2 quick questions...

[MattiasNYC]

First; I've got an Asus mobo with an eSATA port on it. It supposedly supports hot-swap. Is hot-swapping SATA drives usually confined to external SATA, or do some mobos support it on the "internal" ports as well?

#2; Does anyone have a good source to comparisons of RAIDs using mobo controllers/software versus hardware? I'm wondering if and what the performance differences are.

[s1nykuL]

My Asus P8Z68 supports hotswap on internal sata ports. So I presume other mobo's do too.

A hardware raid solution is almost always faster than a software raid solution.
An Internet search will help you find some comparisons.

[NKrader]

i thought "hotswap" was dependent on os,

i remember you couldnt do it with xp, but can you now with 7? or 8?

and if i remember right, almost all sata if not all are "hot swap" compadible but again back to question one, most of the time it requires reboot for new sata

[MattiasNYC]

Thanks guys. Are built-in raid controllers considered " software or hardware" raid? I would think hardware, which is why i wondered if there is a difference between that and cards...

[NKrader]

Thanks guys. Are built-in raid controllers considered " software or hardware" raid? I would think hardware, which is why i wondered if there is a difference between that and cards...

really need to check, alot are software some/alot are hardware.

readreadread

[MattiasNYC]

OK.

Does anyone else know if there is a big loss by using a raid controller that's hardware and on the mobo instead of on a dedicated card?

[MattiasNYC]

nobody else?

[mattkosem]

OK.

Does anyone else know if there is a big loss by using a raid controller that's hardware and on the mobo instead of on a dedicated card?

You probably didn't get any responses because a quick Google search would have answered your question. Unless you have a server mobo, and even then it's board dependent, your onboard raid is software raid. There are quite a lot of circumstances that can make it more or less ideal, and you should be aware of them before using RAID.

--Matt

[MattiasNYC]

Ok, thanks I guess. I'll just google some more then.

[andressergio]

u can use this tool that works as a charm been using it since P67

http://mt-naka.com/hotswap/index_enu.htm

u install it stays resident and u can detect new sata added and disconnect like you do when USB

cheers !!!
Sergio

[[XC] Oj101]

I've been hotswapping SATA hard drives since back in the day when running a DFI NForce 4 board and Windows XP, at worst you've got to open Device Manager and click scan for hardware changes. I've never in my life restarted for a SATA hard drive change.