Pentium 4 Intel 875P motherboards - comments?

[mguydish]

P4C800-E dlx Promise RAID

Reading the Asus P4C800-E Dlx users manual, It is not clear to me if I can get a RAID 0+1 from the following design:

On the Promise RAID, first create a RAID 0 on the PATA. Call this pair volume #1.

Next, add a SATA drive and make it the second drive of a RAID 1. The first drive is volume#1 from the RAID 0 array.

I'm not even sure if this design makes sense (newbie) , just assuming it a good idea.

I thought you folks might be able to help me. I'm expecting this Mobo in a couple of weeks, and I want to buy a total of 3 WD 250G drives (2P, 1 SATA) and get

THANKS!
Mike

 

[weboneando]

using the PATA in the P4C800-E for a RAID 0 is not a good idea: the mobo RAID has only one single channel for PATA so this means that if you set a RAID with paraller disks they will be sharing the same channel and as a result the performance would be reduced.

With SATA this is not an issue because the mobo has two SATA channels for RAID and then you can put each disk on a single channel.

So for your RAID 0+1 configuration I´ld suggest to use SATA drives.

Besides I haven´t been able to set both PATA and SATA to work at the same time, the bios lets you make a selection for using the controller as RAID or simple IDE CONTROLLER but when you switch between this two options only one is present. But don´t keep just with my opinion because I have only tried once with a couple of borrowed SATA disk and I´m running and additional pci RAID controller.

 

[mguydish]

using the PATA in the P4C800-E for a RAID 0 is not a good idea: the mobo RAID has only one single channel for PATA so this means that if you set a RAID with paraller disks they will be sharing the same channel and as a result the performance would be reduced.

With SATA this is not an issue because the mobo has two SATA channels for RAID and then you can put each disk on a single channel.

So for your RAID 0+1 configuration I´ld suggest to use SATA drives.

Besides I haven´t been able to set both PATA and SATA to work at the same time, the bios lets you make a selection for using the controller as RAID or simple IDE CONTROLLER but when you switch between this two options only one is present. But don´t keep just with my opinion because I have only tried once with a couple of borrowed SATA disk and I´m running and additional pci RAID controller.

Thanks for the feedback. I am anxious to learn the details, so your input is appreciated. I understand your point on using a PATA for RAID 0. On the 0+1 suggestion, I understand there are 2 SATA channels from the Promise controller. I understand only one drive per SATA channel, for a total of two SATA drive. (is this correct understanding?) If so, I would need to use a PATA channel for a RAID using more than 2 HDDs?

One other thing, do you know if the Promise controller sustains two simultaneous reads for 2x the read throughput? The write will have to be 1x of course.

I have so many Promise RAID controller questions, because I can't find the data sheet on their website!

 

[weboneando]

I understand your point on using a PATA for RAID 0.

Wrong, the mobo has the traditional layout of two basic ide channels wich are PATA like any other mobo and then it has four additional SATA channels (two for normal operation and two for the raid controller) and a single PATA channel, this last single PATA channel is the one that can be used with the RAID controller and is the one that I don´t recomend to use for striped RAID configuration.

On the 0+1 suggestion, I understand there are 2 SATA channels from the Promise controller. I understand only one drive per SATA channel, for a total of two SATA drive. (is this correct understanding?) If so, I would need to use a PATA channel for a RAID using more than 2 HDDs?

Here you got it right for a RAID 0+1 I recomend you to set two SATA drives striped and a PATA drive as the mirror

One other thing, do you know if the Promise controller sustains two simultaneous reads for 2x the read throughput? The write will have to be 1x of course.

I´m not sure about this altough read speeds are very fast (also the make and model of the disks is a critical factor to be considered) AFAIK simultaneous reads are supported only by scsi drives.

If you have more question don´t just keep posting I´ll be glad to help on anything that I can