Motherbord RAID vs. RAID controller

[daschneider]

I'm currently using the motherboard RAID controller on my 680i board to run two Raptor 150 drives in RAID-0. While it performs better than a single Raptor did I was a little disappointed with the performance when I first set up the RAID.

I'm now starting to think about my next system build and I'm looking for hard data, reviews, opinions, etc. on the pros/cons of using an add-in PICe RAID controller vs. the motherboard RAID. Can anyone point me to some good information or comparisons of the two options?

Thanks in advance.

 

[taltamir]

worthwhile raid controller start at over 200$. Anything below that is a software raid just like the mobo and is actually a WORSE solution. (only to be used if for example, you want SATA raid on a mobo that doesnt have SATA ports, or something like that).

You might want to consider using three raptors in motherboard based RAID0 instead.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

yeah, external controllers are pricey, and you generally have to use 3 or 4 or more drives to really start to see the advantage and justify the cost

 

[postmortemIA]

..and it has to be PCI-e otherwise it is downgrade.

 

[daschneider]

Yes, I know a good RAID controller should use PCIe, I said that in the original post. I also realize it needs to be a decent card or it's more or less the same as the Mobo RAID. And FWIW I'm thinking of running 4 Raptor-150s in RAID-0.

Now, back to my original question, can anyone provide a link to some comparisons of the two approaches, such as the performance difference one can get with a dedicated RAID controller? I'm looking for some hard data from reliable benchmarks that quantifies the performance difference.

Thanks

 

[imported_wired247]

toms hardware, tons of raid benchmarks

you won't get a whole lot out of a 2-drive RAID-0 solution regardless of how good your raid controller is. ideally you want to have about 3-4+ drives. and a hardware I/O processor with some RAM. if you're serious that is.

 

[taltamir]

4 raptor raid 0 with serious controller? WOW... sounds expensive. and awesome!
good luck with that, not many are rich enough to offer their personal experience on the matter.