Nforce RAID and Silicon RAID

[pantner]

Ok, i have the Gigabyte K8NSNXP-939 Motherboard, which has 2xSATA RAID controllers on it...

Will i notice any performance difference by using the "Silicon" controller rather then the Nforce Controller...

its a little hard for me to use the Nforce one cause that are in an orkward spot, right next to the AGP port, and i have a TT GIANT III on my GFX card, so there isn't any room!

 

[trevorlj]

I don't know for sure if it really makes a difference.

I went with the NF3 controller. The block (flow) diagram in the manual shows it having a more direct route to the chipset. Its also alot easier to set up the drivers since they're part of the unified Nvidia downloads.

 

[pantner]

well, theres a good chance that i won't be able to use them, specifically because of where they are on the motherboard....

i've been told many different things, that the other controller is on the PCI bus, and it will limit the speed to a PATA drive, or that it won't make a difference...

anybody know for sure???

 

[VirtualLarry]

The NF2 SATA is integrated into the chipset, so it will not bog down the PCI bus in the same way that using a PCI-attached SATA controller would. As far as actual drive transfer rates, the actual drive(s) themselves are the limiting factor, not the PCI or faster chipset bus.
(Most IDE HDs, PATA or SATA, max out at ~65MB/s, which is a lot less than the 133MB/s max of PCI, or 266MB/s or faster of chipset busses.)