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Sabertooth X79 RAID


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#1
strikermed

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Hey Guys,

 

I'm looking to do an upgrade to expand and speed up my Media drives for video editing.  Right now I have a 1TB running alone.  I'm not concerned with redundancy since I back everything up daily on my NAS.  What I'm looking to do is take 2 2TB WD Black drives and RAID0 them for better performance and storage. 

 

My question is, what is the best practice to do so using the Sabertooth X79 motherboard.  I see that I have 2 different sets of SATA ports.  One is an intel set and another is Marvel.  Which should I use.

 

I should note that I have 2 SSD's and the 1TB hard drive plugged into the intel slots right now.  So I will have a total of 4 plugged into the intel if I go that route. 

 

Can/Should I set the RAID0 up on the intel set (I haven't heard great things about Marvel)?  I've read in the manual that if you enable RAID on the intel chipset, all the ports will have RAID enabled on it.  Should I be concerned with that with 2 SSD's and the RAID all on the intel set of SATA ports?

 

 

Thanks!

Strikermed

 

 

Note: (From Belarc Diagnostic software)

Asmedia 106x SATA Controller

Marvel 91xx SATA 6G Controller

Asmedia XHCI Controller (3x)

Intel® c600 Series Chipset SATA AHCI Controller


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#2
strikermed

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Anyone have any knowledge on this?  Wondering if this is plausible.  Hoping to have it set up by the weekend.

 

Thanks ahead of time!


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#3
strikermed

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So, this is what I've gathered from further research.  I've found that the intel chipset is still the better choice for doing RAID over the Marvell.  Some have said that it would be just as effective to use the 3Ggigabit ports as the 6Gigiabit ports since they aren't SSD's that I am putting into RAID0.  I've learned how to set up RAID on the motherboard.

 

What I still need to know is how the motherboard will act when I put the intel SATA ports into RAID mode.  Will they detect all my drives along with building a RAID0 with 2 additional drives?  (currently I have 2 SSD's, 1 HDD, and a Blu-ray plugged into the intel SATA ports)


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#4
iammykyl

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Gday Strikermed.

Sorry I missed your original post and you were left to your own devises. 

​The Intel RAID controller is a layer on top of the AHCI standard, so you still have those benefits.

The Intel controller is better to use with SSDs and hard drives in RAID, some people on some boards have issues with the Marvel and Asmedia controllers.

Using the Marvel 3GB/s ports is perfectly OK for HDDs, no performance loss.

 

Please read your MB manual before installing the OS as you may need to load the RAID controllers during the install.

I am going out for a few hours, will download your MB manual, get back to you later. 


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#5
iammykyl

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Is this your MB? >http://www.asus.com/...SABERTOOTH_X79/

I now see that the Marvell SATA is 6.0 GB/s

What OS are you installing?

Don't know how big your SSDs are?, so assumptions here.  Set the Intel SATA controllers to AHCI,   If possible, (they being separate), set the Marvell SATA to RAID.

 

Largest SSD, SATA 1, Boot drive.

Smaller SSD, SATA 2, scratch/cache.

OD, SATA 3. (not possible to use the Marvel SATA controller.

2x2TB HDD, Marvell SATA E1/E2  RAID0. Check that the OS supports large capacity drives, 4TB.  you may need a patch from Microsoft. Important, read chapter 2 page 19.

 

Consider installing another HDD for DATA storage and non criticle programs, giving space on the SSD.


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#6
strikermed

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Hey thanks for the replies and checking into this for me. That is the motherboard I have.

My ssd are 500gb(With OS), and 120gb(cache drive for Adobe not windows).

I have windows 7 professional, and I'm fairly confident It can handle 4TB since my 7.1TB NAS is recognized.

I ready have windows 7 installed and I'm looking to add a RAID 0 media drive to handle the needs of my video production. So essentially I would be just adding a RAID array as a data drive to my existing system.


So, your saying it would be smarter to set up the RAID on the Marvell controller because the ssd drives have to have AHCI? Is there anything I should be aware of that I might run into when setting it up?
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#7
iammykyl

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Thanks for the infor.   Noted your setup.   I would look to see if there are Driver/utilities updates for the board. 

 

I ready have windows 7 installed and I'm looking to add a RAID 0 media drive to handle the needs of my video production.

In the BIOS, Advanced, SATA Configuration.   SATA Mode should be set to AHCI Mode.   

So, your saying it would be smarter to set up the RAID on the Marvell controller because the ssd drives have to have AHCI? Is there anything I should be aware of that I might run into when setting it up? 

Yes, use the Marvell controller, ideal for HDD RAID storage.

As the OS has been installed using AHCI,?? and you change to RAID, the system may/probable fail to Boot.

 

In the BIOS, Advanced, Marvell Storage Controller, Enabled

 

From the MB support disc, please read the Marvell MSU User's Manual. 

Setup Marvell RAID.  Reboot, > press ctrl + m during POST.  MB, chapter 4 page 25 for instructions.


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