Intel RST RAID on Z87 - only FOUR drives?

[cheld]

I upgraded from a P55/3rd generation mobo to the Asus Z87-PLUS. On the P55, I could use the onboard Intel RST RAID to create a 5-drive array.

In the manual for the Z87-PLUS it states: "The utility supports maximum FOUR hard disk drives for RAID configuration."

Is that accurate, that going from P55 to Z87 actually DOWNGRADES the number of drives that can be put in a RAID array? I specifically bought the Z87 because of its larger number of SATA ports.

 

[=Wendy=]

I can't comment on that particular board, but it does have 6x native SATA3 ports, so it should support up to 6x drives in RAID.

I have the Z87 Sabertooth, and I've tested 5x SSDs in RAID0 with no problems.

 

[cheld]

OK the Sabertooth manual has the same four-drive-limit disclaimer, so hopefully that's just a typo.

Thanks I'll install the 5 drives and see how it goes.

 

[aigomorla]

I upgraded from a P55/3rd generation mobo to the Asus Z87-PLUS. On the P55, I could use the onboard Intel RST RAID to create a 5-drive array.

In the manual for the Z87-PLUS it states: "The utility supports maximum FOUR hard disk drives for RAID configuration."

Is that accurate, that going from P55 to Z87 actually DOWNGRADES the number of drives that can be put in a RAID array? I specifically bought the Z87 because of its larger number of SATA ports.

it could be only 4 SATA ports on your board is supported by the ICH11R.

EDIT:
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Z87PLUS/#specifications

Intel® Z87 chipset :
6 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), yellow
Support Raid 0, 1, 5, 10

ASMedia® ASM1061 controller : *4
2 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), dark brown


As wendy said... i think ASUS could be wrong... it should support 6...
where did u see it only supports 4?

 

[Coup27]

where did u see it only supports 4?

It says so in the motherboard manual.

 

[=Wendy=]

It could be that Asus are playing it safe in respect to the bandwidth available on Z87 SATA3.
There is only 1.6GB/s to 1.7GB/s of total bandwidth available, which would translate to 4x of the very fastest SSDs available. So adding 5 or 6 of the very fastest SSDs may not give you more performance when compared to 4 of the very fastest SSDs.