More than 4 Sata2 HDDs in raid0..

Unknown

I had 4 Hitachi Sata2 80 gig HDDs in raid0.

It benchmarks way faster than 2 HDDS.

No mobo (that ive seen) has more than 4 sata2 connections on a single controler.

If i get a mobo that has a SIL3132 controller I can use a "Port multiplier"
1 sata in, 5 sata2 out. I guess if I got 2 I could have 10 HDDS.

http://www.cooldrives.com/cosapomubrso.html

Now Im pretty good at building stuff BUT as far as computers go I border line on Dangerous...

Is there another way to use more than 4 Sata2 HDDs in Raid0?

profdlp

I'm sure someone else will come along with a better answer, but if you're rich you could get one of these and run up to 12 drives.

i0esign

profdlp wrote:

I'm sure someone else will come along with a better answer, but if you're rich you could get one of these and run up to 12 drives.

Too rich for my blood, but good find.

Armo

I have 1 of those ARC-1230's in fact a drive died out of mine this morning.

as fas as i know there is no way to intermediate between SATA controllers. If you want to use just raid 0, you can get pretty cheap ( cheaper than the Acreca ) that will do it.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16816110002

heres a 5 port Raid 0/1/3 card. but understand, that you will NOT be able to just plug the drives in and go, you will have to rebuild the array. meaning you'll want to archive the stuff on the array now and then switch to the controler card and rebuild the raid 0 and put everything back on.

i0esign

Armo wrote:

I have 1 of those ARC-1230's in fact a drive died out of mine this morning.

as fas as i know there is no way to intermediate between SATA controllers. If you want to use just raid 0, you can get pretty cheap ( cheaper than the Acreca ) that will do it.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16816110002

heres a 5 port Raid 0/1/3 card. but understand, that you will NOT be able to just plug the drives in and go, you will have to rebuild the array. meaning you'll want to archive the stuff on the array now and then switch to the controler card and rebuild the raid 0 and put everything back on.

Its only sata1,
what do you think of this?
http://www.cooldrives.com/cosapomubrso.html

I have very little (none)money to play with so cost is a big factor, also it may just sit in the closet after I try it.

Armo

that thing appears to be a eSATA controler card. eSATA - external serial ata. thats the "chip" that connects the drives which will be in that eSATA box ( $300 box under the actual connector ) then you have to have a eSATA port on your computer.

with out an eSATA port you wont be able to use it. you could get a card with eSATA get the controler card and run the eSATA back into your case to the drives.

i have NO idea how well that would work, im sure the banch marks would go down, it would be 5 drives running back into 1 SATA port on the board.

but you still will have to rebuild the array, you cant just hook up an existing array to another controller card and have it work.

Mt_Goat

Remeber that the chance for drive failure increases as you increase the number of drives in an array!

Armo

that is indeed true like i said one of my drives died this morning. but i use raid 5 and i can loose 1 drive and still function

if 1 drive failes, in raid 0 you loose EVERYTHING

i0esign

First failure rate natters not to me. Basically im doing this just to see how fast I can go.

The Hitachi Sata2 80gig HDDs are only $50 and I already have 4. Because they are cheap they are easy for me to sell.

In my last comp I got 4 in a Raid0 array to have a amazing run in ATTO.

I figured if 4 was better than 2 than 5 or 6 would be faster than 4.

That hard drive multiplier is only $69, and is Sata2 and the connection is esata(just a sheilded sata cable)its supposed to work with the sil3132 on my mobo.

for the case I figured I could use a old comp case and put in a old power supply and VOILA "A very fast Raid0 array" and less cables in my comp.

the esata cable is only $9

Am I missing something?

Mt_Goat

Have you enabled the SATA II on your drives? Hitachi drives are shipped without the 3.0 GBS enabled. See this thread for more details. Make sure to use the link on this page under "Feature Tool (v2.01)" as the link in the thread above is for an older version. If you are testing with ATTO you will be pleasantly surprised!

Anything other than utilizing a high end card that is PCI-e is just a waste of money at this point as none of those other devices are quite what they are cracked up to be.

i0esign

http://acoolidea.blogspot.com/

scroll down to the 4th pict. I gotthe sata1 and 2 thing down.

I just wanted to see if they could go faster.

mmonnin

mtgoat wrote:

Remeber that the chance for drive failure increases as you increase the number of drives in an array!

No more than having each drive it a non-RAID setup.

Mt_Goat

If you are referring to the ATTO pic you have the 'total length' wrong. For all testing it needs to be set at 32mb not 1 mb. What you are testing has totally skewed results and is not accurate of your system's performance. After setting like the example in the pic below yours will likely look more like this.

shwaip

mmonnin wrote:

No more than having each drive it a non-RAID setup.

I think he meant chances of array failure are higher, rather than drive failure.

i0esign

Failure rate dosent matter as I usually rebuild weekly (I get bored easily)

And to mtgoat, please leave my illusion of greatness,lol.
I did repeat the test and you were correct. Buy why is my total length "wrong"?
Why do they give the choices they give (64kb-32mb) if we cant play with them?

profdlp

i0esign wrote:

...Why do they give the choices they give (64kb-32mb) if we cant play with them?

It's like comparing a cars performance in a quarter-mile race to a 500-Lap marathon - they test two different things. You won't find one car that is great at both.

The longer test simulates "real world" performance better, which is why it is more widely used. I'm sure your scores look pretty darn good either way.

i0esign

Thanks for explaining it

But i "need" more....more more more.....Speeeeeeeed

(and no to $1200 in Raptors)

tmh88

Just wondering, but what type of work are you doing that you need so much speed?

i0esign

Goofing off, lol

And I just like to learn stuff. Ive never been to good at the book thing, I really like to tinker.

tmh88

yea i get what you mean. Kinda like OC'ing for me. I just like to see how high I can get my cpu to run at stable. Not that I need that extra amount of preformance, its just for the hell of it.

i0esign

Besides I can always sell the HDDs cause they only cost $50.

I have a couple of 16mb buffer HDDs but they are more $$$ to play with.

i0esign

My "real" problem is I really dont have money to play with but it I dont get computer stuff I gamble (I live in Reno NV)

Mt_Goat

Then you should consider some Maxtor Atlas SCSI drives and a good SCSI controller card used off Ebay. I guantee you won't spend much and you can keep adding drives till the cows come home.

Armo

scsi has the potential to get expensive though. even the cables can be expensive. but scsi is the real deal for raids. you can connect up to fifteen drives per channel

scsi is defintly the marathon runner of all interfaces

profdlp

Armo wrote:

...scsi is definitely the marathon runner of all interfaces

And often the sprinter, too.

i0esign

I thought about that, I found some 6gig drives for $10. The problem is I wouldnt be able to sell them afterwords I realized what a waste of money that was, lol.