A7V133 w/o Raid or KT7 Turbo w/o Raid?

[slydog]

It reads on the Asus site that the A7V133 is available without the onboard raid and sound option.

Has anyone found the A7V133 for sale anywhere without the onboard raid and sound option?

Does anyone know if the MSI KT7 Turbo will be available without the onboard raid option?

Thanks for the info!

 

[DaddyG]

If ASUS follows their naming convention then the mobo would be
A7V133-PRO.

 

[slydog]

Thanks, DaddyG

 

[Octoberblue]

For some reason they're enabling striping on everything I've seen so far. But that's not full raid support. The Promise Fastrack controller is capable of striping, mirroring, and raid10 - striping + mirroring. I'm a stability freak myself so I'd be wanting the raid 10 w/ 4 hard drives (eventually). No way I'd stripe 2-4 hard drives w/o mirroring. One little hiccup and you're screwed up beyond repair! I'm suspecting that controller is going to be on there in one form or another (raid or ultra100)no matter what b/c the 686b southbridge ata100 support is flaky. One day we all keep hoping VIA will get their act together for real...

 

[DaddyG]

Slydog, I should have mentioned that the A7V-PRO was available mainly in Europe where ASUS mobos tend to be expensive. Never actually seen one in the US. Maybe ASUS will make the non-RAID mobo availble in the US.

 

[slydog]

I just wanted to avoid any headaches that I might have with the onboard raid, since I won't ever use it anyway.

For the heck of it, I did try emailing Asus and MSI last week to find out if a non-raid version would be available on their new KT133A motherboards, but never got a reply back from either one. If that is the kind of sales support they offer, they must be great to deal with if you have a problem.

Thanks everyone!

 

[DaddyG]

Slydog, both mobos use the Promise Controller which runs just like any other ATA100 controller if you don't define a RAID array. Depending on the HDD and CD-ROM/CDRW/DVD combo you have, you can spread yout IDE devices over more controllers so they are all Masters, no slaves. Performance is improved.

 

[slydog]

I forgot to mention that I plan on building an all SCSI system.

I was reading a review last night on the AV7133 over at Void Your Warranty and it said:

" Unfortunately, there is no option in the BIOS to completely disable the Promise controller that I could find. There are similar options to disable the onboard sound detection (and jumpers to disable onboard sound). As I am not using the Promise controller, I'd rather not waste an IRQ on it at all."

Here is the review: http://www.voidyourwarranty.net/reviews/r1=a7v133/index.php3

I was thinking in my situation, if I didn't need the promise/raid controller maybe get a board without it and have another available IRQ.

Thanks...