Intel Matrix vs Marvel Controllers - Which is better?

[hulkish]

I have the Intel BX2 board and I have yet to find anything detailing the difference between the Marvel and Matrix controllers.

I have 4 hard drives that I want to set up as a stripe/mirror raid configuration.

Everyone says to just use the matrix because its "better". but that is far too vague, can anybody enlighten me please?

[Blauhung]

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2464211&postcount=8

[hulkish]

that is great info, but it doesnt really help me much, i dont exactly understand the graphs there.

What should I use if i want to do a stripe/mirror on 4 drives?

Also, will a stripe/mirror raid config be fast? or will the mirroring portion of it slow it down?

[tommithy]

The graphs basically are saying that the Matrix Raid is about 28% faster then the Marvell raid. This is with 4 drives in raid 0 so all striped. You are talking about implementing raid 10 so expect a small performance hit because of the mirroring and fewer spindles to strip across but the Intel Matrix Raid will most likely still be faster. The only surefire way to tell is to test yourself of course.