Simple Abit question

[Stormwind]

What is the difference between the mobo KT7A and the KT7A-RAID???

ON the abit website it says "Ultra RAID DMA 100 High Point HTP370 IDE Controller" on the KT7A-RAID! But what is that suppose to mean?

 

[Richard]

RAID! Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks

I could go on to explain it, but there are some guys that are pros that have done it for me already (and better than I could do - I might add).
ArsTechnica's way. (Great site)

Ars Technica: Skinny on RAID - Page 1 - (5/2000)

Ars Technica. Power users and the tools they love, without computing religion. Oh yeah, did we mention we are unassailable computing enthusiasts.

arstechnica.com

StorageReview's way. (If you want to know about hard drives 'n stuff there is no other)

http://www.storagereview.com/guide2000/ref/hdd/perf/raid/index.html

Hard Ocp. (Kyle, always has a way of making me laugh at stuff, and just seems to be a regular guy having fun with all these toys. Like moi.)

http://www.hardocp.com/reviews/mainboards/abit/kt7/index2.html

Stormwind (Jul 29, 2001 10:25 a.m.):
What is the difference between the mobo KT7A and the KT7A-RAID???

ON the abit website it says "Ultra RAID DMA 100 High Point HTP370 IDE Controller" on the KT7A-RAID! But what is that suppose to mean?

 

[SharkyTM]

let me make this simpler than reading about RAID... if you have 2 or more hard drives of the same size and type, (mfr. model... etc)... you can have the hpt controller (its an IDE controller, like the VIA) make a raid array, of which there are many types explained on the links above... basically, it allows you to take all hard drives off your VIA controller and allows you to have 4HDD's and 4 IDE devices... Read some of my posts about problems with the kt7a-raid... if i were you, i'd buy the raid board... its not much more expensive that the reg. kt7a board, and you can have 2x as many devices......

SharkyTM

 

[Stormwind]

SO does RAID simply mean supporting more devices but also at a quicker speed?!

 

[Tacoman667]

There are different RAID arrays though. One, if I remember correctly, allows you to make an exact duplicat of HDD1 on HDD2. That way one HDD can read at the same time the second does. If you have 2 sources reading the same info it's MUCH faster. Kind of like SCSI but you use 2+ HDD's instead of one on an SCSI. I wonder if you could RAID 2 SCSI HDD's. Now THAT would be cool.

 

[supraway]

SCSI Raid was along FAR before IDE Raid. Up until recent years, it has been reserved for server only applications, providing either data security, added performance, or a combination of both. There are many levels of RAID, the most popular being 0, 1, and 5. Raid-0 splits data inbetween two drives, thus making it much faster. Raid-1 mirrors data across two drives, making an exact copy, therefore added protection. Raid-5 is kindof a combination of both, using parity bits encoded into 3+ drives to both protect AND speed up data. Basically, if you have 2 of the same drive, RAID is a good way to go for your particular application.