2 Raid Cards

[imported_deibs]

I was wondering if it is possible to use two raid cards on the same computer? For example i have a FastTrak TX2200 and a TX 4200. I'd like to use the 2200 for two Raptors and the 4200 for 4 drives that i will put in 0/1.

I remember having problems with 2 raid cards on my other computer so i'm wondering if it is at all possible to even use 2 raid cards at the same time.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

It depends upon the cards. Some can, some can't. I'm not sure about those two, but I will research it... I know the Broadcom cards do very well, FYI.
Tas.

 

[imported_deibs]

Yeah that was the problem with my last computer,, the two cards were different and didn't wanna work together. But you would think that the two cards made by the same Manufactuer should work.. The driver disk that came with either card was exactly the same!

 

[imported_deibs]

You don't happen to have a list of Raid Cards thatdo work together?? All my drives are SATA and i need a 4 port and a 2 port.

Maybe a second question here.. If i was to purchase two 4 port cards.. TX4200's would they be able to work together??? The extra $ isn't a problem.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

How much money isn't a problem? If you could, go for a 8 port. What expansion bus are you planning on putting this in? PCI-X would be an easy decision, but if it's PCI, I'll have to do some research, and I'll let you know. Yeah work.
Tas.

 

[imported_deibs]

Yeah i can go for an 8 port card.. it's on a MSI K8N Neo2 board,, so PCI.

The way i'd like it setup is, (if this could work on an 8 port card)
2 Raptors in Raid 0 -- for windows
4 Maxtor 200gb's in Raid 0/1 -- for music

It's a DJ system, so i'd like to have the speed in Windows, plus the Redundancy for the music.

 

[Satyrist]

I know from experience attempting to put a hdd onto a promise 133ultra ide card, (making it bootable) and having a promise fasttrak 100 in the same machine will make the 133ultra card go into coniptions and refuse to boot...I've tried forcing IRQ addresses and a couple of other things, to no avail.

 

[imported_deibs]

Yeah kinda where i'm at now.. One card will boot but not the other.... i get a Code 10 error in Windows, Device cannot start.

Funny thing is, i have another Raid card a Tx2000 (PATA) and if i put that card with the Tx2200 (SATA) and it works.. too bad the drives i have on this computer are all SATA..!!!! Lmao why must this be so complicated.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16816118011
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16816116020

Those will work wonderfully. If you can afford it, 3ware is one of the best companies, and they support pretty much every feature there is to have on RAID controllers. Keep in mind though, that you are seriously going to be working the PCI bus bandwidth with these drives, so your performance might not be as much as you might hope.
Tas.

 

[imported_deibs]

Yeah that $ isn't that big of a deal.

But is the 6 port (Sata) able to deal with my setup.. lol.

2 36gb Raptors in Raid 0

4 200gb Maxtor's in Raid 0+1

If the card can set my drives up this way i'll get it asap.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: deibs
Yeah that $ isn't that big of a deal.

But is the 6 port (Sata) able to deal with my setup.. lol.

2 36gb Raptors in Raid 0

4 200gb Maxtor's in Raid 0+1

If the card can set my drives up this way i'll get it asap.

couldn't you use the onboard raid controller to take care of either the raid 0 or raid 0+1 and then use one add on card for the other?

from a quick look at the msi site it looks like all of their k8n neo2 boars have 4 sata connectors and support raid 0/0+1

i would probably do the 0+1 on the board and then the 0 on the card, that way you could get a card with only 2 connectors, or however many you wanted. it shouldn't matter either way because even 2 raptors won't fully saturate a 32pci slot for str.

 

[imported_deibs]

Again the two raid cards don't want to work together.

I tried originally to put the 4 Maxtors on the on-board Sata Raid in 0+1.. with the Raptors on a Promise FastTrax Tx2200 in Raid 0.

But as i've mentioned above when this happens only one card will boot. In this case only the on-board raid card will boot, the Promise Tx2200 wont load, no matter what PCI slot i try.

So that's why i went with a Promise Tx4200, along with the Promise Tx2200.. i figured that if they were from the same company that it shouldn't be a problem.. but yet again only one card will load.... so frustrating.

 

[imported_deibs]

Originally posted by: tasburrfoot78362
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16816118011
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16816116020

Those will work wonderfully. If you can afford it, 3ware is one of the best companies, and they support pretty much every feature there is to have on RAID controllers. Keep in mind though, that you are seriously going to be working the PCI bus bandwidth with these drives, so your performance might not be as much as you might hope.
Tas.

yeah my problem is i live in Canada and Newegg wont ship here.

http://www.memoryexpress.com/ProductDetail.php?DisplayProductID=4620

This card would be able to do the same thing correct?

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Absolutely. If newegg doesn't have something, I've found a place that usually has it, which is www.bluebonepc.com. They also have it cheaper I might add. (I've been doing a lot of research on my next RAID controller: the BroadCom BC4852 RAID controller).
Tas.

 

[imported_deibs]

Just to make sure, this card will let me use the 2 different Raid sets??
2 - Raptors in 0
4 - Maxtors in 0+1

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Absolutely. You can have 3 dual-drive RAID 0 arrays if you were so inclined. I had a Promise SX6000 RAID controller, with 6 Western Digital hds on there, and I had multiple RAID 1 and JBOD arrays.
Tas.

 

[ionoxx]

You can put up to 4(i think its 4, 90% sure) 3Ware Cards into one system. I spoke to one of their sales reps last week and they mentioned "easy to do it".

 

[imported_deibs]

http://www.memoryexpress.com/ProductDetail.php?DisplayProductID=4620

I'll post here again instead of making a new thread. There's enough already

My question here is, i've been unable to put the Maxtor's into a RAID 10 set. The card will only let me use, RAID 0 / RAID 1 / RAID 5. The latter 5 is what i'm using currently.

I'm using the Intel 6 port raid card for the 4 Maxtor drives alone, (the 2 raptors are on the Promise Fasttrax, working great). And i'm wondering if i'm able to put these drives into RAID 10... i should be able correct?? I have the min # of drives at 4 but the BIOS Menu will only let me select as high as RAID 5..


confused... yet again. the link is for information on the Intel Raid Card.