Asus SABERTOOTH X79 - Manual (Page 126)

4-20 Chapter 4: Software support
Chapter 4
4.4 RAID configurations
The motherboard comes with the Intel ® X79 chipset and Marvell SATA controller that allow
you to configure Serial ATA hard disk drives as RAID sets. The motherboard supports the
following RAID configurations:
• Intel ® Rapid Storage Technology with RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 10 and RAID 5 support.
• Marvell ® RAID utility with RAID 0 and RAID 1 support.
• You must install Windows ® XP Service Pack 3 or later versions before using Serial
ATA hard disk drives. The Serial ATA RAID feature is available only if you are using
Windows ® XP Service Pack 3 or later versions.
• Due to Windows ® XP / Vista limitation, a RAID array with the total capacity over 2TB
cannot be set as a boot disk. A RAID array over 2TB can only be set as a data disk
only.
• If you want to install a Windows ® operating system to a hard disk drive included in a
RAID set, you have to create a RAID driver disk and load the RAID driver during OS
installation. Refer to section 4.5 Creating a RAID driver disk for details.
4.4.1 RAID definitions
RAID 0 (Data striping) optimizes two identical hard disk drives to read and write data in
parallel, interleaved stacks. Two hard disks perform the same work as a single drive but at a
sustained data transfer rate, double that of a single disk alone, thus improving data access
and storage. Use of two new identical hard disk drives is required for this setup.
RAID 1 (Data mirroring) copies and maintains an identical image of data from one drive to
a second drive. If one drive fails, the disk array management software directs all applications
to the surviving drive as it contains a complete copy of the data in the other drive. This RAID
configuration provides data protection and increases fault tolerance to the entire system. Use
two new drives or use an existing drive and a new drive for this setup. The new drive must be
of the same size or larger than the existing drive.
RAID 5 stripes both data and parity information across three or more hard disk drives. Among
the advantages of RAID 5 configuration include better HDD performance, fault tolerance, and
higher storage capacity. The RAID 5 configuration is best suited for transaction processing,
relational database applications, enterprise resource planning, and other business systems.
Use a minimum of three identical hard disk drives for this setup.
RAID 10 is data striping and data mirroring combined without parity (redundancy data) having
to be calculated and written. With the RAID 10 configuration you get all the benefits of both
RAID 0 and RAID 1 configurations. Use four new hard disk drives or use an existing drive
and three new drives for this setup.