RocketRAID 133 and MB w/HPT372 Controller

[Huntress]

I am getting ready to install a Highpoint RocketRAID 133 PCI Controller. Do not have it yet... it is on it's way.

In looking over the manual from Highpoint's site, you know it is being recognised because the famous Highpoint BIOS screen shows and detects attached devices. This is great except my motherboard, EPoX 8K5A+, I already have an onboard HPT372 chip.

I need the extra IDE channels for the various ATAPI devices I have on my machine, and now need to use RAID 0 to resolve some performance issues, but since PCI solutions are for HDD only, I will need to use this card for the RAID.

Has anyone tried this?

Can I install a second HPT372 controller?

Will I see two HPT372 screens on boot?

Thoughts and advice appreciated!

 

[Huntress]

The answer is no Took a bit of digging, but I found that the two would conflict and that I would not be able to get that working.

So I am getting a new motherboard... EPoX 8K9A3+ which has 4 Raid IDE Channels, that plus the two E/IDE Ultra DMA/133 channels technically will allow me to have a total of 12 IDE devices. Although I will using this to RAID 0 three drives.

This actually will position me better for upgrading the processor from my current XP2100+

All this for $30 more than the RocketRaid 133.

Sometimes I can't see the forest through the trees.

Time to rock and roll.

 

[Huntress]

Well I finally got a reply from Highpoint to the above question:

Hello,

This is possible.
You will see two separate screens if the BIOS version for each controller is different.
If they are the same revision, the drives attached to both controllers will be displayed by a single BIOS utility screen.
A note: Arrays can only be created between drives on the same controller.

HighPoint Technologies

This is quite contrary to what I have read elsewhere, but since I have the new motherboard coming, and will not be charged restocking fees by Newegg.com if the RAID card is returned unopened (I tried to cancel the order of the RocketRaid five minutes after they opened Customer Support lines on Monday), it looks like I will not be trying this out. Almost too bad, because now I am very curious, but not $20 curious

 

[LED]

DTH...I don't believe you can not RAID 3 Drives as I tried once...JBOD maybe but not RAID 0 and I also tried using the Highpoint in Unison with onboard a couple years back and it was a no go...not the same (ATA 100)

Edit=PS Welcome to the Forums

 

[Huntress]

I have not yet done a RAID config on any machine, this will be my first...

Since I started this and since my last post I've changed my plan, my goal being to improve performance of for my new ATI AIW 8500DV (I can stand being behind, the price is right and less bleeding edge), I realized that HDD performance was a hugh issue. I have since learned that the way to go seems to be two drives on RAID 0 for the video recording, and all other apps on another drive for improved multitasking. So I will have the third drive on a channel of its own. Although you do have me curious about the 3 RAID drives... hmmmm I might have to try that, and if it works get a forth drive.

All I can say is Money Pit!

And thank you for the reply and the welcome, I was starting to feel like I was talking to myself.

I've been visiting this site/forum for a number of years. Long time listener, first time caller.

 

[LED]

Sometimes byte munching is hard to interpret ...what I meant was you can not RAID0 and config 3 IDE HD's as you can only do 2 or 4

 

[Huntress]

Great, then I won't feel compelled to buy another hard drive

 

[Huntress]

LED... just an FYI... you CAN RAID 3 drives... It worked

 

[LED]

DTH...I doubt if you RAIDed them (meaning 0/1), as I syayed earlier in this thread, you prolly just JBOD (Just a Bunch OF Disks) ...which does not give RAID0 performance, just more space... happy hunting

 

[Huntress]

I have 3 drives on a RAID 0 right at this moment. No where in the HTP374 guide does it say you must RAID (in any configuration that I can see) in pairs, so I gave it a try:

Anyway... here's a screenshot:

My Raid 0

Excuse the crappy image quality, just rebuilt and haven't installed photoshop yet... I've forgotten just how crappy Paint is

 

[LED]

Damn that's sweet...when you get some time could you run some benches on them?

 

[Huntress]

I ran pcmark2002 on it and my score went from 619 (one drive) to an even 1300.

I do NOT understand why Futuremark does not show more info on comparisions, such as hardware, Belarc can obtain hardware info, why not Futuremark, also it does not recognise my processor, must be the new bus speed.

Anyway, if you have any suggestions for other benchmarks, please let me know.

Additionally, if you would like please check out this topic

I would value your input.

Also... that Radeon case you have listed ROCKS!!!!

Thanks!

Diana

 

[chizow]

Some ATTO benchies would be interesting as well I was also under the impression that only more expensive hardware RAID cards could do 3 or more disks in a RAID 0 array. Its too bad though that you can't do RAID 5 with those 3 identical disks, that's what I would do with my 3 matched drives if I had a 3ware 7500-4, but its like $300 :Q

I'd also be interested in ATTO to see if two drives sharing the same channel affects throughput at all. That would be my only concern really.

Chiz

 

[Huntress]

I will have to dig up the review I saw that convinced me that the Highpoint software raid solution was the way to go... but it did say that the BEST way to go was to have them on different channels, that's why I bought the new mb. The Highpoint got better scores than the 3ware hardware solution. I forgot to save my bookmarks, so I will have to do some searching for that roundup.

Can you provide me a link to the bench you mentioned please.

 

[Huntress]

IDE RAID round-up - A four-way, four-drive benchmarking bonanza

Cards compared:
3ware Escalade 7500
Adaptec 2400A
HighPoint RocketRAID133
Promise FastTrak SX4000

Please note that this is a VERY lenthy 38 page review of popular RAID solutions being offered up NOW, dated December 4th. Note that in the review they reviewed the Highpoint RocketRaid 133, which is a two channel HPT372 card. I am using the intergrated HTP374 on my motherboard with 4 channels, which negates the issue the review had with the two chan limitation of the 133 card. Those interested in an expansion PCI card version might find the RocketRaid 404 of interest. But honestly, a new motherboard could be cheaper in the long run, especially with the new bus speeds.

While the Highpoint was not the clear winner, it was in terms of cost and performance. I think you will be VERY surprised, as I was by the results. I was looking for pure speed, and while I can setup a RAID 0 1, the mirroring looses the performance edge. I will be backing up mine array to my server on a nightly basis, so this really was not a concern of mine.

 

[Huntress]

Originally posted by: DianaTheHuntress
The Highpoint got better scores than the 3ware hardware solution.

Please note that statement was made on the requirements I had at the time I was reading the review. You will see that each of the cards had its good and bad points, and not a single one rocked the house.

 

[chizow]

Yep, I'm very familiar with that tech-report review The thing is, I'm not sure they had the 3ware configured properly. I bought the 7000-2 after experimenting with 3 different softRAID cards, the HPT374, HPT370, and a Sil680 board. All peformed well other than the HPT370, but I still wasn't completely satisfied. The 7000-2 (same controller and math cpu as the 7500 series) is a dual-channel single device card that I was planning to run RAID 0 under. Needless to say I was very disappointed in its write speeds; checked again at the tech-report review and saw my numbers were basically the same as theirs.

E-mailed 3ware about it that night, and to my surprise, received a response the next morning. I was told to I needed to upgrade to dynamic disks, but was skeptical as I thought this was something typically reserved for SCSI disks.

Anyway, long story short, my scores in ATTO and any other benchmark increased 300% to 1000%. My write speeds exceed my read speads with smaller data blocks, but at 32MB, write/read is ~70mbps and ~90mbps respectively.

I found the sil680 and HPT374 softRAID cards to be excellent price vs. performance, but for only $40 more than the Highpoint 133, I wanted the highest performance with the lowest CPU utilization. I don't have a direct link to ATTO (I know someone posted it recently), but you can find it in the CPU/OC'ing forum at the stickied thread at the top. I can e-mail ATTO scores to someone if they wanna take a look or host em.

Chiz