Wheeee (RAID0)

L337 M33P · Feb 8, 2006

I can now saturate my PCI bus

Silicon Image SiI3114 PCI SATA controller
2xWD3200JD SATA-150 drives with 16k stripe

600GB of storage for a few £ more than a raptor. Heh.

JCLW · Feb 9, 2006

Can't you run them off the southbridge controller?

Here's my PCI bus maxed out on my file server:

It's a RAID 5 array so I have to leave it on the PCI bus.

zeimbo · Feb 9, 2006

hey, so if i have 4x250gb in a RAID 5, does windows see it as a 1tb hard drive or just as 1 250gb hdd with redundancy? im lost here

JCLW · Feb 9, 2006

("number of drives" - 1) x "capacity of smallest drive" = RAID 5 array size

("number of drives" - 2) x "capacity of smallest drive" = RAID 6 array size

RAID 5 allows one failed drive, RAID 6 allows two.

So four 250GB drives in RAID 5 would give you 750GB of space.

Six 250GB drives in RAID 5 would give you 1.25TB.

The more drives you add, the cheaper it gets (well, in terms of drives - the controllers get more expensive).

zeimbo · Feb 9, 2006

well my board has the awesome silicon 3112 chip which is RAID 5 capable, not ready to step up to a 3ware or anything for that high of a RAID. not to mention that this is an end user desktop computer hehe. thanks for clearing this up for me. so i can use 5x250gb and have 1tb storage space in a RAID 5 array?

L337 M33P · Feb 9, 2006

JCLW said:
Can't you run them off the southbridge controller?

Here's my PCI bus maxed out on my file server:
http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/8290/hdtachf0jf.gif
It's a RAID 5 array so I have to leave it on the PCI bus.

I would, but the motherboard is an A7N8X-D. Nforce2 for the win.

(I need a new PC :/)

JCLW · Feb 9, 2006

zeimbo said:
well my board has the awesome silicon 3112 chip which is RAID 5 capable, not ready to step up to a 3ware or anything for that high of a RAID. not to mention that this is an end user desktop computer hehe. thanks for clearing this up for me. so i can use 5x250gb and have 1tb storage space in a RAID 5 array?

Are you sure it's not the 3114? The 3112 only has two ports, and you need at least three to do RAID 5.

The 3114 has four ports.

So if you have the 3114 you could run four 250GB drives for a 750GB array. Or three 320GB drives for a 960GB array.

Sil controllers are software RAID 5, meaning that reads will be OK but writes are slow.

zeimbo · Feb 9, 2006

JCLW said:
Are you sure it's not the 3114? The 3112 only has two ports, and you need at least three to do RAID 5.

The 3114 has four ports.

So if you have the 3114 you could run four 250GB drives for a 750GB array. Or three 320GB drives for a 960GB array.

Sil controllers are software RAID 5, meaning that reads will be OK but writes are slow.

i thought about that later after i typed it and didnt feel like getting a flashlight to look. but it is the 3114 chip. wait, wouldnt 3x320gb drives in raid 5 only be 640gb's? so windoes does see it as one large drive tho correct? youre right tho, i cant add the 5th or 6th drives because it only has 4 ports but thats pretty good for being on the mobo no? thanks for all your help, its greatly appreciated

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