Asus P4C800 and support hard drives ??

  • Thread starter Thread starter Roger Beniot
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Roger Beniot

I built a computer recently w/ the Asus P4C800 deluxe motherboard (my
first built computer) and I have some questions on what hard drives the
motherboard supports and what configs it supports w/ the hard drives.
I am fairly inexperienced w/ the different hard drive technologies so
explanations would help (thanks).

Currently I have two IDE hard drives but I want to configure it w/ a
lot more hard drive space (say have two 300GB drives or more space if
possible for video editing, music storage, recording TV, etc)...
Looking at the manual this is what I understand the MB supports (feel
free to tell me if you know different):

1) IDE - dual channel bus master IDE connectors support Ultra DMA
100/66, PIO Modes 3 & 4 IDE devices...

2) Raid Ultra ATA 133 connector - supports two ultra ATA133 HDDs and
may be config'd for RAID0, RAID1, or RAID0+1 together with the serial
ATA HDDs on the SATA Raid connector

3) SATA connectors - support Serial ATA HDDs and may be config'd as
RAID0, RAID1, or RAID0+1. Together with the UltraDMA 133 devices, if
present, the SATA RAID devices may be set up as multi-raid config.


Can someone explain what that all means... I basically understand what
#1 means and I can find examples of hard drives that support it. But I
have no clue what #2 and #3 mean.

I'm also not sure what this means for the HD config that I can have...
Is it possible to have two hard drives using the IDE connects and then
have two drives on the SATA connector (thus having 4 hard drives in my
machine)? Or am I limited to either two IDE, two SATA or two SATA RAID
drives...

If someone could provide an example of a config that would work that
might also help me.

Below is a link to the motherboard manual in case that helps:
http://dlsvr01.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/sock478/P4C800/e1286_p4c800.pdf

Thanks in advance,
Roger
 
Hi Roger,

Number 1 means the board supports 4 IDE devices, so up to 4 IDE harddisks
and/or cd/dvd drives.
Number 2 and 3 both mention RAID.
RAID is ment to boost speed or increase safety by combining two or more
harddisks together.
I don't know all the exact details of those RAID modes, but the most basics
are striping (mode 0) and mirroring (mode 1).

Striping stores your files across all raid-configured harddisks. So if you
have two disks, 50% of a file will go to the first disk and the other 50% to
the other.
The file will be split in small chucks of data (stripes) and when your
computer reads or writes to that file, it can use the bandwidth of both
harddisks at the same time.
In other words: striping means faster reading and writing and thus
increasing total harddisk speeds.

With mirroring, a file is stored 100% on each disk.
If one disk fails, the other(s) still have the same data and you can
continue to work as long as at least one harddisk is still working.

In your case, I think it is best to forget RAID which simplifies everything
to having a maximum of four IDE drives and two S-ATA drives.
(Actually I think you can run four S-ATA drives, two on the normal
connectors and two on the RAID connectors, but I am not sure about this.)

Currently I am running with three IDE harddisks, one IDE dvd burner and one
S-ATA harddisk with at least one spare S-ATA connector.
This is my config:
(non-raid) S-ATA channel 0 = harddisk
(non-raid) S-ATA channel 1 = unused, but another S-ATA drive here will work
Primary IDE channel 0 (master) = harddisk
Primary IDE channel 1 (slave) = harddisk
Secundary IDE channel 0 (master) = dvd burner
Secundary IDE channel 1 (slave) = harddisk

The reason I've setup the last harddisk as a slave is because I swap this
drive regularly with two others.

So yes, supposing you have one dvd reader/burner, you can run three IDE
harddisks, a DVD reader or burner and two S-ATA harddisks *at the same time*
without any problems.

Hope this helps.

regards
Marcel
 
"Roger said:
I built a computer recently w/ the Asus P4C800 deluxe motherboard (my
first built computer) and I have some questions on what hard drives the
motherboard supports and what configs it supports w/ the hard drives.
I am fairly inexperienced w/ the different hard drive technologies so
explanations would help (thanks).

Currently I have two IDE hard drives but I want to configure it w/ a
lot more hard drive space (say have two 300GB drives or more space if
possible for video editing, music storage, recording TV, etc)...
Looking at the manual this is what I understand the MB supports (feel
free to tell me if you know different):

1) IDE - dual channel bus master IDE connectors support Ultra DMA
100/66, PIO Modes 3 & 4 IDE devices...

2) Raid Ultra ATA 133 connector - supports two ultra ATA133 HDDs and
may be config'd for RAID0, RAID1, or RAID0+1 together with the serial
ATA HDDs on the SATA Raid connector

3) SATA connectors - support Serial ATA HDDs and may be config'd as
RAID0, RAID1, or RAID0+1. Together with the UltraDMA 133 devices, if
present, the SATA RAID devices may be set up as multi-raid config.


Can someone explain what that all means... I basically understand what
#1 means and I can find examples of hard drives that support it. But I
have no clue what #2 and #3 mean.

I'm also not sure what this means for the HD config that I can have...
Is it possible to have two hard drives using the IDE connects and then
have two drives on the SATA connector (thus having 4 hard drives in my
machine)? Or am I limited to either two IDE, two SATA or two SATA RAID
drives...

If someone could provide an example of a config that would work that
might also help me.

Below is a link to the motherboard manual in case that helps:
http://dlsvr01.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/sock478/P4C800/e1286_p4c800.pdf

Thanks in advance,
Roger
Click to expand...

Primer on RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundant_array_of_independent_disks

All connectors can be used for independent disk usage. The
Promise controller has an "ATA" driver, you can download from the
Asus support.asus.com.tw download site. Set the BIOS to get the
non-RAID mode to work (i.e. if you flipped it to RAID by
accident).

There are two hardware chips.

The Intel Southbridge has two IDE connectors for 4 PATA drives
It has two SATA connectors for "master 3" and "master 4".

With Win2K or WinXP, you can have six disks on the Southbridge
connectors. With Win98SE, only four of six would work, as
compatible mode in the BIOS would be needed. Some background
info is here:

http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/manuals/25267102.pdf

The Intel Southbridge doesn't need drivers for non-RAID
SATA or PATA on ICH5(R) chip in WinXP. If using large
disks (>137GB) for your OS install, Service Pack 1
slipstreamed install CD is handy (google on "enablebiglba").
If running the Southbridge in a RAID configuration, installing
drivers via F6 would be necessary (IAAR driver). Similarly,
if planning on using RAID later, it pays to install in
"RAID-ready" state, by setting the Southbridge to RAID now,
and using an Intel RAID driver via F6 during Windows install.
That makes RAID migration dead easy later.

ftp://download.intel.com/support/chipsets/iaa_raid/IAAR_Quick_Start.pdf

The Promise chip doesn't support ATAPI, so no optical
drives go on the Promise IDE or SATA connectors. The Promise
has one IDE connector, for two disks, and two SATA
connectors, for two more. In RAID mode, up to four disks
could be used in various RAID modes. Four single drives
should also work. With the Promise, if installing Windows
via a disk plugged to the Promise, you need either an
"ATA" or a "RAID" driver via F6 at install time. The
BIOS should be set appropriately for the Promise before
you start (i.e. select RAID or non-RAID mode first).

Watch for migration incompatibility, between the Promise
connectors and the Intel connectors. You may want to test
that a drive prepped on one interface, works on the other
interface, before your data is on there.

Max drives = 10 (six on ICH5R, four on Promise)
Max opticals = 6 (all would be on the ICH5R, two would be SATA)

I would recommend not using the Promise, unless the
quantity of drives requires it. The ICH5R has a 266MB/sec
bus connection, so offers less restrictions for max data
transfer rate. The ease of installing in non-RAID configurations
also makes the Southbridge a better choice. Just use the
two IDE cables on the ICH5R, the same way you would have
used them on the old computer. The BIOS defaults of
"Enhanced", "SATA", "RAID=no" should be enough to get
a WinXP install going, with no F6 or tricks.

As for the RAID modes, I personally don't recommend or use
them for my desktops. A RAID is not a substitute for a
backup policy, and amateur use of RAID (without understanding
what to do in an emergency, and having tested the procedures
before you need to use them), is more trouble than it is
worth. Stick with independent disk usage for now - having
an experimental RAID array with no data on it, is an excellent
way to learn how to use a RAID array. You can experiment with
pulling a disk from the array, and seeing what happens.

Paul
 
First, thanks to Paul for a nice extraction of how things go. Then, I'd
like to comment...

Paul wrote:
....
As for the RAID modes, I personally don't recommend or use
them for my desktops. A RAID is not a substitute for a
backup policy, and amateur use of RAID (without understanding
what to do in an emergency, and having tested the procedures
before you need to use them), is more trouble than it is
worth. Stick with independent disk usage for now - having
an experimental RAID array with no data on it, is an excellent
Click to expand...

....this one. I have a nice small setup /w three hard discs (Maxtor 40GB
as primary, two RAIDed 30GB ones for temp and data)), a dual layer DVD
RW and a CD-RW. I use the system for random surfing, a game now and then
and all the typical usage for a home PC, including some DVD backups (got
two kids, 4 and 7 years, and a lot of DVD's for them). I set up an RAID
striping array /w 2x 30GB Maxtors and use the resulting 60GB array to
store data and other temporary stuff. IMO it is a very good way to learn
how things work. Nothing critical (so nothing to lose) and it also
offers some advantage by giving more speed where it is needed (temp
files, DVD ripping, UT game caches etc).

way to learn how to use a RAID array. You can experiment with
pulling a disk from the array, and seeing what happens.
Click to expand...

And only when you know what you are doing, start using the arrays for
some "real" work".
 
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