Asus P5Q SATA slots...

mrbios · 9 Jan 2009 at 22:47

I read somewhere that the orange and white slots were specifically for RAID, I have just setup my windows install on a WD640 drive as my main one and a 300gb storage drive

Now i have two 160gb WD RE2 drives i want to setup in RAID1 for some backups, those two drives are connected to the white and orange slots but they haven't appeared under windows or bios, is there anything i need to do to achieve this?

Never used them before now

EDIT:

Also when setting up devices should i be using the ACHI option at all? i don't know what it is so if anyone could enlighten me it would be much appreciated

At the moment the drives are set to Enhanced / IDE, but i have the option of ACHI and RAID

EDIT2:
ok the manual has slightly explained things to me, my drives support NCQ i think so i guess i should be using AHCI? time to go play around

Sweeney · 9 Jan 2009 at 22:56

I strongly suggest having a read of the motherboard manual, explains it in easy to understand detail.

Basically you have 2 sata controllers on the p5q's, the marvell (2 slots) and the intel (6 slots). The marvell controller is a sort of fool proof way of using drives in raid, but i prefer to do it the old fashioned way

mrbios · 9 Jan 2009 at 23:02

Sweeney said:
Basically you have 2 sata controllers on the p5q's, the marvell (2 slots) and the intel (6 slots). The marvell controller is a sort of fool proof way of using drives in raid, but i prefer to do it the old fashioned way

So there isnt any performance difference? if not i'll do it the way i know (the old way)

Is there a performance difference in having the drives set to AHCI instead of enhanced > ide?

Sweeney · 9 Jan 2009 at 23:19

Wouldn't think there would be any difference worth noting, im not saying don't use it for what you are wanting to do, just that if you read the manual it explains in detail exactly what you can use it for

Not sure of AHCI vs IDE either, for what it's worth; i have mine set as RAID

mrbios · 9 Jan 2009 at 23:25

I just tried AHCI and it BSOD on loading windows, not sure why, will have to look into that further

For the sheer hell of it i've decided to have a go with the orange and white ports, now that i've looked in the bios it's all come clear to me, its like setting up RAID for idiots

might as well use it now that its setup though i guess

Sweeney · 9 Jan 2009 at 23:27

Afaik, AHCI is linked with OS registry so quite often take the huff when you decide not to/to use it if not fresh install after changing.

It certainly seemed "raid for idiots" so to speak but i thought that usually these things end up biting you on the behind when taking a shortcut lol