Abit Raid Vs. Promise

[SolTek]

Ok, Im getting a new 900 tbird, and was wondering whether to get the Abit KT7 Raid, or an Abit KT7 (non raid) and a promise controller. I have heard that the abit raid can make problems with IBM drives (which i am currently running), and I have heard only good things about the promise raid controllers (faster & less problems). But, then again, the Abit with raid will save lots of time and trouble, and some money because the raid is already integrated onto the board.
Thanx for any suggestions, and Happy Thanksgiving.
~Sol

 

[billyjak]

I had the KT7, it was a bad board so I sent it back and got the Raid version. I had the Promise ata 100 card installed non raid. In Sci soft and HD Tach the promice card was a wash with the KT7 Raids.
I must of gotten a good RAID board this time.
For myself money wasen't the issue. I just wanted more IDE ports to hook to.
I could of gotten another KT7, but opted to try the supposedly problomatic Raid version.
I'm glad I got the Raid version now.
It's a matter of personnal prefernce, don't beleive all the bull from people slamming Abit boards, I agree they need more quality controll. but this is life., and if you know and read something others say about a product be prepared to suffer any of the consequences that come with it. You got a 50 50 chance, either good or bad.
I would personally get the new MSI K7TA Proo2 with ata 100 support and get the Promise card if you need raid.
I built one last week for a friend and it was Rock stable, also memmory timmings seemed to be more compatible than in the Abits.

 

[subhuman]

i've had unsmooth experience with Highpoint controllers, which is what ABIT uses. They have a separate BIOS (about 10 seconds or more to boot times), and the drivers are an issue.

if you're gonna go raid, the promise seems like a better solution in my opinion. but, i am not quite as sold on IDE raid anymore, RAID0 just doubles your chance of data loss. a fast IBM 7200rpm drive on an onboard ATA100 controller (815 chipset, etc) is the way to go for price, if you want raid the BEST way is RAID0+5 which you can only get w/ SCSI as far as i know.

 

[SolTek]

thanx for the info, i just purchased the msi board tonight!