bmorgan98 Posted September 20, 2006 Posted September 20, 2006 I tried to boot from a PCI-E 4X SCSI RAID card last night and was unable to make that happen. The cheapy 1X sata card should be here today so I can give a shot at booting off that but it doesn't look promising. Looks like the only thing a card will gain me is more disk space. The only other option I can come up with is dual booting and installing Windows to the SCSI card from the first install on the SIL controller. That's a pretty lame solution to the problem for me.. Surely a pcie 1x card will still gain better performance due to it not going thru the pci bus? So it says on this site interfacebus that site says pcie 1x is 250MBps so thats nearly double the bandwidth of the pci bus Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPDMF Posted September 20, 2006 Posted September 20, 2006 The 1X card I picked up is a 2 port so I know I won't be anywhere close to 250MB/S with 2 Raptors. I was really hoping the SCSI card would boot for me. The only thing keeping this board from being the premier socket 939 board is it does not have the ability to run high end arrays that some of us have become accustomed to. I will update my progress with the 1X card tonight if it is here.. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiLvABuLLetZ Posted September 21, 2006 Posted September 21, 2006 Enable ULI HPET in the bios and that'll sort out the xi-fi issue... I'm curious.. What is the x-fi issue? I have it enabled now.. Heard it fixed something with the card. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPDMF Posted September 21, 2006 Posted September 21, 2006 Won't boot off the 1X card either. Benchmarks are OK averaging 100MB/Sec with 64K stripe and default 4K cluster. Didn't want to invest too much time if it didn't work. Time to start looking for a board that will meet my needs. The one thing that still stands out in my mind is there are a number of CFX3200 boards out there without any issues at all, from what we have been told the problem is every board should have the same problem. What is different about them? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chopper_UK Posted September 21, 2006 Posted September 21, 2006 Ok a quick update, I tried the new Bios with the new Driver as it has been released on the DFI download page, did nothing for me. Same old problem. For now I have switched to the sil controller and it all runs fine, it's just a shame I cant run at the 3 gig Sata II speed.:sad: Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiro_uspsss Posted September 22, 2006 Posted September 22, 2006 didnt someone try to start a thing with the serial numbers or something to try & discern differences... i also find it odd that some of u have stuffed boards & others dont... i reckon we all should post at least some kind of info - whether it b serial number, rev number etc etc - to c if there is a clue... i admit though that i am a lil clueless as to WHAT info we should post.. any ideas? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPDMF Posted September 23, 2006 Posted September 23, 2006 After having no success booting with an LSI SCSI RAID card in the lower PCI-E X16 slot I tried a $20 PCI-E 1X card based on the SIL 3132 and was able to boot from it after I redownloaded then used a new floppy for the drivers and run windows without issue. I borrowed a HighPoint RocketRaid 2300 Four port Sata 2 PCI-E 1X card from a friend and was again able to boot, install Windows and run it without problems. I was limited on time to test with the Highpoint 2300 because it was a friends card and while I had it he was not able to use his rig. Ran a few benches averaging 216 mb/sec reads and 190 writes with 4 Raptors and a 64K stripe and default 4K cluster. Cost becomes an issue with this card though as it retails close to $120. Link to card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16816115029 The 3132 card isn't any faster than the SIL 3114 that is on the board with my sata 1.5 raptors but it is sata 2 capable and is a very cheap alternative for those runing a 2X sata array. Which leaves the SIL 3114 for other drive arrays or storage drives.. Both cards I have tested will fit between my 2 7800GT's with NV silencers on them, it is a bit tight and I did see a 3 degree rise in loaded tepms on the top card but I do have waterblocks waiting to be put back on the cards when everything is sorted out.. Neither of these options are a decent solution to a bum board with a controller from a company that is now owned by ATI's competition. I'm stuck with a semi-bum board as I bought it second hand fresh back from RMA with the ULI issue supposedly fixed.. Every manfactuer that used the ULI controller has some issues with it so it is not a DFI exclusive problem but the answer of why the problem exists is not a reasonable one either because there wouldn't be any boards without the issue, which leads me to believe there was a run of bad ULI controllers, but all the boards that I have seen have the Option Rom cannot invoke error if RAID is enabled on the ULI and the SIL is enabled for any setup which is also unnaceptable and could not have been missed during testing at the factory. Sorry for the long post. Back to bashing Nvidia for not doing anything.. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiro_uspsss Posted September 23, 2006 Posted September 23, 2006 CPDMF: from u - "...but all the boards that I have seen have the Option Rom cannot invoke error if RAID is enabled on the ULI and the SIL is enabled for any setup which is also unnaceptable and could not have been missed during testing at the factory." could u clarify esp in regards to the Option ROM u mentioned? what does it do? is it better enabled or disabled? i just checked my BIOS & IF it is what ur talking about, mine is disabled.. r u saying that with it enabled ppl start getting errors? My mobo is not buggy - but i would b wiling to enable it to c if i do get errors, if it helps... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPDMF Posted September 23, 2006 Posted September 23, 2006 While you have the raid enabled on the ULI, set the SIL3114 to RAID 0 1 5 etc setting and then watch the RAID set up page right before boot and see if you get a Warning Option Rom cannot invoke message. It may be at the top of the page overwriting the other words or may be about 3/4 of the way down the page. This is a seperate deal that I have seen with all CFX's so far. Makes it so you cannot run a boot RAID array on the ULI and still have a drive on the SIL.. Edit: Thank you for the taking the time to help out.. Maybe we can find the difference between bugged and non-bugged boards.. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiro_uspsss Posted September 23, 2006 Posted September 23, 2006 . a brick! I enabled the SI to what u said - i got no error msg though... BUT ran HD Tune for u, to c if it made a diff - AND what a DIFF: before enabling min transfer rate was approx. 60mb/s, after enabling a low 20mb/s, max was about same, average dropped from 100 to 89, burst rate went from 305 to 160 & CPU usage went from 3% to 10%... is there anything else u'd like me to test? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPDMF Posted September 23, 2006 Posted September 23, 2006 Check the event viewer in windows for errors with 5288 in them. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiro_uspsss Posted September 23, 2006 Posted September 23, 2006 now u'll really hate me - just to add to the confusion, i ran HD Tach.. no signficant figures changed in either 8mb or 32mb zone tests... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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