RAID controller for SATA ports query

sixequalszero · Oct 1, 2011, 06:03 PM

A friend of mine bought a RAID controller not knowing what it was, for the sake of obtaining additional SATA ports.
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?...ducts_id=15511

I've never bothered with RAID controllers before so I don't know much about them. Would it be possible for him to use the controller to add drives to be treated normally, or at least use RAID 1 on single drives individually?

erocker · Oct 1, 2011, 06:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sixequalszero

Would it be possible for him to use the controller to add drives to be treated normally, or at least use RAID 1 on single drives individually?

Yes, you can add drives normally. You need at least two drives for RAID 1. That's a nice controller btw.

sixequalszero · Oct 1, 2011, 06:12 PM

Excellent, so he can add eight more drives? He'll be pleased about that. For some reason he doesn't have enough at 9.5TB internal, 2TB portable, and 4TB unused. =.=

Darkleoco · Oct 1, 2011, 06:36 PM

Errr what exactly does he store on his computer?

sixequalszero · Oct 1, 2011, 06:39 PM

Who knows, a lot of full definition video for sure, that and he pretty much never deletes anything.

JrRacinFan · Oct 1, 2011, 06:45 PM

First off, very wise decision to get a dedicated card. Second, raid5 3 drives instead of raid 1 with 2. It would provide some speed like raid 0.

sixequalszero · Oct 1, 2011, 06:50 PM

Oh yes, thanks. It's 5 am here and I completely overlooked speed and was just thinking about redundancy. I don't think he's interested in parity so would RAID 0 not best for him?

JrRacinFan · Oct 1, 2011, 06:58 PM

Well like you said, he has a number of drives and raid 5 would provide a performance boost plus 2 drives would have to fail before losing all data on the array. I'm not against raid 0 just there are better options out there overit

HTC · Oct 1, 2011, 07:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JrRacinFan

First off, very wise decision to get a dedicated card. Second, raid5 3 drives instead of raid 1 with 2. It would provide some speed like raid 0.

Wouldn't RAID 10 work better here? It should have faster writes when compared to RAID 5, but 4 drives are needed for RAID 10.

I've benched recently my RAID 0 and RAID 10 drives as well as my single ones and so you can compare speeds.

This post: http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/sh...3&postcount=33

And this post: http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/sh...7&postcount=49

NOTE: I took 4*1 TB HDDs and partitioned them in to 2 different RAID types. I have 500 GB into RAID 0 and the rest for RAID 10.

sixequalszero · Oct 1, 2011, 07:06 PM

Yeah, it's certainly a good option, I'm sure he can afford it. I'll let him know.
Doesn't RAID 5 only have a fault tolerance of one drive?

HTC · Oct 1, 2011, 07:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sixequalszero

Yeah, it's certainly a good option, I'm sure he can afford it. I'll let him know.
Doesn't RAID 5 only have a fault tolerance of one drive?

I think so but i'm unsure of this.

I've had 2 HDDs fail on me with my RAID 10 but lost nothing: reason being they were from different RAID 1s within the RAID 10. The problem was the cable that kept losing contact and the controller only found 2 instead of the 4 HDDs. I've since replaced the cable (way to go Adaptec technical support for sending me a free cable

) and my HDD detection problems went away.

JrRacinFan · Oct 1, 2011, 07:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sixequalszero

Doesn't RAID 5 only have a fault tolerance of one drive?

You are correct. RAID 10 would be a good option, would only do that if there can be (even more of) a sacrifice of storage space.

AsRock · Oct 1, 2011, 08:13 PM

Raid 5 was best when i was using it but was best with 4 drives than 3 as there was a bigger boost from it.

Oct 1, 2011, 06:03 PM	#1
sixequalszero Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Bathurst, NSW Posts: 102 (0.17/day) Thanks: 28 Thanked 58 Times in 25 Posts System Specs	RAID controller for SATA ports query A friend of mine bought a RAID controller not knowing what it was, for the sake of obtaining additional SATA ports. http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?...ducts_id=15511 I've never bothered with RAID controllers before so I don't know much about them. Would it be possible for him to use the controller to add drives to be treated normally, or at least use RAID 1 on single drives individually?

System Name:	HAF
Processor:	Intel Q9650 3.0 GHz
Motherboard:	Gigabyte EP43T-UD3L
Cooling:	Prolimatech Megahalems Rev. B
Memory:	Corsair CMX16GX3M4A1600C9 (4x4GB@1600)
Video Card:	Galaxy GTX 560
Hard Disk:	2x Corsair SSD + 6TB
Optical Drive:	Samsung BD-ROM (SH-B123A)
CRT/LCD Model:	2x Samsung P2350 w/ Visidec VF-AT-D
Case:	Cooler Master HAF 932 (RC-932)
PSU:	Corsair TX850
Software:	Win7x64

Processor:	Intel i7 3770K @ 4.6ghz 1.256v
Motherboard:	Asus Maximus V Formula
Cooling:	Water
Memory:	2x4gb Patriot Viper 2133mhz 10-11-10-25 2T 1.55v
Video Card:	Sapphire HD 7970 1125/1575 1.14v
Hard Disk:	Crucial M4 128Gb / Corsair Force 3 120Gb / Samsung 240Gb / 2Tb Seagate
Optical Drive:	None
CRT/LCD Model:	Acheiva Shimian 27" IPS 2560x1440
Case:	Corsair 500R White
Sound Card:	Onboard
PSU:	NZXT Hale90 1Kw
Software:	Windows 8 x64

System Name:	HAF
Processor:	Intel Q9650 3.0 GHz
Motherboard:	Gigabyte EP43T-UD3L
Cooling:	Prolimatech Megahalems Rev. B
Memory:	Corsair CMX16GX3M4A1600C9 (4x4GB@1600)
Video Card:	Galaxy GTX 560
Hard Disk:	2x Corsair SSD + 6TB
Optical Drive:	Samsung BD-ROM (SH-B123A)
CRT/LCD Model:	2x Samsung P2350 w/ Visidec VF-AT-D
Case:	Cooler Master HAF 932 (RC-932)
PSU:	Corsair TX850
Software:	Win7x64

System Name:	Red Giant
Processor:	Intel Core i7-2600k @ 4.4 Ghz
Motherboard:	Asus P67 Sabertooth
Cooling:	CoolerMaster V6GT
Memory:	Kingston Hyper X DDR3-1600MHz 8 GB
Video Card:	MSI Twin Frozr II 6950 2GB CF
Hard Disk:	2 TB Barracuda Greens
CRT/LCD Model:	23" Acer 1920 x 1080
Case:	CoolerMaster HAF X
Sound Card:	Onboard
PSU:	Corsair AX1200
Software:	Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Oct 1, 2011, 06:12 PM	#3
sixequalszero Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Bathurst, NSW Posts: 102 (0.17/day) Thanks: 28 Thanked 58 Times in 25 Posts System Specs	Excellent, so he can add eight more drives? He'll be pleased about that. For some reason he doesn't have enough at 9.5TB internal, 2TB portable, and 4TB unused. =.=

Oct 1, 2011, 06:36 PM	#4
Darkleoco Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Cullowhee, North Carolina Posts: 1,333 (2.18/day) Thanks: 660 Thanked 238 Times in 213 Posts System Specs	Errr what exactly does he store on his computer?

Oct 1, 2011, 06:39 PM	#5
sixequalszero Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Bathurst, NSW Posts: 102 (0.17/day) Thanks: 28 Thanked 58 Times in 25 Posts System Specs	Who knows, a lot of full definition video for sure, that and he pretty much never deletes anything.

Oct 1, 2011, 06:45 PM	#6
JrRacinFan Served 5k and counting ... Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Youngstown, OH Posts: 16,121 (7.15/day) Thanks: 4,149 Thanked 4,552 Times in 4,027 Posts System Specs	First off, very wise decision to get a dedicated card. Second, raid5 3 drives instead of raid 1 with 2. It would provide some speed like raid 0. __________________ Graphics Artists United™ Request Thread Low Cache CPU Club Solaris Utility DVD 3.0 DanishDevil's Logitech Soundroom TPU Video Gallery Sciencemark Revisited

System Name:	Mine; Hers; Our HTPC; NAS Box
Processor:	i7 2600k : i3 2120 : Celeron G440 : P4 2.6Ghz Nwood
Motherboard:	Asrock Z68 Extreme4 : Asus P8P67 Pro : Asrock H61M/U3S3 : Dell
Cooling:	CM 212+ w/ scythe jyuni : Stock : Stock :Stock
Memory:	2x4GB Ripjawx 1866 cl9 : 2x2GB Corsair 1600 cl9 : 2x2GB Ridgebacks 1066 cl5 : 768MB PC3200
Video Card:	Palit GTX560Ti 2Gb : XFX HD5770 : Integrated : Integrated
Hard Disk:	2x 750GB Raid 0 + Maxtor 500GB : WD Black 1TB+Corsair Nova 2 64GB : Toshiba 750GB : Leftover ATA133
Optical Drive:	Lite-On DVD-RW : Samsung DVD-RW : None : None
CRT/LCD Model:	AOC 21" : AOC 20" : Philips 42" HDTV : Headless
Case:	Rocketfish : CM HAF 912 : Bgears Cube Style case : Dell
Sound Card:	X-Fi Xtremegamer : Onboard : Onboard : Onboard
PSU:	Tt 750W Modular : Antec 500W Earthwatts : Corsair CX430 : Dell's OEM

Oct 1, 2011, 06:50 PM	#7
sixequalszero Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Bathurst, NSW Posts: 102 (0.17/day) Thanks: 28 Thanked 58 Times in 25 Posts System Specs	Oh yes, thanks. It's 5 am here and I completely overlooked speed and was just thinking about redundancy. I don't think he's interested in parity so would RAID 0 not best for him?

Oct 1, 2011, 06:58 PM	#8
JrRacinFan Served 5k and counting ... Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Youngstown, OH Posts: 16,121 (7.15/day) Thanks: 4,149 Thanked 4,552 Times in 4,027 Posts System Specs	Well like you said, he has a number of drives and raid 5 would provide a performance boost plus 2 drives would have to fail before losing all data on the array. I'm not against raid 0 just there are better options out there overit __________________ Graphics Artists United™ Request Thread Low Cache CPU Club Solaris Utility DVD 3.0 DanishDevil's Logitech Soundroom TPU Video Gallery Sciencemark Revisited

System Name:	HTC's System
Processor:	APU A3850 undervolted (all PStates)
Motherboard:	Gigabyte A75-UD4H
Cooling:	Lapped Noctua NH-C12P
Memory:	Gskill Ripjaws Z DDR3-1600MHz 4x4GB -- F3-12800CL9Q-16GBZL
Video Card:	Onboard
Hard Disk:	4 * Samsung 1 TB HD103UJ in RAID 0 and RAID 10 + 2 * Samsung 1 TB HD103UJ
Optical Drive:	2 * DVD+/-RW Samsung 20X Supermulti SATA Black
CRT/LCD Model:	Catleap Q270 LED
Case:	Corsair Obsidian 650D
Sound Card:	Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer
PSU:	Corsair TX750
Software:	Windows 7 x64 SP1

Oct 1, 2011, 07:06 PM	#10
sixequalszero Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Bathurst, NSW Posts: 102 (0.17/day) Thanks: 28 Thanked 58 Times in 25 Posts System Specs	Yeah, it's certainly a good option, I'm sure he can afford it. I'll let him know. Doesn't RAID 5 only have a fault tolerance of one drive?

Oct 1, 2011, 08:13 PM	#13
AsRock TPU addict Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: US\ Uk Born Posts: 8,786 (4.07/day) Thanks: 1,669 Thanked 1,345 Times in 1,167 Posts System Specs	Raid 5 was best when i was using it but was best with 4 drives than 3 as there was a bigger boost from it.

System Name:	weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Processor:	i5 2500k \ i7 3770k
Motherboard:	ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 \ ASRock Z77 Extreme 4
Cooling:	Gemini II S524 \ XIGMATEK Gaia SD1283 with Couger 1500 RPM fans\ ZM-MFC2
Memory:	Samsung 1600 16GB \ Samsung 1600 16GB
Video Card:	XFX HD6770 \ XFX 6970 w/Prolima MK-13 ( With modded 5870 VRM hrstsink )
Hard Disk:	2x intel ssd x25 G2 80GB \ OCZ Solid 3+2 Corsair Force GT's 120GB (Use HDD's for backups only
Optical Drive:	LiteOn DVD 163 \ TEAC exturnal DVD drive
CRT/LCD Model:	Samsung 204B 20.1inch ( Native 12x16 ) \ Toshiba 40" HDTV ( Native 1920x1080 )
Case:	ARK Black HTPC 400BA \ None
Sound Card:	Though video card HDMI ONKYO TX-SR608 +TANNOY MERCURY F4+ Polk Audio RTI4+Polk Audio PSW505
PSU:	CoolMax CXI-600B\ PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad
Software:	Windows Vista Ultimate 64Bit \Win 7
Benchmarks:	Track IR 4 Razer Blackwidow Ultimate ( rma'ed trice and same issue's ) Steelseries XAI

Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Looking for a sata600 raid controller	arnoo1	Storage	15	Jul 17, 2011 11:30 PM
which RAID controller is better for raid 0?	amd/atifiend	Storage	1	Nov 19, 2009 04:15 PM
Looking for a sata raid controller	Lillebror	Storage	27	Dec 26, 2008 12:39 PM
Sata hardware raid controller suggestions?	niko084	General Hardware	10	May 7, 2008 10:33 PM
SATA RAID Query	danielvv	General Hardware	1	Mar 26, 2007 05:26 AM