Help me configure best 4 HDD raid perfromace

[unknown]

Help me configure best 4 HDD for RAID perfromace

I have an epox 4pda2+ mobo with (2 channel) Intel ICH5R and (2 channel) Silicon Sil3112A SATA controllers. I have 4 identical wd 120GB SATA hard drives ...I am trying to create RAID 0 for all (4) hard drives for performace. To my ancient and lagging mind, I found out the two SATA controllers are seperated. Since the two SATA controllers are seperated from each other 4 hard drives cannot be combine into one RAID 0...

The best I can do with this current setting is 2 seperate RAID 0 shown below.

1hd+ 1hd = 1 RAID 0 (intel SATA controller)
1hd+ 1hd = 1 RAID 0 (silicon sil3112a controller)

Does anyone know any partition software that could combine 4 HD's to form RAID 0. Help me configure the best possible RAID for the best performace. I will be running win2k profession if that helps.

I was thinking that:
I could partition 1 of the SATA with a 2GB partition for Windows200 system. Install Window2000 into the 2GB partition. Then RAID 0 the remaining 118GB from the (4) hard disk (under window2k) and mount this RAID to the 2GB system partition.

I know its not a true RAID 0 for 4 HDD but its the best I can think of now. I was wondering if anyone knew of any utility or method that could help me join my 4 HDD before installing Win2K.

Any suggestion would help..thanks.

 

[NoisySilence]

So you have two SATA controllers onboard. One by Silicone Image & the other on the Intel southbridge. Do both support RAID 0 ?

It is generally advised not to install the OS on the RAID array. Install it on a HDD that will be outside of the array, so that when you install the OS, you won't have the hassle of having to configure the array straight away.

 

[unknown]

Yes both the Intel SATA controller and Silicon SATA controller support RAID 0, but are seperate RAID 0s from each other.. I edited my post above. Thanks for the fast reply.

What I want is to have the OS on the RAID 0 ..I believe this is best for performance. I've installed OS on 2 HDD at RAID 0 with great performance. I would love to have 4 HDD at RAID 0.

 

[NoisySilence]

Here's how I would set things up.

Intell controller Array 1
240GB ( 2 x 120 )

SI controller Array 2
240GB ( 2 x 120 )

As I said before, I would install the OS on another HDD, say an IDE one & then mount the arrays on a sub-folder ( using NTFS ).

For example, cut each Array in 2 partitions of 120GB & then mount them c:\games, c:\Video, c:\music & c:\downloads.

There are many ways to configure the array, it's up to you to find out which one suits you best.

 

[Phantasm66]

you could build 2 hardware arrays using the 2 onboard controllers, and then use windows 2000 / xp disk administrator to combine both of these hardware raid volumes into one software raid volume. you'd first need to convert the hardware raid volumes to dynamic disks.

none of this would work on your OS partition, though.

Personally, my machines have 5 hard drives. I only raid 3-4 of the disks, and use a dedicated disk (non-raid) for OS.