PCI Raid Card vs. On Board Raid

theyhaveahero · 9 Oct 2009 at 15:37

I pretty much want to attain results much like that of the OCZ Z-Drive. Ultimately, which is faster? 3 SSD in a raid array plugged onto the motherboard (Asus II Gene) or 3 SSD pluged into a Raid Card into the PCI slot.

Its still unclear from all the reading if its possible to boot an operating system from a Raid Controller Card plugged into the PCI slot. Can anyone just put me out of my misery and tell me if this is possible? (Asus II Gene mobo in reference).

I've still to purchase the raid card so any tips on one that would fulfil this requirement would be much appreciated!

bledd · 9 Oct 2009 at 15:38

Yes, you can boot from a pci/pcie raid card, it usually adds itself to the HD boot menu

never been a problem for me

Elric · 9 Oct 2009 at 15:38

Yes, you can tell the bios to run the PCI-e / PCi raid card as the boot controller.

nikebee · 9 Oct 2009 at 15:52

Wouldn't a PCI card be limited by the bandwidth of the PCI bus though? Surely making it much slower than onboard RAID?

theyhaveahero · 9 Oct 2009 at 15:58

Cool, thats cleared up. Time to get a raid card, running out of storage space, need more Sata Ports... any recommendations?

Thats the big question, which is faster? Raid Card or On Board Raid??? I still need the fastest interface to install my OS and other apps... anyone know which is fastest?

Reality|Bites · 9 Oct 2009 at 15:59

can you get PCI-E raid card?

Zarf · 9 Oct 2009 at 16:18

Reality|Bites said:
can you get PCI-E raid card?

Yes, you can.

If you're just running RAID0, the ICH10R on your Asus Rampage 2 GENE will be fine.
Theres not much point in going for an add in card unless you're planning on using RAID5 or need a lot of bandwidth (4+ SSD's), considering the cost of a decent raid controller (>£300 new).