Drive config on IC7-G

jennyandgreg · May 28, 2003

Hey guys I need advice.

I have a IC7-G with 2 Raptors which I want to run RAID for my system and program files. I also have 2 WD 120GB Ultra ATA/100 drives I want to use for storage. Here is the question. Is there any reason why I would want to use converters to make the WD 120's sata so I can plug them into SATA ports #3 and #4, or am I better off just using rounded cables and plug the drives into the normal ATA slots? Secondly if I use up the ata slots for the two 120's how would I get my CD and DVD player attached?

Sorry for the newbie question...but I am trying!

jennyandgreg · Jun 6, 2003

batboy · Jun 6, 2003

Unless you're going to run RAID, there is no reason to connect the ATA drives to the SATA connectors. You can connect 2 regular IDE drive to each IDE channel and since you have 2 channels, that means you can connect 4 IDE devices. What you have to remember if 2 devices are on the same channel is that one must be jumpered to master and the other to slave. The master drive uses the black connector on the cable and the slave uses the gray connector. The blue cable connector goes to the mobo. With the SATA drives, you can only connect one of them per channel.

jennyandgreg · Jun 6, 2003

Using a master slave setup on the PATA connectors will slow down the drives as I understand it. Doesnt the entire channel slow down to the speed of the slowest drive? So if I put each of the hard drives on as master, and the optical drives as slaves the whole hard drive system drops its speed right??

scanido · Jun 6, 2003

The ideal setup is to have your WD drives on the Silicon chip because if you put them on the regualr IDE connections you are slowing one of the drives down when you use another.

For example, you are copying data from a CD to a hard drive, this setup will be much slower than if you had put the WD drive on its own channel via the Silicon Chip. The transer will be simultaneous.

Plus, you paid the extra cash for the IC7-G, why woldn't you use the SATA bus. It has better error correction and throughput.

Thats how i have my setup and it sure is much faster than keeping drives on the same channel on IDE!

jennyandgreg · Jun 7, 2003

Thats what I was hoping that if I use all 4 SATA ports I stll have two free channels for a DVD/burner and a DVD drive each on its own.

roYal · Jun 7, 2003

scanido said:
The ideal setup is to have your WD drives on the Silicon chip because if you put them on the regualr IDE connections you are slowing one of the drives down when you use another.

You're not talking about raid are you?
2 of the ports are silicon and 2 of the ports are via the ICH5R. You can only use the raid0/1 with the 2 ports via the ICH5R, not the silicon.

Would you rather hook up the ports via the silicon SATA or hook up it under the ICH5R and use RAID?

jennyandgreg · Jun 7, 2003

ICH5R is where I have two Raptors set up in raid. That array is for my programs and normal stuff. The 2 120MB drives are for (1) Video Capture, and (2) sound and photo files.

roYal · Jun 7, 2003

actually, i just looked in the manual, and they said both the silicon SATA supports RAID 0/1, and the ICH5R supports RAID 0. Hmmm, i wonder which imma use when i get my mobo.

scanido · Jun 7, 2003

roYal said:
You're not talking about raid are you?
2 of the ports are silicon and 2 of the ports are via the ICH5R. You can only use the raid0/1 with the 2 ports via the ICH5R, not the silicon.

Would you rather hook up the ports via the silicon SATA or hook up it under the ICH5R and use RAID?

Hooking up your drives through the ICH5-R is the best solution. The only time you need to use the silicon chip as your prmary RAID is if you need RAID 1 support or i you want to take an image ie: Norton Ghost, of your RAID Array. Norton Ghost or any other drive image software will not work on ICH5-R, only on the Silicon Image chip.

As you can see from my sig, my main disk is the Raptor RAID, and I have 2 Maxtor drives as Backup and Media on their own channel via the Silicon Chip. I find this is the fastest setup.

roYal · Jun 7, 2003

scanido said:
Hooking up your drives through the ICH5-R is the best solution. The only time you need to use the silicon chip as your prmary RAID is if you need RAID 1 support or i you want to take an image ie: Norton Ghost, of your RAID Array. Norton Ghost or any other drive image software will not work on ICH5-R, only on the Silicon Image chip.

I only have 2 80GB 8mb WD and 1 maxtor 80gb. Why not just hook up the 2 8mb in the silicon so id on't ever have to worry about the not being able to ghost and stuff. Also, can i hook up just a single drive under the SATA and not use RAID? I'm just trying to figure out a good way too hook up my 3 drives.

scanido · Jun 8, 2003

Yeah if you need to take an image of your main partition then you'll have to run the WD 80gb drives from the Silicon Image chip. You can have the other WD drive on a IDE channel or on the ICH5-R, but I don't know for sure if the latter config. will work.

jennyandgreg · Jun 8, 2003

Why wont Ghost wort through the onboard Chip?

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