Asus P5K Deluxe users - SATA config chime in here

[cujo]

i've never installed that intel matrix raid software. is there a need?

[Helevitia]

I have my plextor Sata PX-755SA plugged into sata6 and I'm not having any issues (I've even burned a few Discs already). try upgrading your plextor firmware the latest is Version 1.09.

Thanks, already upgraded the firmware. Interestingly enough, after reading this thread last night and posting, I started having SATA issues!

All I did was push on the cables to see which port my DVD drive was plugged into. As soon as I did that, my computer locked up! I moved the cables back and the computer unlocked! It was weird. So I started using my computer again and within 5 minutes of the locking problem happening, my computer BSOD'd. Suddenly my computer would lock upon boot up. After several reboots and trying to get it to come up, I unplugged my DVD drive and the computer booted! I plugged the DVD drive back in and it locked up again on boot up! That's where I left it last when I went to bed last night.

So now I'm thinking I either have a bad SATA cable and my Plextor still works, or there is something fishy going on with the SATA ports like others have mentioned. I'll know more tonight when I get home. Before this happened I had no problems for 2 weeks with my setup.

[Helevitia]

i've never installed that Intel matrix raid software. is there a need?

I haven't found it particularly useful. It's just information. I think it's safe to skip it.

[Emmett]

Seem to have gotten it to work ok..
However I seemed to have maxxed out the controller?
These results are with 6 cards, but with only 5 I get about the same.[IMG]

[cujo]

ya, i find the cables very finicky. my p5w dh was bad with this and so far my p5k is better but still wonky. it's really irritating.

now my comp shop is having a sale on 5000aaks drives so i'm gonna pick up a 3rd for raid5. no idea how to best configure my ports as i have the current raid 1 in the two black ports. the 3rd drive will have to go in a red port. also, i'm probably going to have to wipe my raid 1 and start a new raid 5, right? or can i morph the raid 1 into a raid 5 with this intel matrix raid program. i'm not looking forward to finding space to back all this stuff up...

[TouGe]

I mentioned this in another post but I'll repeat it here as well. I had issues when using ports 1-4 in non-RAID. I initially had ports 1-2 150GB Raptor's and ports 3-4 74GB Raptor's, boot into BIOS and ports 1-2 were not visible. When I unplugged the Raptor's on ports 3-4 the Raptor's on ports 1-2 were visible in the BIOS. I was then able to RAID0 ports 1-2 but windows install was painfully slow. Before I was able to test out ports 3-4 while using 1-2 in RAID I corrupted my BIOS while flashing from windows. Also, I could not get the board to accept my 3.5 diskette drive. Now I am waiting on an RMA.

[xgman]

I have 3 seagate 7200.10 SATA II AHCI enabled single drives on the RED ports(NO RAID) + 1 SATA DVD Rom on a black port

No issues what so ever...

My brother's is a mess though. 2 X 250GB SATA Maxtor Drives on the RED ports and 2 LITE-ON SATA DVD-RW's on the BLACK Ports. NO RAID either.

Drives just disappear on their own. Boot order changes on its own, so he gets boot errors all the time until he fixes the bios settings again.

Sounds like RAM time for this one.

[xgman]

I haven't had any problems with sata )non raid) as long as I hook up my sata burner to a red port it boots from there if needed. I have had disappearing usb ports at boot on occasion.

[Helevitia]

Thanks, already upgraded the firmware. Interestingly enough, after reading this thread last night and posting, I started having SATA issues!

All I did was push on the cables to see which port my DVD drive was plugged into. As soon as I did that, my computer locked up! I moved the cables back and the computer unlocked! It was weird. So I started using my computer again and within 5 minutes of the locking problem happening, my computer BSOD'd. Suddenly my computer would lock upon boot up. After several reboots and trying to get it to come up, I unplugged my DVD drive and the computer booted! I plugged the DVD drive back in and it locked up again on boot up! That's where I left it last when I went to bed last night.

So now I'm thinking I either have a bad SATA cable and my Plextor still works, or there is something fishy going on with the SATA ports like others have mentioned. I'll know more tonight when I get home. Before this happened I had no problems for 2 weeks with my setup.

OK, this is nuts. When I went to bed last night, the computer would not boot if the DVD drive was plugged in. I get home tonight, turn on the computer and everything works fine

I think I'm going to change out the cable just to be on the safe side.

[Eagleclaw]

I will be installing XP today but where can I find the AHCI drivers??

I downloaded the RAID/AHCI Software - Intel® Matrix Storage Manager but that can't be it, it is over 5mb.

Thanks for any help

[msgclb]

I will be installing XP today but where can I find the AHCI drivers??

I downloaded the RAID/AHCI Software - Intel® Matrix Storage Manager but that can't be it, it is over 5mb.

Thanks for any help

Look at page 5-5 of the manual. With XP you'll need a floppy. I've made my Intel ICH9 32-bit RAID/AHCI driver disk and will be reinstalling XP soon so I hope you will report back with your success.

[Eagleclaw]

Thanks, I hope to report back later tonight with my success

[cujo]

just thought i'd post up that i'm now running raid 10. raid 5 performance was dismal compared to what i was expecting. with raid 10 i transferred 57gb from my raid 0 raptors to my raid 10 drives in less than 8 minutes. vista transfer speed was well over 100mb/sec.

[Supershanks]

Moved my 4x80gb matrix raid0 across from my commando build. running fine in sata 1-4. initial benches show slower performance than ich8r though it's been said Mainly herethat intel had "fixed" the figures, maybe they've got real or the drivers are bad. will post some benches tommorow if i can.

[eva2000]

cujo raid 5 onboard for any motherboards will suck.. you need dedicated raid 5 controller cards for good raid 5 performance.. for raid onboard stick with raid 0 or 0+1 etc

[Supershanks]

As i said earlier i just moved my commando ich8r matrix raids across:-
Not a good idea
Fast Raid Comparison Commando & same raid on p5k

Slow Raid Comparison Commando & same raid on p5k[/B]

Above using Matrix raid 6.2

Rebuilt array using Matrix Raid v7.2
Fast Raid

SlowRaid


So basically it looks at the moment to be rock all difference ich8r to ich9r, just remember it's best to rebuild array mot migrate it

[safan80]

just remember it's best to rebuild array mot migrate it

it's best to get a raid controller add in card then you don't have to deal with onboard raid at all.

[Speederlander]

Dropped PCI-e freq to 100 from 101 and all drives are now detected and working fine.

[safan80]

Dropped PCI-e freq to 100 from 101 and all drives are now detected and working fine.

you mean upped right What was the problem you were having before? were only some of the drive detecting or what?

[Speederlander]

you mean upped right What was the problem you were having before? were only some of the drive detecting or what?

Yes, only 3 of the drives would register.

[Supershanks]

it's best to get a raid controller add in card then you don't have to deal with onboard raid at all.

not thatmuch of a raid fan , but since moving to c2d i do like the matrix raid compared to nvidia.

[CERO]

hey guys , are all these SATA ports locked, I mean since u overclock the board, the sata should be overclocked 2. Correct me if I am wrong. And what are the findings so far, I got a WD150 raptor ( gonna use XP for it), and a WD36,7 GB raptor ( gonna use it for vista), so a dual boot, and a 500GB disk as backup, which port shall I plug them?, any help appreciated.

[strange|ife]

i wish i had read this thread before i slapped this in my case. I left m 500 w antec at my friends, and couldnt bench it on my trusty box. The sata ports work when they want too it seems, i was able to install windows on my 320.

it reads my 150 raptor, but when i go to format..get errors!! in windows..wtf.

iam a bit pissed, my 250 wd, that had my install of suse, got corrupted on black port 5 or whatever..

iam not even planing on running RAID. i mean for christ sakes the board should have no problem running single drive set up!

think i will return it, and try the abit pro, if it is crap.. will just keep mt p5n plus till something good comes out, or a revison on the p5k dx

[XtremeTiramisu]

Ok it's time for me to chime in.

I only have ONE HDD and that's the Seagate 320GB 7200.10.
RAID is like a foreign language to me and AHCI was something that I was thought not be messing with if I want my windows to properly detecting it without any problems.

For the past motherboards I've tested, I have only set my HD as IDE and I didn't notice any performance loss (Vista OS)
Now, I've switched back to XP MCE2005 and testing the P5K-Deluxe. I'm feeling that my HDD seems to be more sluggish and more cluttered. I did the defragmentation and setting up the HD as IDE as usual but I don't know why I'm feeling this way?? I see there is a figure of 35 by default under the HD options configuration page in BIOS and I've no idea what it's for. Should I alter this # and maybe I'll get better performance for my single SATAII HD?

Right now I've my HD plugged in SATA port 5 and my SATA optical DVD drive is plugged in SATA 6.

I got 2 noobish questions for anyone who cares to explain:

1. Any performance difference from the 4 master red SATA ports??
2. Since I'm only using single SATA2 Seagate 7200.10 320GB HD, is setting up my sata HD as IDE the way to go? I know for certain that RAID is out of the question here :p

[autist]

Hi,

I have a problem with my new SATA DVD-Burner and need some advice how to fix it.
P5K Deluxe mobo + E6420 + WD 500GB Sata II.
My old dvd burner (NEC (IDE)) died few days ago, so I ordered new Lite_On 20x SATA burner.

The first try I got unlack it didn'e even recognized. I updated the BIOS to version 0311 from asus.com and now it appeared in the list of SATA devices.

But the problem is, it's not bootable. The last screen before windows staring says that 'No drives found' (with my last dvd-drive it said that NEC_... drive found)

HDD connected to SATA1 (red) port, I tried to connect DVD-Burner to SATA2 (red) and SATA3 (black) but got unluck.

P.S. The BIOS settings are set to AHCI mode.
Does anybody can help me with some advice on that?

Thanks in advance.