EPoX 8RDA6+ Pro: Does the onboard SI 3114 Silicon Image chip really support RAID5?

[CZroe]

The manual explicitly states in some places that it supports RAID0, 1, 5 & 10 (0+1) but only RAID 0, 1 & 10 in other places. The description of the setup menu only discusses RAID striping and mirroring. I can't get to the menu myself because it disables itself with no drives connected and I have no SATA drives to connect (Well, there's a Plextor PX-712SA connected to the chipset's native SATA ).

So, I tried researching it online. The majority of reviews only mention RAID0, 1 & 10. ONE review mentioned RAID5, but was probably just quoting the manual (It wasn't tested). EPoX's site only mentions RAID0, 1, & 10. So I went to Silicon Image's site and researched it from my only working PC without Acrobat Reader installed and all I could find was that it supports RAID0, 1 & 10 but the utility was called "SATARAID5". Conflicts EVERYWHERE! A little help? I may have already missinformed people by telling them that it has RAID5.

I don't need to use the onboard RAID5 because I'm using two Promise SuperTrak SX6000-powered RAID5 arrays in the system with PATA drives. I need to know before I send a letter to a magazine and I can't test myself.

 

[Woodchuck2000]

I'm fairly sure that it does support RAID-5 but only in software...

 

[CZroe]

Thanks! The official product brief specifically says only RAID 1, 0 & 10 but I found some mention online that it was added in an update and SI simply never says what their updates do. I spent all night trying to get the PDF off the disc that came with the motherboard but the disc is bad and it locks up my PC when I try to get it (Not available on EPoX or Silicon Image's sites). As for it being software-only: Same with all RAID0 & 1 support in consumer RAID chipsets. Of course, hardware is more important for RAID5 but this at least means that you don't have to hack XP Home or Pro to enable Server 2003 software RAID5 functionality.

Thanks!