intel matrix storage

[lihouboy]

I am building a PC primarily for video editing but also for some gaming.

4 250Mb hard disks are on order and I was intending to use one for the os and programmes and have the other 3 set up as a raid5 array for my videos.

I am using an ASUS P5B deluxe WiFi board with intel 965 and ICH8R chipset.

Looking at the intel website it seems as if I could arrange the 4 discs as a matrix with, perhaps 100Mb of each of the 4 disks as a raid 0+1 for OS / programs and 150Mb of each of the disks as a raid5.

Have I read the intel information correctly and has anyone tried this? I'd probably prefer stability to performance.

Thanks.

 

[lihouboy]

OK. I feel an experiment coming on. Does anyone know of any disk speed testing tools that don't need windows installed? Perhaps running linux from a CD or DOS.

 

[lihouboy]

Results

Intel Matrix array built - easy, just followed the manual.

Here are the results.

MB Asus P5B deluxe/wi fi
3 Samsung SP2504C 250 Mb HD
1 Maxtor 300 Mb HD (Sata2)
E6400
2 Gb GeiL PC6400C4

Nothing oc'd yet.

Set up a 180Gb capacity Raid10 across all 4 disks
Set up remainder (428Gb) raid 5 across remaining disks (lost 50 Gb of Maxtor)

Ran Sandra lite 2007.SP1

Results

test ________________ raid10 ... raid5
Random access time .... 6 ms ..... 9 ms
Buffered read ...........576 Mb/s .. 436 Mb/s
Sequent. read ..........117 Mb/s .. 170 Mb/s
Random read .............71 Mb/s .... 67 Mb/s
Buffered write ..........194 Mb/s ...108 Mb/s
Sequen. write ..........116 Mb/s .... 30 Mb/s
Random write ............78 Mb/s .... 17 Mb/s

This pretty much confirms Smids' post.

Thanks.