Motherboard to support RAID 0+1

[speedemn]

Hi all,

I want to create a RAID 0+1 setup using 4 SATA3 6 Gb/s HDDs. I really like the Asus P8Z68 Pro however out of the 4 x SATA3 Gb/s ports only 2 are able to be used towards RAID from what I have read.

Then I saw the Maximus IV GENE-Z/GEN3 which has 6 x SATA3 6Gb/s ports - question is are all of them able to be used towards setting up RAID?

My requirements in a Mobo are on board video and sound (keeping it simple from that perspective).

I know that an external RAID controller would be best (was looking at the LSI line) but if I can get away with the mobo being able to do this for me I could save a good chunk of coin.

Any feedback here and an answer to my question above would be appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[Puppies04]

I just checked the specs of the board from the supplier I use and it doesn't have 4 SATAIII ports it actually has 4 SATA II and 2 SATA III....

Are you talking about 4x SATA III SSDs or HDDs btw because if they are HDDs you might aswell stick them on the SATA II ports. There isn't a HDD in existence that can saturate SATA II, you just spent extra $ on a gimmick.

Did you actually mean the M IV gene Z btw? That is the MATX version of the MIV extreme-Z which actually has 4 SATA III ports although i'm not sure if they are all native or 2 native + 2 on the marvell controller like my P8Z68-V PRO

 

[speedemn]

I just checked the specs of the board from the supplier I use and it doesn't have 4 SATAIII ports it actually has 4 SATA II and 2 SATA III....

Specs below (6 x SATA3 and 4 x SATAII - am I reading that right?):

Intel® Z68 chipset :
6 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), red
4 x SATA 3Gb/s port(s), gray
Support Raid 0, 1, 5, 10

This is off their site...
http://ca.asus.com/en/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/Maximus_IV_GENEZGEN3/#specifications

Are you talking about 4x SATA III SSDs or HDDs btw because if they are HDDs you might aswell stick them on the SATA II ports. There isn't a HDD in existence that can saturate SATA II, you just spent extra $ on a gimmick.

Not SSDs... I am looking at getting 4 x SATA3 HDDs (Seagate Barracuda 3TB) to do a RAID 0+1 setup on. Speaking to a tech at the computer HW store he said that running them on the SATA2 ports will be possible but will not take advantage of the additional performance of the SATA3 drives... implying that connecting them to the SATA3 ports will give the 6Gb/s performance claims.

Where is the gap here?

Did you actually mean the M IV gene Z btw? That is the MATX version of the MIV extreme-Z which actually has 4 SATA III ports although i'm not sure if they are all native or 2 native + 2 on the marvell controller like my P8Z68-V PRO

I was looking at Maximus IV GENE-Z/GEN3
http://ca.asus.com/en/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/Maximus_IV_GENEZGEN3/#specifications
From the site it shows 6 x SATA3 ports and 4 x SATA2 ports unless I am misinterpreting what it is saying.

 

[speedemn]

Okay a bit of an update here ...

I think I will stick with a RAID 10 setup (as opposed to RAID 0+1 that I initially advertised as wanting to do). I am not sure why I picked RAID 0+1 over RAID 10 with the last system that I built years ago. Further research this time is pointing me towards RAID 10.

In either case however I would like to plug all 4 HDDs (not SSD) to 4 x SATA3 6Gb/s ports and set up a RAID 10 configuratoin. What mobo can I use to do this? Will the Asus Maximus IV GENE-Z/GEN3 do the trick?

On the Asus site it is a bit confusing...
http://ca.asus.com/en/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/Maximus_IV_GENEZGEN3/#specifications

Under the "Storage" section it says that it has 6 x SATA3 6Gb/s ports.
However under the "Internal I/O ports" section it says that it has 2 x SATA3 6Gb/s ports.

So which is it???

 

[bryanW1995]

The tech led you astray. There is no benefit to using the Sata 6gb/s ports with a spindle drive. And intel doesn't put more than 2 Sata 6 gb/s on anything. If a mobo has more ports then the extras aren't intel.

 

[speedemn]

The tech led you astray. There is no benefit to using the Sata 6gb/s ports with a spindle drive. And intel doesn't put more than 2 Sata 6 gb/s on anything. If a mobo has more ports then the extras aren't intel.

So just to confirm, the Asus Maximus IV GENE-Z/GEN3 has 2 or 6 SATA3 6Gb/s ports? If it is 6 are the ports all on different controllers on the board? Either way I guess if there is no benefit to using the SATA3 ports for a spindle drive then this is a moot point but I would like to know for my own knowledge.

So does Seagate Barracuda's claim of their 3TB drives being SATA3 6Gb/s drives just a marketing gimic or is it factual in any way?

 

[Belegost]

2 SATA III 6Gb/s ports. As far as I have seen currently no Z68 board has 6 SATA III ports, or the ability to raid 4 drives on SATA III.

As mentioned though, I think you'll find for rust drives in a raid10 setup that you don't reach the limits of SATA II.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Not SSDs... I am looking at getting 4 x SATA3 HDDs (Seagate Barracuda 3TB) to do a RAID 0+1 setup on. Speaking to a tech at the computer HW store he said that running them on the SATA2 ports will be possible but will not take advantage of the additional performance of the SATA3 drives... implying that connecting them to the SATA3 ports will give the 6Gb/s performance claims.

Where is the gap here?

The tech was mistaken. There is NO advantage to moving to SATA 6Gb/s for mechanical HDs.

If you do want to RAID four SATA 6Gb/s devices, then you will need something like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816115077

 

[speedemn]

The tech was mistaken. There is NO advantage to moving to SATA 6Gb/s for mechanical HDs.

If you do want to RAID four SATA 6Gb/s devices, then you will need something like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16816115077

Thank you very much for the input... it is clear to me now.

So between running the 4 x spindle SATA3 drives on the SATA2 ports using the on board RAID10 capabilities of the P8Z68 PRO vs getting a dedicated RAID controller - which would be the recommended solution (would dedicated RAID controller give better performance and reliability over using the on board capabilities)?

 

[bradcollins]

The dedicated raid card will be better for Raid 5, but for Raid 10 there probably isn't much difference, and low end raid cards, ie anything that doesn't have a heatsink, ram and raid 5 support probably isn't much better than the built in motherboard stuff.