[P4C800-E]Which RAID?

Well I am wondering which RAID controller to use? THe Promise Controller or the Intel RAID? Any performance benefits?

The ICH5R should perform a bit better than the Promise solution.

Agreed. One cool thing is having a RAID-0 array on the ICH-5R for the fast stuff, and put a BackUp drive on the Promise, and enjoy lightning fast transfers between the 2 controllers...

this will sound stupid but which SATA connector set is the intel ones? I dont have the manual and the online one doesnt really help me.

With the MoBo in its "upright" oreintation, the ICH5R ports are the upper 2, and the Promise is the Bottom 2.

It will be painfully obvious if you Disable the Promise Controller in the BIOS (you should do this anyway if you are not using the Promise ports). If you accidentally plug into the Promise, Windows (and the BIOS) won't see any HD's.

Well I would like use my 2 80gb in RAID0 on the intel and i have a 400gb sata, could i plug that into the first promise port?

Also below the "Promise" ports it says SATA_RAID2 and below SATA_RAID1 the "Intel" ports just say SATA1 SATA2

You got it! Just make sure you install the "F6" iastor drivers for the Intel RAID when the XP Installer prompts you for it, or else your XP installation will fail.

AND make SURE you install the "IDE" drivers for the Promise (NOT the Promise RAID drivers, or you single 400GB SATA won't work on the Promise)

off to the asus ftp for me to find these drivers

Intel(R) Application Accelerator RAID Edition 3.5R for Windows 2000/XP
Please use 1009 or later version BIOS or you might have problem when using new IAA driver.
Support Windows XP and Windows 2000
Support RAID0/RAID1


is that what i need? to install windows?

Do it to it. Just make SURE you make the "F6" Floppy Driver Disk before you trash your current install (or make the floppy on another PC). Without the Floppy, you'll be stuck like chuck trying to install XP on the Intel RAID-0...

You could also "Slipstream" the F6 drivers onto yout XP Install CD using a program called "nLite". That is what I do (and add Hotfixes, and make a full-unattended setup disk)...

Go man!

bump for my edit and do i just select the drivers and nlite does it? last time i tried to install the promise drivers through nlite it didnt work when i had the non-E

I believe that is the file. There should be a "Make Disk" or "F6" utility in there that creates a Floppy Disk with the drivers (this utility is also on your Asus MoBo CD). THEN, point nLite to those Drivers OFF the floppy, and select the Textmode RAID Driver (don't remove the floppy until nLite is done with the image). Then at the end before nLite compiles the image, tell nLite to "Re Compress Driver CABs" by ticking the box (I don't think this part is required, but I did it to all of my nLite disks)

The Promise Drivers should install like a regular driver (you aren't installing Windows on the Promise's HD, so you don't need the whole Text Mode Floppy driver thing going on IIRC). Like I mentioned - use the Promise IDE drivers for a single drive SATA connection on the Promise Controller (not the Promise RAID drivers). Just point nLite to the driver's INF file, and it will integrate the drivers...

You should see the Intel RAID and the Promise 400Gig on the first Windows boot w/o doing anything. Yay! Then install the Intel Accelerator thingy + chipset drivers from Windows.

Thanks for your help Randyman I am going to try and make a cd, the board if going off to get some mods done so the wait is going to kill me


and the IDE Drivers i use these right?

Promise FastTrak 378 ATA Driver V1.00.1.30

i didnt get a cd from asus, it was an rma, but i have inet access on my laptop so i can always just grab them

That is it! I forgot if they called them "IDE" or "ATA" - but that is it (I thought they were up to v1.00.1.37 ???). You do NOT want the "FastTrack" driver, as that would attempt to run the Promise as a RAID array.

If you can't get the drivers integrated using nLite, don't worry. Just do the manual Floppy/F6 thing when prompted, and you will be fine. You can add the Promise Drivers after XP is installed.

Good luck, and "The Waiting is the Hardest Part" (Tom Petty)

Well i slipstreamed my drivers and i have one last question, am i going to have to push f6 like i would if i used a floppy? Or will the windows cd automatically load the drivers since nLite slipstreamed them?

I use the Promise , and by this way i do not loose any ATA ports .

About performance , the Promise is as fast as the INTEL.

Either controler , is a Win Win combination .

wait, so if i use the intel with RAID 0 i loose ata ports? I have 1 ide harddrive, and 2 ide drives (dvd rom and dvd writer)