got two ata hdd and my motherboard only supports sata raid 0 &
1, lol.

The raidmax psu is "good" but no where need that good(i mean good as in it
does the job)
3.2v on the 3v
12.1 on 12v

I had just wanted to know how much that sort of thing would cost

 

[GlowingBlueMist]

There are NO motherboards that support RAID 5 SATA, or IDE for that
matter.

Not true, there are motherboards being produced now that have Raid
controller chips embeded that support Raid 5.

Here is a link to a review of one such versus seperate Raid controller
cards.
http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_con...002343F7CBA6C7836AA8054846F6619ADAC0BEB119CF1