Help me choose!

[Steve]

A few changes are happening here in Kez's dungeon. I'm on my way to university next month, and before then there are a LOT of things to do.

Forget the student account, the accommodation, the packing, the paperwork... forget all that. Think about my computer gear!

I've got a list of things to do:

- Sell my CRTs, get two TFTs to save desk space and power consumption.
- Format system, install Windows XP Pro and XP x64 Edition, Linux possibly
- Sort out the paintwork on the case and optical drive so that it's all the same colour, and isn't chipped.

Well the first one is well in hand, and the third shouldn't be a problem. However, the middle scenario could prove tricky.

I want to upgrade to the x64 edition of Windows because eventually we'll see some use of it, and I doubt I'll be jumping on the DRM'd Vista wagon when it rears its head. However, Umax never bothered to recompile the drivers for my Firewire scanner, so it won't work in x64 edition, forcing me to setup a dual boot with 32-bit Windows XP. On the flipside, I can ditch the scanner as I rarely use it, and just stick with x64.

One last driver stands in my way, and that's for my Promise FastTrack S150 SX4. You may remember my review of XFX's rather nifty Revo 64, and that I put my SX4 up against the Revo 64. The Revo 64 was the better card, but if I was going to get one I'd hang on for a 5 port PCI-Express version. So, let's imagine that I'm sticking with the SX4. Oh pants, no 64-bit support. Indeed, no support but there is a driver. Turns out the SX4100 (IDE) driver is the same as the SX4 (SATA) and shouldn't require any hacking to get it to work on x64 Windows (in fact even SX4000 users can do it). That leaves me with one more problem. Linux + SX4 + RAID 5 = no go, unless you use very specific distros and kernels.

Just to fill you in quickly on my disk subsystem - I have four 80GB Seagate drives in RAID 5 at the moment.

So, what I'm thinking is I have three options:

1. Stick with the SX4, RAID 5, and live with Windows 32-bit/64-bit.
2. Utilise the lovely NVRAID on my A8N SLI in RAID 10, but lose 80 more gigs of storage.
3. Go 4 disk RAID-0... and take plenty of backups!

I must ask, does anybody know what Linux's support of the NVIDIA SATA RAID implementation is like, and regardless of Linux support, would I be better with RAID10, or RAID0 and the extra storage?

[directhex]

software raid isn't gonna work, under any circumstances, if you want to use linux and windows on the same array.

hardware raid, a nice LSI megaraid 150-4 would be nice

[Steve]

software raid isn't gonna work, under any circumstances, if you want to use linux and windows on the same array.

hardware raid, a nice LSI megaraid 150-4 would be nice

I thought some of the software RAID solutions of SiI chips were supported these days?

[directhex]

I thought some of the software RAID solutions of SiI chips were supported these days?

dmraid? that's REALLY hairy stuff, and not part of any installation kernels i know of.

[Steve]

dmraid? that's REALLY hairy stuff, and not part of any installation kernels i know of.

OK, how about I sell my SX4 (still retails for £140) and grab a PCI Revo 64? I know I might have to do a bit of tweaking but things look OK.

At the end of the day, a decent storage subsystem and Windows are all I really need.

[TiG]

First let me say, having lost some work at Uni due to PC failure, (only 3-4 days) backing up takes second place to uni life, so i'd prefer more raid. As for 64 bit, i'd personally still be loathed to touch it. I'd stick with WinXP and use the Uni's linux/unix machines when i wanted to be more of a geek

TiG

[herulach]

Youve locked the poll.

But personally, keep what you got until theres def support for teh xfx card under linux, then youre golden.

[Steve]

Youve locked the poll.

Looks unlocked to me

[Lee H]

OK, how about I sell my SX4 (still retails for £140) and grab a PCI Revo 64? I know I might have to do a bit of tweaking but things look OK.

exCELLent idea

Go on... Raid 3 the array - you know you want too.

[TiG]

"Voters: 0. You may not vote on this poll"

[Lee H]

"Voters: 0. You may not vote on this poll"

Voters: 0. You may not vote on this poll

SNAP !!!!!

I WIN

[Steve]

Voting should now be fixed

edit: well not 'fixed', but you should be ABLE to vote now,

[directhex]

OK, how about I sell my SX4 (still retails for £140) and grab a PCI Revo 64? I know I might have to do a bit of tweaking but things look OK.

At the end of the day, a decent storage subsystem and Windows are all I really need.

the revo64 is an interesting product, but won't work properly with linux until it's supported in the mainline kernel (which won't be before 2.6.13 at the earliest)

i'm actually tempted by an lsi megaraid myself - £180 for a full hardware raid5 sata card with exemplary windows and linux support. if i can shift the pata and sata rocketraids i have, i'll be happy

[Steve]

i'm actually tempted by an lsi megaraid myself - £180 for a full hardware raid5 sata card with exemplary windows and linux support. if i can shift the pata and sata rocketraids i have, i'll be happy

OK you've tempted me. Where can I get one?

[herulach]

How much cash do you have to spend? Id be tempted to go for SCSI OS disks and then use mobo for storage, would prob need at least 300 quid to do it right though.

[directhex]

http://www.europc.co.uk/Home.aspx?Pr...roductID=31347 is a fair example. google is your friend, really. they're about 180 plus vat direct from lsi's euro distributor, so the above's not a bad price