RAID... nForce4 or Windows 2K3?

[Calab]

Running a file server on a DFI mainboard with an nForce 4 chipset. I have
three 1TB SATA drives that I am putting into a RAID5 array.

Should I utilize the RAID offerred by the nForce chipset, or should I just
run the drives as normal SATA and let Windows 2003 handle the RAID
functions?

 

[Paul]

Running a file server on a DFI mainboard with an nForce 4 chipset. I
have three 1TB SATA drives that I am putting into a RAID5 array.

Should I utilize the RAID offerred by the nForce chipset, or should I
just run the drives as normal SATA and let Windows 2003 handle the RAID
functions?

They're probably both "soft RAID", so software computes the XOR for the
parity volume.

To be absolutely sure, you'd need to find benchmarks somewhere.

It would be a good idea, to have the server on a UPS, so that a
power failure cannot interrupt an update before it is completed
on all disks. Some UPS have a status output, which can be used
to do a controlled shutdown of the server on a power failure.

http://www.sr5tech.com/raid5.htm

Paul