Nforce4 Ultra-D/SLI-DR/SLI-D RAID Tutorial (updated first post)

[Angry_Games]

that would be something you would have to look up the white papers on the controller's specs to find out

 

we only focus on the fact that it works heh

 

but the reality is that the fastest SATA drive is hardly faster or has hardly more throughput than the fastest IDE drive...so really not a whole lot of difference.

 

the old rule applies however...always try to match hard drives (ie always use same GB-sized drives with the same amount of MB cache...80GB 8MB cache 7200RPM drives for instance, instead of trying to use a SATA II 16MB 10,000RPM Raptor + IDE 5400RPM 2MB cache 60GB together )

[peteski]

but the reality is that the fastest SATA drive is hardly faster or has hardly more throughput than the fastest IDE drive...so really not a whole lot of difference.

 

the old rule applies however...always try to match hard drives (ie always use same GB-sized drives with the same amount of MB cache...80GB 8MB cache 7200RPM drives for instance, instead of trying to use a SATA II 16MB 10,000RPM Raptor + IDE 5400RPM 2MB cache 60GB together )

 

Yes, the top statement is very true when speaking about non-Raptor type drives.

 

I am also a firm believer that you should not mix and match different brand/type hard drive in any non-RAID system setup and this rule should be applied without deviation and across the board when setting up RAID arrays. For an example look in my sig. - I practice what I preach! :angel:

 

 

Some companies go so far as to claim that problems will surface when using different branded hdds in the same system, is this a valid claim in everyones experience or merely a marketing strategy/ploy?

[Kilamon]

Can I assume that using 3 drives and setting "striping" as the option is the same as saying raid level 5? Is it fault tolerant?

[soundx98]

Can I assume that using 3 drives and setting "striping" as the option is the same as saying raid level 5? Is it fault tolerant?

 

No, it sounds like you are still on the NV Raid Controller (side of board).

Only the Sil Image (bottom of board) can do Raid 5.

The Sil Image Raid 5 is very flow and you will need the correct drivers for it.

 

I can tell you 3 HDDs on the NV Raid controller in Raid 0 will be VERY fast althoough no fault tolerance.

[Kilamon]

No, it sounds like you are still on the NV Raid Controller (side of board).

Only the Sil Image (bottom of board) can do Raid 5.

The Sil Image Raid 5 is very flow and you will need the correct drivers for it.

 

I can tell you 3 HDDs on the NV Raid controller in Raid 0 will be VERY fast althoough no fault tolerance.

 

Thanks.

 

FYI, the SiI fault tolerance is misleading. I've had 2 drives fail and the firs time it occurred, the drive was making a clicking noise and was not happy, and the SiI just didn't ID the array as valid. It dropped the bad drive, had the remaining two in a raid5 array, and never booted. The second time it failed, the drive was (interestingly) on the same sata interface port and the SiI performed the say way. :sad:

 

I'm going to pick up an Adaptec SATA raid5 card. I need reliability.

[soundx98]

Hard Drives are so cheap these days it's a tough call.

3x 80G SATA 2 Hitachi's run around $120-$130 for the "posse" and then a 250G that you back them up to (whenever) for another $75 and you got some insane speed and backup for like zwei hundo. Hard to beat.

Really depends on what and how much stuff you are saving.

Check out the reads in OCDB entry #1 below my sig. screamin'

just never saw a real fast RAID 5 array.