GA-880GA-UD3H RAID Options, part II

[KEP]

That last thread got pretty cluttered, so I wanted to report back some findings that others may deem useful.  In particular, I wanted to correct the record on this:

You can't set-up both RAID 0 and RAID 1 and get the E-SATA connections too.

I currently have four Samsung F3 WD2500JS (1tb) SATA drives installed on SATA3_0/1/2/3, two eSATA ports (on the case top) installed on GSATA2_6/7, and an IDE optical drive using the old-style ribbon connector.  The four SATA drives are configured as two logical disks, one using a RAID0 array, and the other a RAID1 array.  (The RAID0 is nearly 2x as fast as the RAID1!)  All working well.  These were the BIOS settings that allowed all that:

OnChip SATA Controller: Enabled
OnChip SATA Type: RAID
OnChip SATA Port4/5 Type: As SATA Type
OnChip SATA RAID5 Support: Disabled (no need)
OnChip SATA3.0 Support: Disabled. (no need)
Onboard SATA/IDE Ctrl: Enabled
OnBoard SATA/IDE Ctrl Mode: IDE

Then, it was just a matter of getting into the RAID configuration (Cntl-F during POST), and telling it which drives to assign to which logical disk and how that LD was to be configured.  A final note on one other point...

The add-in card can be used for your E-SATA and will probably be a much better option.

Neither setting for the GSATA2 ports (IDE/AHCI) really seems to offer hot-plug support for the eSATA.  Certainly not without lots of gnashing of teeth and trips in and out of Disk Manager.  It did work once, but I haven't figured out exactly what I did that time, to repro it.  So, in light of all that, I think I will end up adding an expansion card just for the eSATA ports.  Someday.  In the meantime, cold-plug is okay and IDE mode on those ports certainly seems like hinky (yes, that is the technical term).

The main reason I'm posting is to assure folks that you can have mixed RAID on the SATA3 ports, no problem.

Anyway, "Life is Good."  Now, I get to blow it all up again, by switching the four drives over to RAID10.   

[absic]

Hi,

thanks for the update.That's another thing I've learnt today.

I didn't realise that you could run both a RAID0 and a RAID1 array, at the same time, from the same controller. I'm sure other users will benefit from this knowledge and I apologise for my error.
 

[Dark Mantis]

To be honest absic it is a new one on me also. I just assumed that it was a case of either one or the other. So it was a good day for learning.

[KEP]

No apologies needed, believe me!  That's the beauty of these sorts of forums.  In another life, back when it actually was offered for more than being a company shill, I was offered the Microsoft MVP award.  I never really felt I needed an award for what I so willingly did, though.  Namely, participate in groups like this, because I was learning at least as much as I was offering.  Been doing it since pre-CompuServe days.

So, anyway, I used Acronis True Image to clone the setup I had onto a much smaller/older disk, have just reconfigured the four 1TBs into a new RAID10 array, and am now cloning the old setup back onto that.  Any bets on which is fastest of all?  The current ranking, fastest to slowest, is: RAID0, RAID1, IDE.  That last one surprised me.  I had always heard RAID1 added overhead that made it slower than a single disk all by itself.  

A day without learning is a day totally wasted, huh?!

[Dark Mantis]

Been doing it since pre-CompuServe days.

I didn't realise there were any of us left alive still that remembered that far back

I too was suprised at the IDE/RAID1 rating.

[KEP]

Been doing it since pre-CompuServe days.

I didn't realise there were any of us left alive still that remembered that far back

Back when Hippies still roamed the Earth...

[Dark Mantis]

Ah! The good old days. Peace man!

[collidingstar]

CompuServe..

All of a sudden I had a flash back Low Level Formatting my MFM and RLL Drives using the Debug command...
Now what was that memory address.. that bit is still fuzzy..