3dfx Archive - Anyone running RAID for a Voodoo5 PC?

razrx

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Anyone running RAID for a Voodoo5 PC?
07.03.09 at 00:57:56

hi

I just got a butt load of hardware in and I was wondering if anyone here does a RAID array. If so, what type of RAID do you run?

I have 3x 40GB drives that I could put in a RAID 5 which would be great for drive failure, but I was thinking of going with RAID 1+0 or 0+1 or 10 as I also now have 4x 160GB drives.

I am using the onboard Highpoint HPT RAID controller on my EPoX 8K5A3+ motherboard. The controller supports all RAID types mentioned.

Please comment.

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Kokohemmo

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Re: Anyone running RAID for a Voodoo5 PC?
Reply #1 - 07.03.09 at 03:26:46

Hi razrx

I'm using in Epox 8K3A+ with AMD Barton 3000+ RAID 0, as you perhaps noticed in Voodoo 5 6000 thread.

If you are using V56k and IF you want to get maximium performance of your hard disks, there is no way of beating RAID 0. Ofcourse, if one disk fails, all lost but sure you can handle backups... Wink

The good old FAT16 or FAT32 in system disk in RAID 0, you would see the difference... Cool

Regards
Kokohemmo

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« Last Edit: 07.03.09 at 03:44:26 by Kokohemmo »

Epox 8K3A+
Athlon XP 3200+ 333Mhz @ 2.33Ghz
3dfx Voodoo5 6000 Rev. 3700A
2 x 1GB Kingston ValueRAM PC2700 CL 2.5
2 x WD Caviar SE 160GB 7200RPM (RAID 0)
Realtek Family Network card

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razrx

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Re: Anyone running RAID for a Voodoo5 PC?
Reply #2 - 07.03.09 at 05:48:53

Ok I like raid 0. however I would like some redundancy.

Does anyone have an EPoX HPT374 BIOS file? My 8k5a3+ CD only has the HPT372 BIOS file.

According to EPoX website, this the Highpoint HPT374 BIOS file would be used with other EPoX boards such as: EP-4PCA3+ EP-8K5A3+ EP-8K9A3+

Does anyone have a good version?

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« Last Edit: 07.03.09 at 08:45:18 by razrx »

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G1nX

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Re: Anyone running RAID for a Voodoo5 PC?
Reply #3 - 07.03.09 at 11:17:08

Hi razrx,

I did test use a bunch of IDE Raid controllers embedded into the MB like the HighPoint, Promise, Silicon Image, and i can say they provide poor performance compared to a true HW RAID controller like the 3ware due to not having a dedicated chip and memory.
More to the subject if you plan on having a RAID5 you overall performance will drop as the parity XOR calculations will be done by the system CPU.
RAID10 is a combination of RAID0 and RAID1 and you get a performance boost and redundancy but loose the capacity of 2 drives.
With RAID1 you will have redundancy but slightly lower performance than single drive.
Still you could go for raid10 if you don't mind the downsides and my suggestion would be to put each drive as master on one cable/connector from the MB for slightly lower latency.
Myself I'm using a 3ware SATA RAID controller on my Dual MP v5 system and the performance is limited by the southbridge.
Hope this helps.

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razrx God Member Offline 3dfx Addict Posts: 839 Great Lakes, Canada Gender:	Re: Anyone running RAID for a Voodoo5 PC? Reply #4 - 07.03.09 at 17:05:39 @G1nX - I thought the integrated RAID would be ok, but I guess it's just like integrated video or sound, it's just there to get your feet wet with the technology. I will look at getting a RAID card this weekend. I had heard 3ware was a good choice too.
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G1nX

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Re: Anyone running RAID for a Voodoo5 PC?
Reply #5 - 07.03.09 at 18:08:33

Well if you get a PCI/PCI-X ATA Raid controller with dedicated chip and ram the 3ware/AMCC cards are a good choice. Still you will have a bottle neck on you MB and that is the PCI bus that is limited 33mhz * (32 or 64bits) / 8 and this is shared between all pci devices embedded on the MB or installed in the PCI slots. Also you have added latency due to the fact that you have another BIOS for the data to go thru. So overall you will gain HW RAID and offload the CPU, but your performance would depend on how many pci devices you are using and also RAID matrix chosen. So disable from the BIOS everything you're not using like the HPT raid controller, Lan etc.
Cheers

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razrx

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Re: Anyone running RAID for a Voodoo5 PC?
Reply #6 - 07.03.09 at 18:28:21

Excellent advice. I already disable all Parallel, Serial, Game ports as well as other non-used features....

You've got me thinking about possibly changing my motherboard now... It seems that I may be starting to get some slight browning on a couple of my 8K5A3+ capacitors....

So I have been searching for the last few hours for a DUAL MP board.

My choices seem to be for a DUAL MP board:
ASUS A7M266-D
MSI K7D Master (or K7D Master L - which includes a LAN port)
Tyan S2466 (I don't think the other S246X boards will fit my case and/or needs)

Any others?

Additionally, it would great if I decide to drop in my v6k into the DUAL MP board that it would work fine.

Not too much to ask, eh?

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G1nX

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Re: Anyone running RAID for a Voodoo5 PC?
Reply #7 - 07.03.09 at 22:10:06

Well don't go changing mainboards just yet. Every platform has it's advantages and disadvantages there is no perfect platform to get for the last Voodoo generation.
The KT333 is faster having max 333fsb and has the advantage of higher frequency CPU's and also RAM.
The AMD 760/762 chipset only supports 266fsb and 266mhz for RAM is not a performer as AMD never was very good at chipset designs. Still the 768 southbridge provides a separate PCI-X bus that helps if you use a V5 pci card or use a PCI-X controller to have higher bus width.
Still i did test a few dual MP boards from TYAN and one from Gigabyte this one:
http://techreport.com/articles.x/4372/3
It does work with V5 cards and has all the features you would ever want personally I like that the second PCI-X slot is not so close to the AGP having a little room to breath for the VGA card Wink

Need to find the time to post some tests Undecided

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Gold Leader

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Re: Anyone running RAID for a Voodoo5 PC?
Reply #8 - 08.03.09 at 16:03:55

@ razrx

Could you email me that HPT372 drivers, since Niels and I are trying to pre install the HighPont 372 driver of my EPoX EP-8K3A+, I only have the mobo and the manual and not the Raid drivers FDD and the Mobo's CD driver's disc.

If anybody else is willing to upload these drivers, please do, since all the websites on the internet for these drivers are down or you even have to make your self a member and even pay for them lol Roll Eyes

We are planning to create a RAID 0 setup of Dual Seagate Barracuda V 80GB ATA 133 HDD's on the 8K3A+'s Raid controller but without the proper drivers for 2K/XP we aren't getting far heh.

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« Last Edit: 08.03.09 at 16:07:00 by N/A »

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razrx God Member Offline 3dfx Addict Posts: 839 Great Lakes, Canada Gender:	Re: Anyone running RAID for a Voodoo5 PC? Reply #9 - 08.03.09 at 16:44:41 Gold Leader: I have the drivers for HPT372 and HPT374 on my EPoX CD, but they are old. Here are some websites to go to that you don't have to register with and you can get the latest drivers: http://www.itclinic.ru/download/brands/epox/ep-8k3aplus/&usg=ALkJrhiZ6Oe97hTuLqE... http://www.2themax.com/en_home.php
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Re: Anyone running RAID for a Voodoo5 PC?
Reply #10 - 08.03.09 at 17:05:39

hmm it seems that the old ones as the new ones keep on showing this error:

File\win_xp\hpt3xx.sys caused an expected error (18) at line 2108 in d:\xpsp1\base\boot\setup\oemdisc.c.

searching the problem with Google didn't help either since Google couldn't find nothing about it so I was like ah well too bad back to how it was, such things are rather too complicated to fix for my doings heh, even using the correct driver and still that happens, rather a chanceless thing to bug around with heh.

Anwyas thanx for you help though, it was worth finding out.

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razrx God Member Offline 3dfx Addict Posts: 839 Great Lakes, Canada Gender:	Re: Anyone running RAID for a Voodoo5 PC? Reply #11 - 08.03.09 at 17:57:24 mmmhmmm.... LOL Hey, I can send you the files via ICQ from my CD if you want.
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G1nX

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Re: Anyone running RAID for a Voodoo5 PC?
Reply #12 - 08.03.09 at 19:07:24

razrx wrote on 07.03.09 at 18:28:21:

It seems that I may be starting to get some slight browning on a couple of my 8K5A3+ capacitors....

You needn't be afraid of some bad caps just got to find the right replacement for them and do some soldering.
If you replace them or the board with the same type sooner or later caps are going to pop since Epox used some poor quality ones on those boards Sad

You can find a lot of useful information here:
http://www.badcaps.net/
and even more on their forum.
For the Highpoint drivers try the ones from abit boards with the same embedded controller and see if they work:
http://www.abit.com.tw/page/en/download/download_driver_detail.php?pFILE_TYPE=Dr...
Cheers,
G1nX

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razrx

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Re: Anyone running RAID for a Voodoo5 PC?
Reply #13 - 08.03.09 at 20:59:52

G1nX wrote on 08.03.09 at 19:07:24:

razrx wrote on 07.03.09 at 18:28:21:

It seems that I may be starting to get some slight browning on a couple of my 8K5A3+ capacitors....

You needn't be afraid of some bad caps just got to find the right replacement for them and do some soldering.
If you replace them or the board with the same type sooner or later caps are going to pop since Epox used some poor quality ones on those boards Sad

You can find a lot of useful information here:
http://www.badcaps.net/
and even more on their forum.
For the Highpoint drivers try the ones from abit boards with the same embedded controller and see if they work:
http://www.abit.com.tw/page/en/download/download_driver_detail.php?pFILE_TYPE=Dr...
Cheers,
G1nX

I'm barely an amateur when it comes to soldering.... I can be handy, but I think I will sell my 8k5a3+ board with 2800+ XP chip..... I just didn't want to have to deal with the eventuality of capacitor replacement. NitroX has a thread up looking for some for his 8k3a+.

So I just wanted to get a board from a different company that's v6k compatable and is still in business in 2009. Driver searching is tough sometimes. Wink

I just won this auction: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270351923455

Tyan Tiger MPX S2466 w 2x MP 2600+ and 2GB ram

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« Last Edit: 08.03.09 at 23:32:33 by razrx »

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G1nX

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Re: Anyone running RAID for a Voodoo5 PC?
Reply #14 - 09.03.09 at 20:29:21

@razrx it's a good bundle. Have you checked with the seller if it's the Tiger MPX S2466N-4M model as this is better having support for the MP2800+ barton core.
As for ram from what I have managed to compare test, better performance I had with 2x512Mb DDR400@266 CL2 Non-ECC Non-Reg that any other combination.
All and all a very stable board. Here's my rig with it:

See the Tyan support archives for drivers and BIOS updates.
http://www.tyan.com/archive/support/html/cpu_athlon_duron_opteron.html

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