Adding a further disk

[StephenK]

Hi,

Recently took delivery of my system (well impressed by the way) and decided to add a second 1TB WD 6G HDD so I could use the Intel Storage Matrix software and have mirrored RAID set and a striped set. What I hadn't realised is that the motherboard (a P8P67PRO) only supports 2 x 6GBPS SATA connections and the first is taken up with an SSD.

My question is would a 6GBPS Caviar Black work in a 3GBPS SATA connection? Secondly, would there be any performance hit if I used the Intel RAID solution across the two drives?

If it does/should work ok then I have a slight problem in that it doesn't seem to! I can (eventually) create the RAID config I need, but Storage Manager is as slow as hell and Windows fails during the format.

Any assistance gratefully received as I've just spent a few quid on this and the missus is starting to glare at me!

Cheers,
Steve

[Rob @ Scan]

Hi Steve,

Glad you're impressed with your new system!!

I'm slightly confused about what you mean by "mirrored RAID set and a striped set".

I'm assuming you had your system built with 1 x SSD and 1 x 1TB storage drive? and you're adding another matching 1TB Storage drive?

If you could e-mail your build number and invoice number to systemsupport@scan.co.uk I'll be able to see the spec of your system and look into it further tomorrow for you.

Regards

[StephenK]

Hi Rob,

Thanks for your reply. I'll copy this into the email address provided also...

I have another system (with an ASUS P5QD Turbo) that has two 750GB SATA disks and supports the Intel Rapid Storage Technology. On this set up, I have a mirrored volume comprising of 2 x 300GB (300GB on each disk) for data and a 600GB striped volume comprising of 2 x 300GB (300GB on each disk).

This works really well and I'd hoped to be able to achieve the same on this system.

The details for the new system are as follows:

Build No: *EDITED* Thanks - Rob @ Scan
Invoice: SEE EMAIL

You are correct in that it has an SSD and a 6GBpS HDD already installed.

Once again, thanks for you input into this. Much appreciated.

Cheers,
Steve

[Rob @ Scan]

Thanks Steve,

It's become a bit clearer now.

Are you trying to create the same set-up on the 2 x 1TB hard drives?

Regards,
Rob

[StephenK]

Hi Rob,

Thats exactly it. It does actually now seem to be responding and I've managed to create the two RAID arrays but it just seems a little more sluggish.

Are there any recommendations with this board on mixing SATA6 and SATA3 in the same RAID config?

Cheers - and sorry to be a pain....

Steve

[Rob @ Scan]

Hi Steve,

Sorry i didn't see your post last night.

Hope you got your arrays up and running with the info in my e-mail.

Just incase anyone else is in a similar position... The 6GBps and 3GBps ports use two separate controllers, so best to have any drives you want in a RAID array using the same controller.

Regards

[StephenK]

Rob,

Many thanks for your assistance. The arrays are now working fine with both disks connected to the 3GBpS SATA connectors.

All is well and the system is running brilliantly.

Thanks again,
Steve