Possible? 2 PCI ATA controllers in one box?

[gabegarwick]

**Is it possible to put 2 PCI ATA cards in one PC for a total of 8 devices?**

(I'm curious as I'm looking for a way to put 5-6 drives in one pc for a software RAID setup) -An 8 channel RAID card is a bit on the expensive side ($400+) so, I'm looking to do it via different means for less $$

Any other suggestion are certainly welcome also.

Thanks,
Gabe


edit: meant to say ata cards not channels

 

[techfuzz]

Originally posted by: gabegarwick
**Is it possible to put 2 PCI ATA channels in one PC for a total of 8 devices?**

Yes

techfuzz

 

[Ilmater]

Can I ask why in the world you want to do that to your computer? Software RAID will slow things down and the benefit will be small. If you're going to invest in 6 identical hard drives, why is a $300+ RAID card expensive? Your two goals seem counterintuitive. If you're going for RAID 1, just copy one hard drive onto another. If you're going for RAID 0, don't bother as any performance gain will be countered by the extra processor work.

 

[techfuzz]

Originally posted by: Ilmater
Can I ask why in the world you want to do that to your computer? Software RAID will slow things down and the benefit will be small. If you're going to invest in 6 identical hard drives, why is a $300+ RAID card expensive? Your two goals seem counterintuitive. If you're going for RAID 1, just copy one hard drive onto another. If you're going for RAID 0, don't bother as any performance gain will be countered by the extra processor work.

Actually todays processors are faster than dedicated RAID hardware processors so in actuallity you won't notice any slow down and the benefits of a RAID solution have been thoroughly shown to be positive ESPECIALLY when working with workstation caliber computers.

techfuzz

 

[mechBgon]

Keep in mind that the throughput is going to peak at whatever your PCI bus can do, probably 120Mb/sec max. What chipset are you using?

 

[TheCorm]

The onboard IDE & Raid Controllers run on the PCI Bios so I don't think theres really a limit.....until you run out of PCI Slots....and Power Connectors.....and room for the hard drives!

 

[gabegarwick]

Thanks for the replies!

(now I'm off to go ask some RAID specific config questions)

 

[gabegarwick]

Originally posted by: Ilmater
Can I ask why in the world you want to do that to your computer? Software RAID will slow things down and the benefit will be small. If you're going to invest in 6 identical hard drives, why is a $300+ RAID card expensive? Your two goals seem counterintuitive. If you're going for RAID 1, just copy one hard drive onto another. If you're going for RAID 0, don't bother as any performance gain will be countered by the extra processor work.

Fair enough My solution may seem odd, but makes some sense to me. Let me attempt to explain.
-I'm looking to configure/build a RAID 5 array and was looking for a solution providing some scalability without spending an extra $400 on an 8-channel RAID 5 card. (or having only a 4 channel card and having to buy larger, more expensive drives.)
Sure, I might take a small performance hit doing software RAID, but this is my home network, and I'm only interested in pushing MP3 files around at this point

I guess my answer comes down to money
cheers,
Gabe

 

[iam29a]

My IT7 can must control of 12 IDE devices. If I want to consume the USB2.0 and IEEE1394e ports that's another 16. I often thought about mounting 250GB hard drives to each and every one of those and see if I could get a cool 7 TB in one monster stiped storage container.

I know, I'm dreaming--and a nerd.

 

[gabegarwick]

Originally posted by: iam29a
My IT7 can must control of 12 IDE devices. If I want to consume the USB2.0 and IEEE1394e ports that's another 16. I often thought about mounting 250GB hard drives to each and every one of those and see if I could get a cool 7 TB in one monster stiped storage container.

I know, I'm dreaming--and a nerd.

wow! What's an IT7? 12 IDE devices? How? And where can I get one? Sounds like something I might be interested in unless the price is prohibitively high.
thanks,
Gabe

 

[Scitex]

Check your PM gabegarwick......

 

[EeyoreX]

Abit IT7

\Dan

 

[MikeMike]

i got an IT7 max, it has 4 raid slots, with raid 1, and raid 0 support, along with 2 normal IDE slots, thus 6x2 = 12

although whenever i use the raid slots, my computer takes 15 minutes to load windows

 

[CZroe]

My God, every single time anyone mentions software RAID all the idiots show up to bash it. The simple fact is: Software ATA RAID is supposed to be economically feasable for the average user, not high-speed. Even if there is *ZER0* performance benefit, it makes sense. He NEVER said software RAID zero. Anyone wasting money on a RAID-0 setup must know that they are simply doubling their risk every time they add a drive. Anyone running RAID-0 is spending twice as much as they should. RAID-5, while offering nearly no performance increase when done in software, offers the best most cost effective fault tolerance no matter how it's implemented.

If I have 5 identical drives and no money I'm going to throw them into a RAID-5 array because there's no sense in using RAID 0 when I'm just going to quintuple my risks. If I wanted performance, I'd pay for it.

What OS are you using to do software RAID? Linux? XP Pro does not support software RAID-5, but Windows 2000 Server and Windows 2003 Server do.

BTW, the Promise FastTrak SX4000 (Software) RAID-5 card is cheap.

 

[CZroe]

My God, every single time anyone mentions software RAID all the idiots show up to bash it. The simple fact is: Software ATA RAID is supposed to be economically feasable for the average user, not high-speed. Even if there is *ZER0* performance benefit, it makes sense. He NEVER said software RAID zero. Anyone wasting money on a RAID-0 setup must know that they are simply doubling their risk every time they add a drive. Anyone running RAID-0 is spending twice as much as they should. RAID-5, while offering nearly no performance increase when done in software, offers the best most cost effective fault tolerance no matter how it's implemented.

If I have 5 identical drives and no money I'm going to throw them into a RAID-5 array because there's no sense in using RAID 0 when I'm just going to quintuple my risks. If I wanted performance, I'd pay for it.

What OS are you using to do software RAID? Linux? XP Pro does not support software RAID-5, but Windows 2000 Server and Windows 2003 Server do.

BTW, the Promise FastTrak SX4000 (Software) RAID-5 card is cheap ($137).

 

[gabegarwick]

Originally posted by: CZroe
...What OS are you using to do software RAID? Linux? XP Pro does not support software RAID-5, but Windows 2000 Server and Windows 2003 Server do.

BTW, the Promise FastTrak SX4000 (Software) RAID-5 card is cheap ($137).

OS will be 2000 Server (unfortunately I have zero experience with Linux, --I'd really like to learn though)

The Promise card only supports four drives though -I'm looking at a 5-6 drive array at the moment.
No scalability with the promise card. If I wanted to go bigger, I'd have to get four larger drives.
thanks,
Gabe

 

[CZroe]

THESE GUYS are local to me and have a sale on the SuperTrak100 (6-channel, hardware-based). They have AWESOME Reseller Ratings (Near the top of the list!)