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amikoenig
amikoenig
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Hard Drive Controller Configuration - Asus P9X79 Pro

May 29, 2012 3:08 AM

Tags: #cs6 #asus #x79 #hard_disk

I am building a computer for use with CS 6 Premiere Pro.  I purchased an Asus P9X79 Pro motherboard.  I  have bought 4 drives.  I plan to use a 256gb Samsung 830 SSD for the boot drive loaded programs and the operating system; two 500gb Western digital Velociraptor drives in Raid 0 for scratch disk; and a Hitachi 2tb Ultrastar 7K3000 drive for everything else. My question involves my confusion over selection of which controllers to attach the drive to on the Asus motherobard.  The X79 chipset comes with 2 x SATA 6gbs and 4 x SATA 3gbs.  The motherboard also has a Marvell 2 x SATA 6gbs controller.  My initial thought was to hook the 2 WD drives to the 6gbs connector and create the RAID 0.  I would then connect the Samsung SSD and Hitachi 7K3000 to the Intel 3gbs connectors.  Am I doing this properly or should I be using the SSD on the 6gbs connector and the set up the RAID on the 3gbs controller?  I read somewhere that it was not a good idea to use the Marvell controller for the SSD. 

3120 Views   8 Replies   Latest reply: amikoenig, Jun 11, 2012 7:02 PM
 
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  • Harm Millaard
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    1. Harm Millaard,
    May 29, 2012 3:17 AM   in reply to amikoenig
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    Definitely the Samsung on a SATA 6Gb connection. I would use the Velociraptors on the Marvell connections, use the Marvell raid controller and that leaves the Hitachi the second SATA 6 Gb connection. That means your backup disk, if internal, is on a SATA 3 Gb.

     
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  • amikoenig
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    2. amikoenig,
    May 29, 2012 3:41 PM   in reply to Harm Millaard
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    Harm thanks for the response. I am a bit unsure about using the Marvell raid controller on the Asus P9X79 pro.  It is a hardware RAID that uses the ASUS Drive Xpert feature.  Some internet users have expressed problems with using Drive XPert with this motherboard.  Do you have any experience with the hardware RAID via Marvell controller on this motherboard?

     
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  • Harm Millaard
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    3. Harm Millaard,
    May 29, 2012 3:58 PM   in reply to amikoenig
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    First of all, it is a software raid controller, because there is no dedicated IOP. I have not yet had any experience with the Marvell controller on this mobo, but with older generation ASUS/Marvell mobos I've never had any problems. Even if Marvell may be slower than the Intel chipset based raid, I don't think you have any choice unless you get a dedicated raid controller ($$$).

     

    I think the Drive Xpert tool from Asus is just a software layer over the BIOS installation and will probably be nothing more than crap that should be removed as most of the other ASUS software. Raid settings are done in BIOS, not under Windows.

     
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  • amikoenig
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    4. amikoenig,
    May 29, 2012 8:21 PM   in reply to Harm Millaard
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    Thanks for your response Harm.  The Marvel 9128 is described as a hardware raid host controller.  "It features a hardware RAID to offload CPU and AHCI interface for inboard driver support."

     

    http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/datasheets/Marvell-88SE91XX-Host-Contro llers.pdf

     

    My understanding is that people often buy the Pro motherboard of the Asus P9X79 because of the presence of the additional Marvell hardware RAID controller that is not present in some of the other P9X79 versions.  The Asus Drive Xpert tool appears to be a rebranded version of the Marvell based software suite used to manage the Marvell controller's RAID 0/1.

     

    I agree with you that the better solution would be a dedicated RAID controller card.  What is the best affordable solution available for a RAID controller card given the limited number of hard drives that I want to populate the RAID 0 with?

     
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  • Harm Millaard
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    5. Harm Millaard,
    May 30, 2012 1:52 AM   in reply to amikoenig
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    Areca ARC-1882 series is the best IMO, followed by LSI. Even if you have limited disks, I suggest to go for a model with at least 8 ports to prevent outgrowing the controller in the future.

     
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  • R4yMoNd
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    6. R4yMoNd,
    Jun 2, 2012 8:55 PM   in reply to amikoenig
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    if your samsung is a Sata III SSD why not using it in 6Gbs SATA port?

     
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  • lasvideo
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    7. lasvideo,
    Jun 2, 2012 9:07 PM   in reply to amikoenig
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    Atto is another industry leader used by professionals for 20 years (Avid,etc)

     
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  • amikoenig
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    8. amikoenig,
    Jun 11, 2012 7:02 PM   in reply to Harm Millaard
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    Harm,  I tested several configurations of drive installation on the Asus 9PX79 and in fact your recommendation provided the optimal results.  Using AIDA64 the read results on the Samsung 830 256gb were 496 Mb/s with .7 ms latency using the 6gbs SATA port.  Using the 6gbs Marvell controller in RAID 0 with 2 VelociRaptor drives I was able to obtain tested random read speed of 324 MB/s and Ave Read Access of  6.94 ms.  The Marvell 6gbs SATA controller easily outperformed the 3gbs SATA port Intel RAID where i was only able to achieve Random Read of 240 MB/s.   One thing that I did not fully understand is why the block size for testing used by AIDA64 on the Intel Raid 0 was 2MB whereas an 8MB block size was used for testing the Marvell Raid.  Unfortunately I cannot test write performance with AIDA64 as it is destructive of the disks. I probably will need to do another benchmark tool to test write performance of the drives.

     
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