RAID 5 Motherboards?

[ta2]

Hey,

Does anyone know of any motherboards that support;

4+ SATA Drives (preferably 8)
2+ IDE Drives
RAID 5
Socket 939
Gigabit LAN

Thanks in advance!!

P.S. Preferably no SLI as it's expensive and I don't need it. Thanks 🙂

 

[Genx87]

ASUS the A8N-SLI Deluxe with an SIL 3114 RAID controller that will do Single, 0,1,0+1, and 5
THat controller has 4 channels and the board also comes with the Nvidia SATA RAID controller that can do Single, 0, 0+1 and 1. The Nvidia controller also has 4 channels. It also has 4 IDE channels.

I should also add this board has dual 1Gbps nics and is S939.

 

[ta2]

Thanks!! 😀

 

[t3h l337 n3wb]

Even better:
MSI Neo4 Platinum
4xSATAII with RAID 0, 1, 1+0, JBOD
4xSATA with RAID 0, 1, 1+0, JBOD
2xIDE channels for 4 devices
Dual gigabit LAN
8 Channel integrated sound

I have it myself, and I <3 it!
Only $130!

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: t3h l337 n3wb
Even better:
MSI Neo4 Platinum
4xSATAII with RAID 0, 1, 1+0, JBOD
4xSATA with RAID 0, 1, 1+0, JBOD
2xIDE channels for 4 devices
Dual gigabit LAN
8 Channel integrated sound

I have it myself, and I <3 it!
Only $130!

I suggest buying a RAID card.

The problem with a RAID-integrated motherboard is that you can't upgrade to another computer easily, because chances are your RAID controller will be different, and so you won't be able to move your hard drives over without reformatting them.

I suggest you buy an $80 RAID card, and never have to worry about integrated RAID again.

 

[Jeff7]

Do consumer-grade (as in, not server-level) motherboards have hardware-assist RAID 5, or is it mostly software based? If it's software based, any disk writes are going to rely heavily on your CPU. Hardware-assist cards have a nice processor on them to handle the parity calculations.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: Jeff7
Do consumer-grade (as in, not server-level) motherboards have hardware-assist RAID 5, or is it mostly software based? If it's software based, any disk writes are going to rely heavily on your CPU. Hardware-assist cards have a nice processor on them to handle the parity calculations.

Most will put the XOR-ing on the host CPU.

Again, another reason to pick up a RAID PCI card.... I get mine from eBay, and typically pay $80-$100 for them. I have an MSI 500 (SCSI 160) and an MSI 4IDE or something (IDE, naturally).

 

[theMan]

definately get the raid card. it will give you more options for a mobo too.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Jeff7
Do consumer-grade (as in, not server-level) motherboards have hardware-assist RAID 5, or is it mostly software based? If it's software based, any disk writes are going to rely heavily on your CPU. Hardware-assist cards have a nice processor on them to handle the parity calculations.

Consumer grade "RAID" is all software. At least, I haven't seen a consumer board with hardware raid yet.

 

[Jeff7]

Hm, yeah...I guess a Promise SX4000 isn't exactly RAID 5. Not a lot of cases can hold a card of that size.
It's a lot cheaper than the real pro-level cards, like in the $300+ range. Might Promise's low-end RAID 5 products (SX4060 for instance) count at least as high-end consumer grade, perhaps?😀

 

[EatSpam]

Originally posted by: dclive

Originally posted by: t3h l337 n3wb
Even better:
MSI Neo4 Platinum
4xSATAII with RAID 0, 1, 1+0, JBOD
4xSATA with RAID 0, 1, 1+0, JBOD
2xIDE channels for 4 devices
Dual gigabit LAN
8 Channel integrated sound

I have it myself, and I <3 it!
Only $130!

I suggest buying a RAID card.

The problem with a RAID-integrated motherboard is that you can't upgrade to another computer easily, because chances are your RAID controller will be different, and so you won't be able to move your hard drives over without reformatting them.

I suggest you buy an $80 RAID card, and never have to worry about integrated RAID again.

If this is going to be a file server, Linux software RAID 5 is another option. I use it on a much slower system and the performance is outstanding.

 

[V00D00]

If you're big into performance, which you clearly are... the question is... Do you have money to burn? If you are rich or something, you'll want a non-software RAID system. Hardware cards have a TON less CPU overhead because all the parity calculations are done right on the card. It comes at a hefty cost though. About $200-500 bucks for a good one. If you have the cash though, or you're real big into storage, then it's really your best option.