XFX RAID3 card

MikeTimbers · 11 Mar 2007 at 10:36

I've acquired a job lot of 80GB SATA drives but can't use them with my motherboard as it downclocks if more than a single drive is attached. Individual 80GB drives are too small anyways to really provide much these days so when I saw a PCI-based RAID3 card for under £20 new, I ordered one.

Supposedly these things mimic an Intel-standard IDE controller requiring no drivers. This also makes the array easily transportable. I plan on creating a 3-drive 150GB usable array for use in my NForce2-based system which is currently only using a 40GB IDE and in theory, I should be able to Ghost the current system onto the array and boot off it without needing to re-install.

Has anyone here used one of these things? Good/bad? Fast/Slow?

MikeTimbers · 11 Mar 2007 at 13:30

I've seen a review at a "banned" site, that says it is a 100% hardware solution with no need to use the main cpu for the XOR. I guess we'll see.

I'll post back with a review next week.

MikeTimbers · 11 Mar 2007 at 16:09

Haven't seen the 5-port version anywhere so I got the three. Mind you it was so cheap that if it works, I might invest in the 5.

MikeTimbers · 18 Mar 2007 at 18:08

Well that's great! The card is invisible in both my rigs. Moving it around between PCI slots results in either the computer not seeing it or hanging immediately after POST. Looks like it will have to go back!