Using x64 can't get Sil3114 drivers to work in RAID

[robo989]

Hello, - please ignore my sig its not right on the hard drive bit...

 

I just bought 4 x 250GB Hitachi 250GB SATA II drives for RAID0, I've started messing about abit with video editing and was wondering the best way to set them up...

 

1 x 4 disk RAID0 array?

2 x 2 disk RAID0 array?

 

or

 

1 normal drive for windows and then 1 x 3 disk RAID0 array?

 

I'm also not sure on stripe size, the default "optimal" accoring to the nvraid utility is 64kb that seems way too high to me, I will be doing video stuff, but still want some decent speed in windows and gaming etc etc...

 

Theese drives also support NCQ, I've enabled the SATAII features with the Hitachi Feature Tool but I find this "NCQ" stuff pretty annoying, whenever you transfer a large file from one drive to another, much more cpu cycles are used with it on, and once the file is transferred everything is really slow (lots of disk accessing as if your pretty low on ram) which I know I'm not, is this a bug? or just "how it is"?

 

I've also got another dilema...

 

I have 2 more hard drives (2 x Maxtor Diamondmax 9s SATA 160GB)

 

Before I upgraded I was happily using just these 2 drives in RAID0 via the onboard Sil 3114 controller on the Lanparty NFII Ultra B but it seeems that the new NF4 SLI-DR has the same extra controller (3114) but I can't set this up except in single SATA mode, If I wanna use RAID I go into the bios and choose "Raid0 0+1, 1, 5" option and when I get into windows the x64 drivers don't seeem to "work", I can't really explain basically its as if the drivers aren't for this controller, and when I try do a fresh install even if I load the drivers with F6 there is still no show up for the drivers?

 

Its really wierd...

 

Doesn't RAID0 work on x64 with the SLI 3114 controller?

 

Thank you for your help, although I'm not hopeful since this post looks long and boring. ta anyway

 

Rob

[Protagonist.]

Here's a little google I found for ya.

http://www.planetamd64.com/lofiversion/index.php/t8163.html

 

Hope it helps. :angel:

[SADtherobot]

Theese drives also support NCQ, I've enabled the SATAII features with the Hitachi Feature Tool but I find this "NCQ" stuff pretty annoying, whenever you transfer a large file from one drive to another, much more cpu cycles are used with it on, and once the file is transferred everything is really slow (lots of disk accessing as if your pretty low on ram) which I know I'm not, is this a bug? or just "how it is"?

 

If you are using the Silicon Image controller for these drives then you should be aware of 2 things. #1 the Sil3114 does not support the SATA2 300 interface, so enabling that feature on your drives wont help very much, in fact, it could cause problems (but I have yet to test this, so I'm not sure, but I assume that since you are able to set the interface speed, you might have to change the speed when you switch between a SATA1 or SATA2 controller). #2 the drivers do not give you control over TCQ/NCQ functions (at least the last ones I used did not) and I am not sure if the controller even enables the feature at all, so you might not even be using that drive feature. The high CPU usage is probably a result of that controller being pretty poor, since most of the calculations are software/driver based, not hardware based like the most expensive controllers. I'd suggest using the nVidia controller in order to get maximum performance for your array, plus the drivers give you a little more control over the drive features. As for the drive configuration, I'd do 1 drive for OS and the other 3 for RAID.

[robo989]

Yeah I totally agree with you...

 

Which is why the 4 Hitachi SATAII drives are on the nvraid controller

 

and the 2 maxtor SATAI drives are on the Sil, finally managed to get em done in raid with a new sil driver thats just been released for x64

 

thank you for the input, cheers, Rob