DS3 Raid questions. (Pre install questions)

Rangler · 15 Jan 2007 at 22:46

Hi all and thanks for reading.
Ive just purchased 2 WD Caviar RE 160GB 1600YS's which i intend to put in RAID 0 on the rig in my sig. with a Gigabyte DS3 Motherboard.

Ive heard bad reports from people stating that theyve had bad transfer rates using the GSATA raid controller and also problems with the JMICRON sata drivers bundled with the G'Byte motherbaords and to use the intel ones.

Has anyone got any good advice / pointers or links they'd kindly share before i embark on this task this weekend

Also im currently using a Maxtor 160MB ATA133 2MB cache hard drive as my main drive, will i see a noticeable difference with the raid setup above.?

Thanks.

Cheers all.

james32 · 15 Jan 2007 at 23:20

need to be GSATA raid controller because the intel is only
single channel mode on that board, you need the ic8hr chipset
used on ds4.

beast · 15 Jan 2007 at 23:34

Just make sure you use the "gigabyte" Sata ports, otherwise the HDD's won't be visible on the RAID screen. Setting up is child's play, Just go into the BIOS and change a setting from IDE to RAID/IDE, then hit ctrl + g at the RAID screen and set up a RAID.
I've encountered no problems with the RAID 0 on my DS3, and in fact it's rather fast

Sniper123 · 16 Jan 2007 at 00:29

beast said:
Just make sure you use the "gigabyte" Sata ports, otherwise the HDD's won't be visible on the RAID screen. Setting up is child's play, Just go into the BIOS and change a setting from IDE to RAID/IDE, then hit ctrl + g at the RAID screen and set up a RAID.
I've encountered no problems with the RAID 0 on my DS3, and in fact it's rather fast

Thats what I've been waiting to hear

Thinking of ordering Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD and another Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB for raid0

Buffalo2102 · 16 Jan 2007 at 20:24

beast said:
I've encountered no problems with the RAID 0 on my DS3, and in fact it's rather fast

Yep. No problems here either.

There is a F10 BIOS out for the DS3 that apparently includes an update to the Gigabyte RAID controller. I don't know what it's for but we could speculate that it is to address the reported speed issues???

Cob · 17 Jan 2007 at 16:41

Yip no problems installing Vista, XP or X64 XP to my DS3's RAID controller either.

Ubuntu may be a different story if I decide to stick with it.

Rangler · 18 Jan 2007 at 13:03

Took the plung.

Ok i finnaly went for it.
Enable RAID/IDE in bios rebooted hit CTRL+G and set up striping.

Created a floppy with the drivers on booted of cd hit F6 installed raid drivers.
Installed XP then SP2 went to run a HDTACH and it fell over complaining about missing or corrupt HAL.dll.

Should i install the gigbayte raid drivers off the supplied cd or go with the ones from MS Update website.?

Thoughts please.

rpstewart · 18 Jan 2007 at 13:12

Use the ones off the CD or get updated ones from Gigabyte. You'll need to get all the drivers (chipset, SATA controllers etc) loaded before you can do much with the machine.

Rangler · 18 Jan 2007 at 13:17

Thanks for advice.

Thanks, just re-installed windows (damn quick on raid striped)
Installing sata and lan drivers first then will install SP2 then rest of drivers.