eVGA X58 SLI RAID 5 keeps degrading?

[r00k]

I recently switched my primary computer from a single RaptorX 150 sata drive to 3 1TB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12's in RAID 5 on my eVGA X58 SLI. It seems like every few days the Intel Matrix Storage Manager reports the array is in a degraded state. It has happened twice now in the past week, each time now a different hard drive / port.

Are there certain settings i should be using that would be most optimal for this? Does this even sound like a motherboard issue?

I am using the onboard supported controller, not an add-in controller.

 

[drescherjm]

Look at the smart status of the drives. No it does not sound like a motherboard issue to me.

 

[BillParrish]

Check the system error logs for device/controller timeouts etc.

It would also be interesting to turn off write cache if enabled and see what if anything that does to the issue.

 

[cyclone3d]

Definitely check the SMART status of the drives.

And even if the SMART status says it is OK it doesn't mean that there really aren't any SMART errors as I recently learned with a Seagate drive I have that recently failed in a RAID-0 array.

Seatools wouldn't even let me run anything but the generic tests, and SMART passed when I used the WD tool.

I ended up finding a program that actually let me look at the SMART log and found that even though the SMART status was "OK", my drive was having seek and read errors all the time.

The program I found is called Active@ Hard Disk Monitor.

They have a 14-day trial version that will at least let you look at the status and SMART log of your drives to see what is up.

http://www.disk-monitor.com/download.html

edit.. Even Speedfan can view the SMART log... although it doesn't give any description of what the different fields are.