PCI vs. PCi-E 4x for raid card

Edit: Asus released a bios fix for the secondary onboard RAID controller,but the controller still does not support RAID. I ordered a Highpoint RocketRaid 2310 PCI-E 4x controller card.

So I'm in a bit of a predicament. I need a SATA raid card for my 4 drives(2 raptors, 2-80wd. Will I notice a difference in running my controller card in a pci slot vs a pci-E 4x? Would running the pci card limit my throughput? Thanks, any input is much appreciated.

Your two Raptors alone will eat up all your available PCI bandwidth. A PCI based controller would also not only have to share bandwidth, but also bus time with all your other PCI devices (X-Fi, FireWire...)

If I may ask, why are you moving them off your ICH7R?

The ICH7R has the added bonus of a direct line to the southbridge. Plenty of dedicated bandwidth right there.

JCLW said:

Your two Raptors alone will eat up all your available PCI bandwidth. A PCI based controller would also not only have to share bandwidth, but also bus time with all your other PCI devices (X-Fi, FireWire...)

If I may ask, why are you moving them off your ICH7R?

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Well I have a Plextor 716SA optical drive, it's SATA interface. All 4 ICH7R ports are used by my 2 arrays. The plextor does not work on the marvell controller, and I can't move either of the arrays to the Marvell because it does not support RAID as was said to be in the users manual. So the ICH7R only has 4 ports and they are occupied with HDD. So now I either have to put 1 of the arrays on a new controller or put the Plextor drive on a new controller.

Edit: Actually, the plextor drive is read by the Marvell controller and I can boot off it in startup, but it's does not work once in XP. Think there's a chance I could get it to work within XP?

Maybe. I'm going to assume you've got windows drivers for it?

Somebody said there is a new beta BIOS for the -E that fixes some of the Marvell issues.

JCLW said:

Maybe. I'm going to assume you've got windows drivers for it?

Somebody said there is a new beta BIOS for the -E that fixes some of the Marvell issues.

Click to expand...

Wow. I posted the new beta bios in the Asus MB section, still a no go. I called Asus tech support and they said engineers are working on getting the MArvell to support RAID. To hell with the Marvell Controller, I ordered a Highpoint RocketRaid 2310 Pci-E 4x card...... I'll put my storage array on it, and keep the 2xRaptors on ICH7R along with my Plextor SATA burner.

Let us know how it performs, I'm interested to see it compared to an integrated controller and other PCI cards.