z68x-UD7 problems with raid

[zippytheclown]

Hi Guys, I was wondering if somebody could give me some guidance with a problem that I'm nowhere near clever enough to sort for myself.  I have just built a computer based around a Z68X-UD7 motherboard.

I bought this mobo on the strength of the fact that it can run sli across 2 x16 pcie slots, and also because I wanted to take advantage of the Rapid Storage Technology. 

So I went out and bought 1 x WD 10EARX 1TB SATA 3 HDD and 1 x OCZ Agility3 60GB SSD to run as OS using RST and 4 x WD 20EARX 2TB SATA 3 HDDs that I planned to run as a raid 0 or ideally a raid 5 array, all off the intel controller as I had heard that you couldn't run RST off the marvell chip.

The problem is, I can get the computer to run OS off the 1TB, then switch RST to enhanced mode to use the SSD for cache, but when I try to build the raid 5 array on the 4 2TB HDDs, the computer won't boot, and if it does, only when the win7 installer disc is in the DVD ROM drive. I also got a message on one occasion of a "parity error", which I assumed was the raid 5 interfering with the boot operation. I've scoured the internet and youtube and the gigabyte site trying to determine the correct drivers and installation sequence to get it to run.  I have all the latest available drivers installed, as well as bios f8

I guess what I want to know is, is it possible to run a boot drive running through RST with an SSD (that shows up as a raid drive) AND a second raid array on the intel chip?  The problems I'm having have been when trying to run a raid 5 array, I'm afraid to try again with a raid 0 because every time it fails I feel like I have to start from scratch with OS reinstall and I'm getting bored with it, it takes too long!!  Any guidance you guys can give would be helpful.

My hardware is:
Z68X-UD7 MOBO
2600K CPU
2 x giga 560ti SOC 1Ghz GPUs
16gb kingston hyper x ram
1 x 60GB OCZ Agility 3 SSD
1 x 1TB WD 10EARX sata 3 HDD
4 x 2TB WD 20EARX sata 3 HDD

[Aussie Allan]

   OH! Great!.........I hate Clowns!.........How-ya-go-in  "Zippy"

 I think I'm starting to get my head around what you are trying to do, but first a couple of things you need to know.

 getting 8TB of drive space to be recognized even on this board will be a tall order....not entirely impossible..... but difficult with extra cost

 Maybe a rethink of the overall config might get you close to your original goal

  If I had this parts list with this board, here's my spec build

  Summary

  SSD for OS and maybe 1 or 2 critical programs on the 60GB space

 Go out and buy a Highpoint RocketRaid 640 PCI-E card (Supports 6Gb/s SATAIII) as long as you have a spare 8x or 16x slot available,.... this way you can connect up all your 2TB drives and have a good chance of utilizing the full combined-storage potential.....these cards support 0,1,5,10 and JBOD and are even bootable and carry not one but two controllers on the PCB

 Use the 1TB drive as a clone/backup drive......Format and partition this drive  (100GB and 900GB) and use the 100GB partition as a clone of your OS , ....the other 900 for a good (Internal)  sized backup drive..........

  The 4 drives could be either in raid 0 or 5 if you want the parity.......installed programs can be placed here along with your storage.......with the RST it even allows 2 dissimilar drive configs across a single array......example!..........4x2TB total 8TB  drive array = split into..... 4TB raid0 (drive "Z") and 4TB raid5 (drive'X').....installing programs onto drives other then "C" drive is a no brainer and run quite happily off other drives,.....just change the install path during progrm install to whatever is the new program/storage drive letter is......critical boot data still remains in the registry.

  Be aware.....raid5 will allow one drive to go down and all your data is still intact........raid0 is not so forgiving but parity of read and write speeds

 Hope this helps you somehow.... it's not as straight forward as building lego use to be.......post back if you have anymore specific questions

  Aussie Allan

 

[Dark Mantis]

I think that Allan's answer is probably the best solution to your problem.

[zippytheclown]

thanks for your advice guys, I appreciate it, but was hoping I could do it all off this mobo, if I had known it wasn't possible I'd have stuck with buying the asus sabretooth I was gonna get originally.  one other question, I have 16gb ram installed but it's telling me 16 is installed but only 12 usable, wtf?

[Aussie Allan]

  Dear wtf

  It sounds like the OS is a bit too far down the food chain!..... Bill gates loves your money as Professional and Ultimate only support over 12 gig

 I think you'll run into the same problem with Sabretooth as well...or am I missing somefink!

 Aussie Allan

[zippytheclown]

I'm running win7 ultimate x64, and what I meant by sticking with the asus board is, if i wanted to run a board without the features that are supposed to make z68 chips the top of the heap.  Anyways, thanks for your help, I'll just stick at it

[Dark Mantis]

  It sounds like the OS is a bit too far down the food chain!..... Bill gates loves your money as Professional and Ultimate only support over 12 gig
 Aussie Allan

Where did you get that piece of information Allan as I am only running the Win7 64 bit Home Premium version quite happily with 16GB ?

[zippytheclown]

i've gotta be honest, up until this week, the most ram i've ever used is 4gb, so having 12gb available has been a revelation, and to be honest, i doubt i'd even be able to detect the difference between 12gb and 16gb so i'm not that worried about it but for the fact that i'd like my system to be able to use everything my hard earned has been spent on

[Dark Mantis]

Well the trap most people fall into when upgrading their memory to fill all the slots is that they expect the BIOS to be able to configure them automatically as it did with just a couple of sticks. Of course this isn't possible and it has to be done manually. The QPI/Vtt will no doubt need increasing and the DRAM voltage will need increasing to help compensate for the extra loading put on the memory controller.

[Aussie Allan]

  It sounds like the OS is a bit too far down the food chain!..... Bill gates loves your money as Professional and Ultimate only support over 12 gig
 Aussie Allan

Where did you get that piece of information Allan as I am only running the Win7 64 bit Home Premium version quite happily with 16GB ?

  We all have our moments DM, Don,t we......brain bucket was saying 18 gig while the fingers did 12 gig ... my mistake, not concentrating well posting in the wee hours.

 Aussie Allan

[Dark Mantis]

Thanks Allan for clarifying that matter as I thought there was something I was missing out on here. No problem as long as it isn't something I am not aware of.