Quad RAID

[TekeTorvo]

I have the Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe Motherboard, running 2 Sata Seagate 80gb harddrives, in RAID-0. I also have a Promise SATA150 TX2plus PCI Serial controller. I have not installed this SATA Controller yet, but when I do, is there a way to RAID-0 or RAID-1 This controller with the controller on-board my motherboard? Wanting Quad RAID, but I have to be able to get the two controllers to work together.

[Sonny]

You can't get the 2 RAID Controllers to work together, thats just impossible. You can use the SOFTWARE RAID in XP to combine both RAID0 Arrays into one Quad Array BUT you'll get a drop in performance with 4 drives in RAID0 because of the increase in latency plus you can't make use of the possible STR with only a 32BIT PCI BUS.

[TekeTorvo]

Thanks Sonny. I waas really worried that I didn't explain what I was wanting very well, you you caught right on. Is the Software RAID in the Windows Home edition? or only in the Pro? Also, I have heard of IDE to SATA converter's. Would this to my Motherboard help me do what I intended?

[Sonny]

Honestly I dont know if the Home Edition has it, I have never even tried the Software RAID of XP. If your Motherboard has 4 SATA Channels then you can use PATA to SATA Adaptors, just make sure all 4 drives are the same size so you don't lose any space.

[TekeTorvo]

My motherboard only has the 2 SATA drives. Guess I won't be getting my way this time. Thanks for your time.

[Sonny]

I'm happy to help. What were you planning with the Quad RAID0?

[TekeTorvo]

Originally posted by Sonny
You can use the SOFTWARE RAID in XP to combine both RAID0 Arrays into one Quad Array BUT you'll get a drop in performance with 4 drives in RAID0 because of the increase in latency plus you can't make use of the possible STR with only a 32BIT PCI BUS.

Just to say I did it for the most part. Me and a Guy at work are head to head with our computers. Although I have way surpassed his Intel, I kinda just kept going and going. Reading all the things in Maximum PC magazine, I get, (If they can do it, I can do it). Not this time I guess. I can still run RAID-0 x2, I just can't connect the two RAID arrays to make it a quad.

The part I quoted. Does that mean making my second drive mostly Virtual Memory will slow my computer down?

[Sonny]

Originally posted by TekeTorvo
The part I quoted. Does that mean making my second drive mostly Virtual Memory will slow my computer down?

Well that's a bit of a grey area I would say, when you say 2nd drive you mean the 2nd RAID0 Array, having the VM/Swap File/Page File on the other hdd/array/partition since there are some draw backs to each option. Actually what's recomended by M$ is to have TWO SWAP FILES (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314482) in different partitions/hdd/arrays to combat any of the downsides.