RAID on GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD5

[alokep]

Hi all,

Just ordered a new PC from iBuyPower with GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD5, 12 GB memory and a whole bunch of goodies. The delivery is expected in 7-10 days. Meanwhile, I have downloaded the motherboard manual and am reading it from cover to cover, wallowing in anticipation

I plan to add two 2 TB drives (to ICH10R controller .. these are 3 GB/s drives) and configure tham as RAID1 (mirror). This would be my first time with RAIDS of any sort.

I have 2 questions:

1. If, for some reason, my BIOS gets hosed and I have to revert to the backup BIOS with default settings, how will get back to the way I was with my RAID1? Pages 87-94 of the mobo manual describes setting up the RAID for the first time .. which results in loss of all data on the disks. How do I get back to my RAID1 configuration if/when I have to re-configure the BIOS?

2. Does the mobo come with any utility to monitor the health of my drives (SMART errors, logical RAID sync errors) on a continuous basis?

Thanks.
Aloke

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and welcome to the UK Gigabyte Forum.

The whole point of running a RAID1 array is that if anything happens to one of the disks the data will still be intact and usable on the second drive. Even if you did a BIOS flash or something that resulted in your having to start from a fresh BIOS installation you would simply enter your RAID configuration before booting into the OS.

The motherboard does support SMART checking.

[JakeF150]

WD Blacks in RAID0 on the ICHR10 is working just fine for me?

From the product spec:
Ideal For

Power computing applications such as multimedia, video and photo editing, and maxed out gaming computers.

Desktop / Consumer RAID Environments - WD Caviar Black Hard Drives are tested and recommended for use in consumer-type RAID applications (Raid-0 / RAID-1).*

*Business Critical RAID Environments – WD Caviar Black Hard Drives are not recommended for and are not warranted for use in RAID environments utilizing Enterprise HBAs and/or expanders and in multi-bay chassis, as they are not designed for, nor tested in, these specific types of RAID applications. For all Business Critical RAID applications, please consider WD's Enterprise Hard Drives that are specifically designed with RAID-specific, time-limited error recovery (TLER), are tested extensively in 24x7 RAID applications, and include features like enhanced RAFF technology and thermal extended burn-in testing.

[Thundergod]

Get the HD Sentinel software. It will tell you so much about the status of your hard drives, it's amazing.
hdsentinel.com
No, I am not affiliated with them. It just works and if you want to know the health of your HD's, it will tell you that.  After it analyzes the info reported back from your harddrives, you can have it upload it to an online database, and compare how the health of yours is compared to everyone else who has uploaded theirs.

I recently bought/installed it on my system and it tells me how each drive in my RAID 0 and each drive is my RAID 1 are doing. More info than I knew was available. But, it works with RAID in case you wondered.

My mb is the GA-EX-58 UD5. Bios F12.

[richardd43]

I plan to add two 2 TB drives (to ICH10R controller .. these are 3 GB/s drives) and configure them as RAID1 (mirror).

If you have 3G drives, why not put them on the 3G Controller?

[Dark Mantis]

I plan to add two 2 TB drives (to ICH10R controller .. these are 3 GB/s drives) and configure them as RAID1 (mirror).

If you have 3G drives, why not put them on the 3G Controller?

Because in reallity he will get better perfomance out of them on the Intel ICH10R controller than on the Marvell 9128 controller. This is basically due to the fact that the Marvell chip can't handle the SATA3 RAID with the Western Digital Blacks. It will keep falling over and dropping the drives etc.

[JakeF150]

Dang, I was hoping with the many win7 driver updates to the Marvell 9128 sata3 controller that they may have solved this?  I don't have 2 more drives to give it a try.

And the OP did say 3 GB/s not 6 GB/s drives, so the ICH10R is the right move either way.

[Dark Mantis]

And the OP did say 3 GB/s not 6 GB/s drives, so the ICH10R is the right move either way.

Quite right and my bad for missing that. As you say the answer is the same anyway.  

A lot of us got caught out with the Marvell issue. I know I have two WD Blacks just running as standalone drives now.

[Badbonji]

Anything except for Intel's controller and a dedicated controller card seem pretty rubbish.

If you happen to update your BIOS, all that will happen is that the HDD setting will need to be changed back to RAID from IDE/AHCI. Then you will be good to go again! 

Also that pc sounds like a beast, remember to post pics of your setup once it arrives