Am just putting together a new PC for Hd editing, have decided on the AMD x2 4400, can anyone suggest a motherboard to go with this?
Would prefer if it had an AGP slott and 3 or 4 PCI slotts, am using WinXP pro, also have 4 Samsung 200gb IDE drives that ide like to arrange in RAID 0 and use a seperate system drive. Any help on what works best appreciated.
Im using a triple monitor setup with an AGP matrox 450 card and a PCI matrox 450 card, this has worked flawlessly on my current P4 3 gig setup and would like to keep this if possible hence the AGP and PCI slots needed on the motherboard.
thanks
I've just build an X2 4200 system based on the ASUS A8NSLI-Premium (I wanted the dual-RAID option) but sadly this is a PCI-Express solution.
If three monitors are key have you considered moving to a Parhelia? I assume cost is the bid problem?
I prefer ASUS boards and having looked I can see the K8T800Pro-based A8V Deluxe is an obvious choice BUT it only supports 2x2 RAID SATA and not 1x4 IDE RAID as you need.
There are no other current production boards from them that will meet your requirements of AGP and IDE RAID.
I suspect if you must follow this path the best option will be to hunt out the best early-gen, x2 supporting AGP board and add a secondary PCI-based IDE RAID adaptor from Adaptec or Highpoint.
In the long run the cost may be better spent on a modern x2 939 board (see top), a Parhelia and 4x IDE to SATA convertors (Details Here and available from here for £15inc VAT).
Thanks for the info, yeh the cost option is whats keeping me from the Parhelia, the matrox cards are £7 each!!
If i go for the Asus A8V deluxe am i right in thinking i can have 3 IDE hard drives on the normal IDE controllers plus my DVD drive, then on the IDE RAID i can have just 2 drives ? OR i can have 2 SATA drives on the RAID ? or both? Im a bit confused as to what i can have (ie how many hard drives on the RAID connections)
Noted the IDE to SATA converters , does this allow me to use IDE drives on the SATA RAID?
thanks for any info
cheers
si
I've had a good look over the specifications and this is what I can determine.
ASUS A8V Deluxe
VIA K8T800 Pro Chipset
Up to 4Gb DDR400
AGP8X
5x PCI
2x IDE on South Bridge
SATA only RAID 0,1 and JBOD on South Bridge
SATA and IDE combined RAID 0, 1, 0+1 and "Multiple RAID" on additional Promise 20378 RAID controller
Gigabit LAN
2x IEEE1394
8x USB2
Realtek ALC850 audio
+ assorted other bits
From this I would assume the Promise controller is capable of combining its 1x IDE and 2x SATA ports into a single RAID array (Remember the single IDE will support two hard drives). So you should be able to attach two of your drives to this single channel and the two other drives, via converters, to the two single channel SATA connectors to create a single RAID0 array as you suggested.
This will leave the two standard IDE channels and two other SATA connectors for you boot drive.
Two words of warning.
1. Memory.
2. Power.
As in I don't know what the memory bandwidth will be like using the VIA chipset controller and with six drives (5 hard and one optical) you'll need to invest in a quality power supply of at least 500W to be safe (£80+).
Also I've no idea how efficient a cross PATA (IDE) to SATA RAID 0 will actually be.
Costs
A8V Deluxe - £42 (Microdirect)
2x SATA Converter - £30 (Overclockers)
Tagan 530W Easycon PSU - £82 (Scan)
Coolermaster Stacker 830 Case (for all those drives!) - £165 (Overclockers)
Total - £319
A separate RAID controller:
Highpoint Rocket RAID 133RE 2Ch ATA133 RAID 0,1 - £50 (Microdirect)
SATA Converters
The ABit website suggests you can use the to convert any IDE hard disc. If you want to convert optical drives as well (unlikely in this case) you must be using a Silicon Image drive controller (which you're not!).
Other Prices
I checked Parhelia prices and the APVe PCI-Express triplehead is £204 inc VAT from Dabs. Also the ASUS A8N-Premium is £105 from Microdirect. That board will allow dual RAID including a single combination of 4x IDE drives + 2x SATA in a RAID 1, 0 or O+1 (plus) JBOD AND another 4x SATA in RAID 0, 1, 10 or 5!
Granted it's steep as you'll still need the PSU and case but at least it gives you a fair idea.
Good hunting!
Thanks again for the info, heres what i think im gonna do i can get the Asus A8V deluxe for £45inc shipping, im gonna sell/swap the 4 new IDE drives i have and buy new SATA drives, i think this will give me far more for my money ? im running a 600w PS at the moment thats a good one.
I have 3 other IDE drives that ill use on the normal IDE channels, this sound ok?
cheers
si
Hmm
200Gb Maxtor Diamond 10 PATA 8Mb Cache drives are £54 on Scan atm or 27p per Gb.
200Gb Maxtor Diamond 10 SATAII 8Mb Cache drives are £54 on Scan atm or 27p per Gb.
250Gb Maxtor Diamond 10 SATAII 16Mb Cache drives are £58 on Scan atm or 23p per Gb.
300Gb Maxtor Diamond 10 SATAII 16Mb Cache drives are £74 on Scan atm or 25p per Gb.
So best value are 250Gb drives.
Personnally I'd lean towards Maxline III drives instead for claimed reliability especially as you want to run RAID 0 without redundancy. At £68 each they are £27p per Gb.
To be honest I regard the motherboard choice as the most fundamental change you can make to a PC as it dictates your future upgrades.
As you wish to go for a half-way house of old (AGP, PCI) and new (X2 CPU) I wouldn't invest in new drives as you're not likely to get much more than £40 per drive for what you already have. Also you'll be forced to run 2x 2RAID 0's (not a bad thing in itself) with that configuration rather than the 4x 1RAID 0 you originally aspired too.
I'd suggest the board and adaptors as originally suggested if you're that strapped for cash.
However if you choose the A8V Deluxe consider it only as a short-term upgrade for the next 12-18 months unless you don't see you CPU or storage needs changing for the forseeable future.
Best of luck!