IDE 3&4 with MSI KT3 Ultra2

[Lalaman]

I´m thinking of putting system disk on port 3 and audio disk on port 4.
Can anyone give me advice how to handle that without RAID function, simply as - maybe slightly faster - none-Raid connectors?
And what´s about setting DMA under XP? I guess DMA can be set in RAID BIOS but I am not sure.
... Also about how to set DMA for IDE 1 & 2.

Thanks!

Lalaman

[Dreamware]

The On-board RAID controller on this board only works for RAID and you cannot be used for optical drives or as just a plain ATA100/133 controller.

[Lalaman]

Thanks Alex,

( I think you were the one who brought this great board to our attention, right? Great discovery I believe!)

So, is there a way to disable Raid and use these ports as normal IDEs, or can´t I use port 3 and 4 just regularly? ( That actually would be %&§$ though ...)

Lalaman

[Dreamware]

Yes it was me [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Unfortunately ports 3 & 4 are for RAID only. BTW RAID performance sucks because of the limitation of the Promise "Lite" BIOS which limits the stripe size to a paltry 64kb. If you want a fast RAID config use a separate PCI RAID controller. All motherbaords that have a Promise "Lite" BIOS suffer from low RAID scores.

[Lalaman]

A mess! The fool I am should have bought this board without Raid. I thought taking Raid would be good to be prepared for future demands ... now understanding that it limits today [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img]

Thank you for the info, Alex!

Lalaman

PS: [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] -If I get me a separate Raid controller, I would have 4 PCI cards, PT, Delta sound card, ethernet and the Raid.

A) Do you have a recommendation which one to put in which slot then?
And -would you leave the board on APIC or turn that off so IRQs could be set manually?

B) What about "S.M.A.R.T for hard disks" it sounds cool ( but is turnt off when you choose "high performance defaults".) Would you think it to slow down performance if S.M.A.R.T. is enabled?

[Dreamware]

Yes leave APIC on and let windows xp do the work. Doesn't really matter what slots they they go in. Actually the non-RAID version of this board does not support USB 2.0 so that is why we use this board now on our systems. There is a newer version called the KT 3 Ultra2 coming out soon that will natively support USB 2.0

[Lalaman]

One "last" question about this, Alex.
When you use this board do you give up IDE 3 and 4? I can´t think you really would...
Do put an PCI controller card in order to use more then 4 devices?
- or make use of onboard Raid ( with luxury of an additional Hd and just 64 kb )? or ... [img]images/icons/confused.gif[/img]
Sorry for asking again, but MSI has no FAQ for this model yet and while their website and manual are better than what I´ve seen until now there isn´t too much info to find the best way how to do with HDs.

Thanks for your help again.

Lalaman

[Dreamware]

You have to disable the RAID of your not using it. As I have already stated in the last several posts, you cannot use IDE 3&4 for anything else but RAID. IF you use RAID you need 2 identical hard drives.

[Lalaman]

Thank you very much!

Lalaman

[Lalaman]

Dreamware
Member
Member # 16579

posted August 15, 2002 11:43 AM
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There is a newer version called the KT 3 Ultra2 coming out soon that will natively support USB 2.0

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Hi Alex,

I have that board now running and my first impression is extraordinary, although there show up difficulties with an USB device which might be due to the device itself ( as it is from Aiptek, which seems to be a lousy products and support company anyway ) and since some phenomenons concerning internet such as IE shutting down all by itself and E-mails accounts specs changing by itself too, so that you gotta refresh them after each reboot that you intend to send or receive mail.
- But as long as audio performs, well, that should be ok with me.

I thought you and others might be interested to hear that you can use IDE 3&4 on the KT3-Raid as single functioning.

( BTW, DaBasstard, I found out to managing Outlook express conditions that I had asked you about - certainly noticed but remained without response, thank you - by myself. [img]images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] )

So with MSI Ultra Aru do like this:

Put the first single disk on port 3 or 4. Go into the controllers BIOS and under item "1" define an array for this disk. It doesn´t matter if you choose stripe or mirroring.

Restart and then switch off the PC. Now disconnect the disk you just settled and put the second HD where you want to have it. Then do respectively as you did with first disk.
After reboot you can insert the first HD again and voilà there you go.

I hope that could be as valuable info as it would have been to me not too long ago.
[img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

Yours
Lalaman
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NI darling, you told me DC to be ready around middle of August and now we have already ...