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Motherboard Hardware RAID

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(SOLVED) Motherboard Hardware RAID

Hey all, bit new here, and I have a few burning questions regarding how I want to set up my build. And I apologize for the length of this, everything about CustoMacs is really hard to wrap my head around all at once. @.@

I'm planning on building a rig similar to http://www.tonymacx86.com/golden-bu...d5h-i7-3770k-gigabyte-geforce-gtx-660-ti.html and the motherboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128545 says, under the SATA RAID specs, "2 x SATA 6Gb/s (SATA3 0/SATA3 1) and 4 x SATA 3Gb/s (SATA2 2~5) Support for RAID 0, 1, 5, 10"

So what I want to do is create a hardware RAID 0 array using two SSDs. I feel I need to utilize hardware RAID, since I want to triple-boot from these drives (Windows, Mac, and Linux), and software RAID won't work across all three operating systems seamlessly (unless somebody could correct me). The motherboard says it supports hardware RAID, however, I've never done a hardware RAID setup before.

EDIT 2: So the motherboard only supports hardware-assisted software RAID, which doesn't work properly for OS X. The Highpoint RocketRAID 2720SGL was suggested twice, but after reading that it adds extra time to boot, (nitpicky, I know), I may want to think more about it. Any other suggestions would be very much appreciated.
 
In general, motherboard raid ports are not hardware raid. (Yes i know some of the expensive high-end server boards do have things like LSI SAS raid cards. He is asking about a consumer mobo by the specs.)

The onboard "raid" is nothing but an enhanced hardware assisted "software raid" that requires drivers inside the OS. They are usually aimed at Windows for the software raid but some linux drivers do exist.

There are no MAC drivers since this hardware would never exist in a mac. in addition, you cant build say a software based raid5 and expect to use it for a multiboot situation. (OSx does support its own software raid with JBOD disks)

you would need a true hardware raid card for what you are asking.

sorry
 
Well, I did already buy the two SSD's, so this is something I'm more-or-less committed to doing now. Oh well, time to find a RAID card that won't kill the bank too much harder, and that works with Mac.
 
Well, I did already buy the two SSD's, so this is something I'm more-or-less committed to doing now. Oh well, time to find a RAID card that won't kill the bank too much harder, and that works with Mac.

Highpoint 2720SGL or something from that family should do the trick.
 
"After that, you need to enter the RocketRAID 2720SGL’s drive configuration utility which is very old school looking and sadly quite slow as far as drive detection is concerned. Expect it to add a good 20-30 seconds to your boot time."

Huh, that's what I was trying to avoid. I mean, boot only really happens once a day usually, but it is still rather annoying. With a triple boot system too, I may have to switch from OS to OS multiple times a day. Unfortunate, but if that's the case, I'd probably go with a different card, or abandon the idea altogether.
 
"After that, you need to enter the RocketRAID 2720SGL’s drive configuration utility which is very old school looking and sadly quite slow as far as drive detection is concerned. Expect it to add a good 20-30 seconds to your boot time."

Huh, that's what I was trying to avoid. I mean, boot only really happens once a day usually, but it is still rather annoying. With a triple boot system too, I may have to switch from OS to OS multiple times a day. Unfortunate, but if that's the case, I'd probably go with a different card, or abandon the idea altogether.

I have never used a single RAID card that doesn't have a 20-60 second delay on boot up. If the card is bootable meaning it has its own BIOS you will run into this limitation.
 
I have never used a single RAID card that doesn't have a 20-60 second delay on boot up. If the card is bootable meaning it has its own BIOS you will run into this limitation.

Mm, that makes sense. In addition to Hackintosh, RAID is also a new concept to me. Thing that caught my eye was that it said drive detection was rather slow, so I didn't once think that the card had its own BIOS. Suppose I'll have to try it out for myself to really see. I don't really know how much a firmware upgrade can do as far as that goes, but I can try it out.
 
Mm, that makes sense. In addition to Hackintosh, RAID is also a new concept to me. Thing that caught my eye was that it said drive detection was rather slow, so I didn't once think that the card had its own BIOS. Suppose I'll have to try it out for myself to really see. I don't really know how much a firmware upgrade can do as far as that goes, but I can try it out.

I own this card plus many other RAID cards and the 2720 is probably the fastest I have seen. But yes it has its own BIOS so it has to turn on initialize the drives and then start the processes to actually make the RAID work. Again any RAID card is going to have this. Instant SSD triple-boot while running a RAID just doesn't exist.
 
I own this card plus many other RAID cards and the 2720 is probably the fastest I have seen. But yes it has its own BIOS so it has to turn on initialize the drives and then start the processes to actually make the RAID work. Again any RAID card is going to have this. Instant SSD triple-boot while running a RAID just doesn't exist.

Seems fine with me then, and a lot more reasonable than some RAID cards out there. As long as it's confirmed to work properly, I'm okay with shelling out the extra $160.
 
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