NF7-S and Raid-1 question

[Lars Odermath]

hi,

i just got my abit nf7-s rev. 2.0 and i think about to set up a raid-1 array. i have two ibm gxp180 120gig/8mb and want to use them for it.

i already connected one of the discs to the ata-controller and installed xp pro. is it possible just to connect this disc and the other to the sata-controller and activate raid in the bios? will the content of the disc with xp installed be copied to the other disc or do i first have to set up a raid-1 array and then install xp?

will raid-1 slow down the performance a lot or just very little?

thanks for your help.
lars

 

[Styvaen]

"Lars Odermath" wrote:

hi,

i just got my abit nf7-s rev. 2.0 and i think about to set up a raid-1 array. i have two ibm gxp180 120gig/8mb and want to use them for it.

i already connected one of the discs to the ata-controller and installed xp pro. is it possible just to connect this disc and the other to the sata-controller and activate raid in the bios? will the content of the disc with xp installed be copied to the other disc or do i first have to set up a raid-1 array and then install xp?

will raid-1 slow down the performance a lot or just very little?

thanks for your help.
lars

Ideally you would set up raid 1 before installing XP. However since you have already installed it your other suggestion seems sound but you risk losing the entire contents.

With RAID 1 there is no slow down. And reading can even be noticably faster. However just connecting your XP drive to a single SATA port will probably be noticably faster as well (install the SATA driver to XP before moving it over). I found the NF7's ATA133 ports to be rather slow incomparison (with my 2yr old machine) though I admit I declined to install the (unstable?) Abit ATA driver.

Styvaen.

 

[Gustav Almstrom]

With RAID 1 there is no slow down. And reading can even be noticably faster.

Hum... RAID 1 is mirroring, I really doubt that would be faster... I think you're thinking of RAID 0

 

[Styvaen]

"Gustav Almstrom" wrote:

With RAID 1 there is no slow down. And reading can even be noticably
faster.

Hum... RAID 1 is mirroring, I really doubt that would be faster... I think you're thinking of RAID 0

No I am not. While one drive is reading the other drive can be reading ahead. Drives with an 8MB cache are consequently better for RAID than 2MB.

Styvaen.