On Board Raid or PCI Raid Adapter ???

[ValkRider]

I want to purchase a new mother board and build a system.
Is there any real benefit to having onnboard raid versus an adapter raid card?
This will be a dedicated Digi001 Machine. I was thinking of setting up 2 or 4 drives in a raid configuration. Separate drive for the O.S. on the regular EIDE port.
With all the VIA PCI problems I'm looking at an Asus P4S333 DDR Mem. No onboard raid.

Is Raid all the beneficial???

[Allen Hallada]

We've had more problems with the Intel chipsets actually than the VIA chipsets. I would stick with what is working, not just here for Digi001, but also for other audio systems since you may want to add on in the future. If you want to experiment with the newer P4s then I say go for it. Make sure it is the new "Northwood" processor. As far as the Promise controller VS. RAID setups, I haven't seen one setup where RAID improved performance so far. The ATA100 TX2 or ATA133 controllers by Promise have boosted performance by as much as 40% on many systems without using a RAID configuration. Just put the drives on the Promise controller card or onboard Promise channels and use the IDE for CDRW, DVD etc. Put system drive on Port A and audio on Port B. Can have up to 4 drives on the Promise controllers.
The best performing motherboards right now are the A7M266, A7V266E, GA7DX, GA7DXR with the AMD XP 1800 or above. About 40% better performance than the P4s with similar processors. That may change with the new P4 northwood processors though.
Good luck.
Allen [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[ValkRider]

Thanks Allen,
Obviously I don't have a Digi001 system yet. Everything I have researched so far says, ignore raid and invest in a good dedicated hard drive. There are quite a few new P4 Motherboards supporting DDR coming out so I'll be looking at those. The Asus A7V266-E sounds pretty good from others experience, but I wonder why they don't experience the VIA PCI problems that others encounter. I think Asus uses the same VIA southbridge chipset as other Mother Board Manufacturers do.
I am not an Intel fan, BUT, with the new 2.2 North chips running faster front side buses and operating much much cooler then AMD, I have to seriously consider them.
I know at least that the computer I build will be able to run very quietly and in a small recording area that I have, that must also be a consideration. I hope to record mostly acoustic instruments and vocals.

Thanks again for the information. I am trying to do as much homework as possible and these forums are very helpful.

[Allen Hallada]

AMD will be announcing their new .13micron core processors soon also. I saw the specs on the new AMD Clawhammer and it was about 100% faster than the current AMD XP2000+ and about 50% faster than the current P4 3Ghz Northwood. Forget about dual processors, at that performance level we won't need them.
Allen [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[gerax]

Allen

Do you know if this new super-fast processor will fit on the actual Mobos, those able to support 1800XP and the likes, obviously I'm talking about Asus and Gigabite, the ones we're using that gave the best results? Will we have to switch mobo as well?

L.G. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Allen Hallada]

LG,
They would be fools not to make it compatible with the most popular motherboards. Should be able to use the AMD761 and KT266a with them. No word yet from AMD.
Allen [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]