Need Help with Pci Expresss x4 raid controller card.

T

ThrillSeeker

n00b
Joined
Aug 29, 2012
Messages
46
Hi. I really need a good pci express raid controller card. My motherboard marvel and intel raid controller sucks. the speed is so low. I want to make it faster. So i decided to get a raid controller card to achieve faster speed. I want to make a raid0 with 2x Samsung 840 pro SSD drive for the main OS system and 2x 2TB Western digital hard drive for backup drive. I looked up LSI raid controller card. I contacted them, and they said they don't support my motherboard. I was wondering if you guys can help me out picking a good raid controller card that supports my motherboard. My Current system specs is below. I would really appreciate your help. Thank you advance.


Cooler Master 942 HAF X

Processor: Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition 990X 3.46GHz (Six-Core)

Motherboard: ASUS Rampage III Extreme (Intel X58 Chipset) (Features USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s)

System Memory: 12GB DDR3 2000MHz Corsair Dominator GT with DHX

Power Supply: 1200W Corsair Pro Gold Series (CMPSU-1200AX) (Dual/Triple/Quad SLI Compatible)

Hard Drive Set 1: 2x (120GB Solid State 520 ( Raid0 )

Hard Drive Set 2: Multimedia\Data: 1x (2TB Western Digital (7200 RPM)

Optical Drive 1: Blu-Ray & DVD Writer/Reader (Burn + Play Blu-Ray & DVDs) (12x BD-R) (Lite-On iHBS112)

Video Cards: 2x SLI Quad SLI (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 3GB (PhysX) (EVGA Classified)

Sound Card: Creative Labs X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion

Extreme Cooling: H20: Stage 2: Corsair H70 Liquid CPU Cooler (High-Performance Edition)
 
The only way is to get a very expensive card, and even then a Z77/Z87/X79 would probably be faster still.
 
You can't beat your onboard SATA for only 2 2-drive arrays. Forget the entire idea. And with LSI you need one of their better cards (several hundred bucks - not just a cheap IBM M1015 for $75) to get ideal performance from SSDs. Otherwise Intel will be better.

Only add in a card if you want more drives and/or more/bigger arrays and/or better parity-RAID (e.g. RAID-5 or RAID-6) support.

Otherwise get a Mushkin Enhanced Scorpion Deluxe PCI-E SSD (which is the only not-too-ridiculously-priced PCI-E SSD that I can recommend currently). Not cheap, but if you really want performance, it is currently the way to go. TheSSDReview reviewed it a month or so ago.
 
Last edited:
This link will give you a list of compatable components for an LSI 9260-4i which would be your cheapest option.

It would require you to buy the optional Fast Path chip and a new MB and I couldn't guarantee it would be faster than a newer Intel (Z77/Z87/X79) chipset.
 
dandragonrage said:
You can't beat your onboard SATA for only 2 2-drive arrays. Forget the entire idea. And with LSI you need one of their better cards (several hundred bucks - not just a cheap IBM M1015 for $75) to get ideal performance from SSDs. Otherwise Intel will be better.

Only add in a card if you want more drives and/or more/bigger arrays and/or better parity-RAID (e.g. RAID-5 or RAID-6) support.

Otherwise get a Mushkin Enhanced Scorpion Deluxe PCI-E SSD (which is the only not-too-ridiculously-priced PCI-E SSD that I can recommend currently). Not cheap, but if you really want performance, it is currently the way to go. TheSSDReview reviewed it a month or so ago.
Click to expand...

Can i installl windows into pci e based ssd and boot windows from it? If so i dont mind spending.

or should i just stay with on board raid controller and connect 4x Samsung 840 pro into raid0 instead of 2 .. will that give me a speed boost?
 
ThrillSeeker said:
Can i installl windows into pci e based ssd and boot windows from it? If so i dont mind spending.

or should i just stay with on board raid controller and connect 4x Samsung 840 pro into raid0 instead of 2 .. will that give me a speed boost?
Click to expand...

According to the review of it on TheSSDReview it is bootable. Some PCI-E cards are not.

4 SSDs will give you a speed boost over 2. Using 4 in RAID would probably be about the same speed as the Mushkin (maybe more like the non-Deluxe on an X58) which is just a card with 4 SF-2281 SSDs in RAID. Essentially a cleaner version of what you're thinking of doing that uses a PCI-E slot instead of a bunch of SATA ports.

Either option will work. As for whether it's WORTH it over 2 SSDs, I don't know because I don't really have a good idea of your personal requirements, or why you find your setup slow as-is. Neither of those ideas would be worth it to most people.
 
Last edited:
Looks like you are currently on Intel 520's, moving to the Samsung 840 Pro's would be faster. You are on X58, so the Intel Raid is only going to be Sata 2, Honestly that wont matter much, except for sequential transfer benchmarks. In real-world sata 2 for ssd's is ok, especially if you are doing a raid0 set with 2 of them.

Honestly your best bet would be to upgrade to a platform with native SATA 3, like X87 and then maybe move to the 840 Pros. If you must stick with 6-core you can go X79, but then you only get 2 native sata 3 ports, which would be fine to do 2-ssd raid0.

Or you can go with the Mushkin PCIE ssd mentioned above.

Just all depends on how much pavement you want to rip up.
 
You might spend as much on the right RAID controller as just upgrading your motherboard and CPU, to get a chipset that supports SATA III. Something to consider.
 
extide said:
Looks like you are currently on Intel 520's, moving to the Samsung 840 Pro's would be faster. You are on X58, so the Intel Raid is only going to be Sata 2, Honestly that wont matter much, except for sequential transfer benchmarks. In real-world sata 2 for ssd's is ok, especially if you are doing a raid0 set with 2 of them.

Honestly your best bet would be to upgrade to a platform with native SATA 3, like X87 and then maybe move to the 840 Pros. If you must stick with 6-core you can go X79, but then you only get 2 native sata 3 ports, which would be fine to do 2-ssd raid0.

Or you can go with the Mushkin PCIE ssd mentioned above.

Just all depends on how much pavement you want to rip up.
Click to expand...


Wait.... X79 motherboard supports my processor? I thought my processor is socket LGA 1366. And x79 motherboard is LGA 2011 socket. If so i rather upgrade just the motherboard and use my old processor and get Samsung 840 Pro. Please Clarify that my processor will work on x79 motherboard. Thank you in advance.
 
Last edited:
ThrillSeeker said:
Wait.... X79 motherboard supports my processor? I thought my processor is socket LGA 1366. And x79 motherboard is LGA 2011 socket. If so i rather upgrade just the motherboard and use my old processor and get Samsung 840 Pro. Please Clarify that my processor will work on x79 motherboard. Thank you in advance.
Click to expand...

It will not. For an X79 setup you're in for around $550+ anyway for CPU + mobo.
 
What he meant is that if you want a newer 6-core CPU, you need X79/S2011 as a platform.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top