Silicon Image Sil 3112A Controller onboard a7n8x

[fzbRogue]

I am running an Asus A7N8X Deluxe
512 mb Corsair XMS slot 1 (i think)
XP 2500
I forgot the make of my hs/fan (copper core 60mm)
2 Maxtor 8 mb 120 gig HD Primary channel master and slave
TDK 52x burner Secondary channel master
Sony DRU500 DVD burner

PNY GF 4 4400
600 watt off brand power supply

My questions are these:

The onboard Silicon Image Sil 3112A Controller appears to require a serial ata drive in the array for the raid to operate. Of course I bought the 2 120 gig 8mb drives thinking I would raid them. The user manual was very vague about the whole process. I called in the big guns and was informed it would not operate without a serial hd.

A: Can I add 1 serial ata drive and raid the 2 120 gig ide, or will I only be able to raid a pair od serial drives?
B: If I could get by with a single serial drive should my os be on the raid (stripe btw) or on the serial drive?
C: Am I wandering out in left field babbling incoherently?


This is my first post here. I had a friend turn me on to Anandtech, I am impressed! You guys know your stuff and even more impressive is the way most of you don't speak too harshly to the realy stupid questions. I have been reading these forums all day and getting nothing done. I had best get to work.

Thanks in advance! I have already found a few great bits of info today and I plan to continue reading.

Good day to all.
fzbRogue

 

[Anonemous]

Originally posted by: fzbRogue
I am running an Asus A7N8X Deluxe
512 mb Corsair XMS slot 1 (i think)
XP 2500
I forgot the make of my hs/fan (copper core 60mm)
2 Maxtor 8 mb 120 gig HD Primary channel master and slave
TDK 52x burner Secondary channel master
Sony DRU500 DVD burner

PNY GF 4 4400
600 watt off brand power supply

My questions are these:

The onboard Silicon Image Sil 3112A Controller appears to require a serial ata drive in the array for the raid to operate. Of course I bought the 2 120 gig 8mb drives thinking I would raid them. The user manual was very vague about the whole process. I called in the big guns and was informed it would not operate without a serial hd.

A: Can I add 1 serial ata drive and raid the 2 120 gig ide, or will I only be able to raid a pair od serial drives?
B: If I could get by with a single serial drive should my os be on the raid (stripe btw) or on the serial drive?
C: Am I wandering out in left field babbling incoherently?


This is my first post here. I had a friend turn me on to Anandtech, I am impressed! You guys know your stuff and even more impressive is the way most of you don't speak too harshly to the realy stupid questions. I have been reading these forums all day and getting nothing done. I had best get to work.

Thanks in advance! I have already found a few great bits of info today and I plan to continue reading.

Good day to all.
fzbRogue

I think you might've been confused with the specs of the A7n8x deluxe, it has onboard Serial ATA (SATA) raid for the SATA drives. So I'm sorry to say you'll probably need a separate IDE raid controller to raid those two IDE drives. Fortunately those are pretty cheap. I saw an inexpensive IDE raid card at compgeeks.com for around 20$.

Your second question is kinda confusing. If you are asking about putting an OS on the raid stripe for the raided drives, then sure (haven't done it but I'm sure it's doable) but just remember that striped data isn't very safe since if one drive fails it's gone. I would probably use a single non raided drive for OS and have the raided drives as storage for non important files.

Hope that helps.

 

[JBT]

You can actaully get SATA to IDE converters or vice versa at Newegg for like 25 a peice. You should be able to do it that way.

 

[fzbRogue]

Thanks a lot guys I think you have answered my questions, as vague as they were.



Rogue