MOBO recommendation: RAID and non-RAID on same setup

[dbperry]

I'm looking for a recommendation for a MOBO. My desired specs:

- capability to run a 4 disk SATA RAID 5 array AND
- a one disk SATA non-RAID HDD (for temporary files (like raw video capture))
- 12 USB ports (I have had problems with USB hubs, so I want to avoid them)
- at least one FireWire port
- I have two older internal Ultra ATA DVD drives, but I might be willing to give these up and switch to SATA DVD drives
- one FDD connection (might be willing to give this up)
(I don't need any other legacy connections - no serial, parallel, or PS/2)

This is more of a workstation setup (even though it is my primary home PC).

From the guides and such, it looks like I want a Intel P35 based setup, with a ICHIR9 southbridge. I'm not married to Intel - I just haven't investigated AMD.

I guess the most important question here is: Is there a southbridge and BIOS on the market which will allow me to have 5 physical HDD in the machine, with 4 HDD on a RAID 5 array and one outside of the array?

[My current system accomplishes the above specs with a PCI add-in card to drive the RAID 5 array (Promise S150 TX4), and the lonely drive is directly connected to the MOBO.]

Thanks

Dave

 

[ch33zw1z]

Why would you want onboard RAID compared to expansion RAID? Spending a little less on a solid mobo and upgrading to a PCI-E RAID controller is a better idea. That being said, I don't know enough about current boards to make a education recommendation.

 

[garikfox]

I would disagree.

The On-Board RAID-0 of my board ICH9R is superior to anything u can install as a card.

 

[dbperry]

The speed and throughput on the PCI bus is a lot worse than the speed and the throughput directly off the southbridge controller. I would have to refresh my knowledge of buses and speeds, but that's the basic theory (I think).

In my current setup, at first, I only had the RAID 5 array setup. Capturing video to the HDD array off my graphics card was slow, so on a whim, I added a single HDD directly connected to the MOBO SATA controller. The speed difference was amazing. So I am extrapolating that experience....

Why change anything? I am looking to replace my current setup because it has become quite unstable. From the outset, I have never been able to run my P4 with hyperthreading enabled, due to spontaeneous reboots when hotsyncing my palm pilot. Now my USB ports are acting flaky, and I have a persistent but very occasional system freeze issue. I'm not o/c and not pushing anything. I built this system in January 2004, so now it's time to upgrade.

Dave

 

[postmortemIA]

onboard raid beats anything pci based, like dbperry and garikfox say

only good pci-e hardware raid beats.

 

[renethx]

Originally posted by: dbperry
I'm looking for a recommendation for a MOBO. My desired specs:

- capability to run a 4 disk SATA RAID 5 array AND
- a one disk SATA non-RAID HDD (for temporary files (like raw video capture))
- 12 USB ports (I have had problems with USB hubs, so I want to avoid them)
- at least one FireWire port
- I have two older internal Ultra ATA DVD drives, but I might be willing to give these up and switch to SATA DVD drives
- one FDD connection (might be willing to give this up)
(I don't need any other legacy connections - no serial, parallel, or PS/2)

This is more of a workstation setup (even though it is my primary home PC).

Most P35 motherboards with ICH9R except for ASUS and Intel's will meet your requirements. For example,

• abit IP35 (NIC is PCI)
• abit IP35 Pro (NIC is PCI)
• GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3P
• GIGABYTE GA-P35-DQ6

Originally posted by: dbperry
I guess the most important question here is: Is there a southbridge and BIOS on the market which will allow me to have 5 physical HDD in the machine, with 4 HDD on a RAID 5 array and one outside of the array?

ICH8R, ICH9R, nForce 570 Ultra/570 SLI/590 SLI for AMD and nForce 680i. ICH8R supports 10 USB ports, while ICH9R supports 12 USB ports. All NVIDIA chipsets support up to 10 USB.