SSD + Raid Contollers + Crossfire Setup

A

Arkanian

[H]ard|Gawd
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Feb 8, 2004
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So I am about to build a new PC and I have decided to go SSD route. I am building an i7/Crosssfire setup. My i7 will be the 920 and the Crossfire will be a pair of 4950's. I will be buying 2 OCZ Vertex 60gb drives with RAID 0 in mind.

Questions:
1. I hear that buying a RAID card will give me the best performance. What card would you recommend? Like to spend <$300.00

2. I was thinking about getting this MOBO: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188039. Can I run my 2 4950's at x16 and also run my RAID card at x4 or x8?

3. Also what is the difference between these 2 boards:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188046
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188039

4. And last, if you think their is a better i7 MOBO, please recommend it.

Thanks!
 
...4850s I assume you mean, since there are no 49xx anythings.

The EVGA X58 is good, but it's more than you need to spend since you don't need SLI support and certainly don't need 16x/16x/16x SLI support. Just CrossfireX. Every X58 board supports CrossfireX. Most support SLI as well (though not all) they just lack the NF200 the EVGA has to allow 16x 3 way SLI and instead fall back to 16x/8x/16x... which has zero effect on performance in every situation that's been examined thus far.

I'd look at the Gigabyte X58s, and possibly ASUS.

Fairly sure the difference between using a dedicated hardware RAID card and the onboard Intel ICH10R with a two drive RAID0 array (which is not very CPU intensive) is negligible. I would not recommend you spend any money on a card given your intended usage.
 
oops, I meant 4890:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102831


I plan on overclocking and there are a lot of good reviews of that EVGA board. Anyone else want to chime in on if I should get a hardware RAID controller for these 2 SSD's?

I think maybe the only benefit would be that I can take the card to another PC but I am only using the RAID setup for OS+Apps so if I moved it I would have to reformat anyway.
 
All the X58 boards OC about the same, really. There is some variance in failure rate and reliability, and the EVGA isn't the best among them in that respect. Other than that it's really all additional features that differentiate them.
 
A $300 RAID card would not provide a significant enough performance difference with OCZ Vertex SSD to justify the $300 price tag. So in other words: Don't bother with a hardware RAID card for just RAID 0.
 
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