Got|Apex? Iwill Side RAID100 Review 02/26/2001

DARTH · 02-25-2001, 07:24 PM

This is where you can post your comments on our review of the Iwill Side RAID100 review.
Thanks for reading,
DARTH

hojo802 · 02-26-2001, 12:02 PM

Nice review!!!

I am currently looking into buying a ATA-100 Raid card. In your review, you basically install the card and install Windows 2000 together. Now, what if you are putting into an existing system with Windows 2000? Do I have to install Windows 2000 all over again? Do I have to turn off the IDE controller on the motherboard? So far I have heard mixed answers so just want to see have run into any of these problems.

Thank you!

DARTH · 02-26-2001, 12:09 PM

Well I haven't done this but if you are using a RAID you will have to reinstall Win2k as you will have to stripe the drives. As far as I know this will make the data on both drives used useless so you will need to reformat. You also do not have to turn off the IDE controllers. And Welcome to our forums

b0n3z · 02-26-2001, 12:39 PM

Just curious - what stripe sizes are available.. and what did you use to test. Is there a performance gain for certain size files on your drives with certain stripe sizes?

Also - no performance test on RAID 1? I know some people need redundancy - for biz stuff... and Some controllers do RAID 1 better than others.

Can cache be added to the board? or How much is included? (I may have missed that in the article - but I doubt that it has an option for upgrade)

Thanks,

[originally said RAID 0 - ment to ask RAID 1]

DARTH · 02-26-2001, 01:06 PM

If you read the review you will see that we only tested RAID 0 and that the test ran were using a RAID 0 array. I used a stripe size of 64. No you can not add cache either as I have yet to see an IDE RAID device at the consumer level that allows for such and upgrade.

wga22 · 02-26-2001, 02:32 PM

Last week lpmiller posted a link to a review of a raid motherboard. The performance difference wasnt nearly as dramatic for small files vs ATA100. Have you read this article, and do you have a comment about it?

I think your results make more sense! Good article.

How important would you think raid would be to a hard core user and or gamer?

LPMiller · 02-26-2001, 02:42 PM

Well, unlike ATA 100, some RAID controllers are just better than others. Also, the harddrives I used were 5400 RPM drives, which will give slower performance. So you will see some variance - storaagereview.com has shown that before in their RAID reviews.

I don't know about darth, but most folks don't need RAID 0 for gaming purposes. Storage Review had a nice piece up about that - RAID 0 is better suited to content providers, those in video editing, sound editing - anywhere that requires large file transfers across the drive.

It won't hurt you, though ;D

speaks to electric box · 02-26-2001, 02:48 PM

Anyone try the sideraid66 highpointpt368... they are $20 shipped from Computer geeks. Any good?

wga22 · 02-26-2001, 06:22 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by speaks to electric box
Anyone try the sideraid66 highpointpt368... they are $20 shipped from Computer geeks. Any good?

I am curious too.

DARTH · 02-26-2001, 07:04 PM

Haven't tried it but I have read numerous complaints about compatibilty problems with the side RAID66.

Bandito · 02-26-2001, 08:12 PM

I enjoyed the article too, and am looking forward to my profit sharing check! I see computer parts in my future!

Mr Alien · 02-27-2001, 03:32 AM

I've had trouble in the past with getting an IDE RAID card (a promise one though) to return after going into Suspend To Ram mode in Win2000. Does the motherboard you are using support Suspend To RAM? If it does can you check if it will suspend and then return to Win2000?
I really miss my RAID setup, but want to keep Suspend To RAM (it's a great feature) (: .
Thanks!

DuyetB · 02-27-2001, 02:23 PM

Ok, I read the review and i kind of like it, but there are several thing i like to point out!

1st. To get a fair performance test out, you can't just use sandra software. there are severa one like winbench 99, hdtach and so on which is very important also. sandra soft is not the best one out there.
2nd. Compare it to a better device then the via 686b bridge controller. Via686B is know to have problems on the UltraATA100 side, it's best to compare to some Intel815 Controller, or Promise Ultra100, or FastTrack100 Raid Card.
You will then see the performance different.
3rd. Please give more details on the how the setup for the benchmark was done, type of harddrive, model, how it's setup, # of drives....

I personally have several system contain
Promise Ultra100
Via 686B
FastTrack100
and it seem to me like that having IDE raid controller is only good when you do video editing, capture....
not much impact on gaming, and so on.
plus the harddrive you have hook up to the raid controller is also very important, if you have 1 slow and 1 fast, will not give performance gain at all. the drivers are prefered to be same rpm, transfer rate... which it will work best.
because the concept of raid is (# of drive * performance of slowest drive) but that's not always true. actual use seem ot be 2(identical drive) give about 40% boost over 1x drive
3(identical drive) give about 100% boost over 1 drive
4(identical drive) give about 180% boost over 1 drive
Programs which will benefit from this stuff is mainly video editing, windows 2000.... and major programs like that, not your internet explorer, or quake 3 games's frame rate....

DCook · 03-04-2001, 04:57 PM

good review! i am using raid arrays on 3 machines. they are well worth the time and $$. if you get a chance, i believe it would be worthwhile to compare the Promise raid card(s) -vs- the Iwill cards. for folks wanting one, check out computergeeks, they have them for under $50.00

~~DoPeY5007~~ · 03-05-2001, 11:12 AM

Ok here we go...I just ordered this card.....

I have one question...

I want to run dual boot on my PC....

I am going to put two Maxtor 30gig 7200rpm drives on the RAID. My question is can I partition the drives on the raid into two drives so I can put Win2k on one?

BurningSheep · 03-13-2001, 10:39 AM

Is it possible to install Win2k and Win98 on it without also having a diskdrive connected to a standard IDE controller on your mobo? Coz it seems to me your bios isn't going to detect the drive.

And

What about the pci bus? how does it handle this kind of traffic, when it also has to send data to other devices or is this not a problem?

~~DoPeY5007~~ · 03-13-2001, 04:50 PM

ok I got my system with 98se and 2k...

I have the two maxtors on the RAID, (formated as two drives)...

I have a 20gig and a 30gig on my on board promise66 controlera, and a 12x dvd and a 12x plextor on the standerd ide...

i only have data fils on the promise drives and when I need to access them it does seam to slow down my system, also the screen savor in Win2k is extreamly slow....

I don't have any IRQ conflicts...

So i do think that the PCI bus get confused with all the trafic...

BUT THE RAID IS FAST AS HELL....

02-25-2001, 07:24 PM	#1
DARTH Sith Lord Join Date: Dec 1999 Posts: 576	This is where you can post your comments on our review of the Iwill Side RAID100 review. Thanks for reading, DARTH __________________ Lead Hardware Analyst/PR Got\|Apex?

02-26-2001, 12:02 PM	#2
hojo802 Plebe Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 3	Question on installation Nice review!!! I am currently looking into buying a ATA-100 Raid card. In your review, you basically install the card and install Windows 2000 together. Now, what if you are putting into an existing system with Windows 2000? Do I have to install Windows 2000 all over again? Do I have to turn off the IDE controller on the motherboard? So far I have heard mixed answers so just want to see have run into any of these problems. Thank you!

02-26-2001, 12:39 PM	#4
b0n3z Lieutenant Junior Grade Join Date: Feb 2000 Location: So. California Posts: 57	Just curious - what stripe sizes are available.. and what did you use to test. Is there a performance gain for certain size files on your drives with certain stripe sizes? Also - no performance test on RAID 1? I know some people need redundancy - for biz stuff... and Some controllers do RAID 1 better than others. Can cache be added to the board? or How much is included? (I may have missed that in the article - but I doubt that it has an option for upgrade) Thanks, [originally said RAID 0 - ment to ask RAID 1] __________________ LateZ B0N3Z b0n3z@gotapex.com

02-26-2001, 02:42 PM	#7
LPMiller Chief News Editor & Master of His Domain Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: Minnesota Posts: 8,161	Well, unlike ATA 100, some RAID controllers are just better than others. Also, the harddrives I used were 5400 RPM drives, which will give slower performance. So you will see some variance - storaagereview.com has shown that before in their RAID reviews. I don't know about darth, but most folks don't need RAID 0 for gaming purposes. Storage Review had a nice piece up about that - RAID 0 is better suited to content providers, those in video editing, sound editing - anywhere that requires large file transfers across the drive. It won't hurt you, though ;D __________________ lpmiller Chief News Editor Nobel Prize Nominee Reverend in the Universal Life Church Once Shot A Man For Snoring Too Loud Way Too Lazy To Change His Signature "The strength to change what I can, the inability to accept what I can't, and the incapacity to tell the difference." - Calvin and Hobbes

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02-26-2001, 12:09 PM	#3
DARTH Sith Lord Join Date: Dec 1999 Posts: 576	Well I haven't done this but if you are using a RAID you will have to reinstall Win2k as you will have to stripe the drives. As far as I know this will make the data on both drives used useless so you will need to reformat. You also do not have to turn off the IDE controllers. And Welcome to our forums

02-26-2001, 01:06 PM	#5
DARTH Sith Lord Join Date: Dec 1999 Posts: 576	If you read the review you will see that we only tested RAID 0 and that the test ran were using a RAID 0 array. I used a stripe size of 64. No you can not add cache either as I have yet to see an IDE RAID device at the consumer level that allows for such and upgrade.

02-26-2001, 02:32 PM	#6
wga22 Lieutenant Join Date: May 2000 Location: Vienna, VA Posts: 212	Last week lpmiller posted a link to a review of a raid motherboard. The performance difference wasnt nearly as dramatic for small files vs ATA100. Have you read this article, and do you have a comment about it? I think your results make more sense! Good article. How important would you think raid would be to a hard core user and or gamer?

02-26-2001, 02:48 PM	#8
speaks to electric box Plebe Join Date: Feb 2001 Posts: 1	Anyone try the sideraid66 highpointpt368... they are $20 shipped from Computer geeks. Any good?

02-26-2001, 07:04 PM	#10
DARTH Sith Lord Join Date: Dec 1999 Posts: 576	Haven't tried it but I have read numerous complaints about compatibilty problems with the side RAID66.

02-26-2001, 08:12 PM	#11
Bandito Lieutenant Join Date: May 2000 Location: detroit, mi usa Posts: 381	I enjoyed the article too, and am looking forward to my profit sharing check! I see computer parts in my future!

02-27-2001, 03:32 AM	#12
Mr Alien Plebe Join Date: Feb 2001 Posts: 1	I've had trouble in the past with getting an IDE RAID card (a promise one though) to return after going into Suspend To Ram mode in Win2000. Does the motherboard you are using support Suspend To RAM? If it does can you check if it will suspend and then return to Win2000? I really miss my RAID setup, but want to keep Suspend To RAM (it's a great feature) (: . Thanks!

02-27-2001, 02:23 PM	#13
DuyetB Plebe Join Date: Feb 2001 Posts: 2	Ok, I read the review and i kind of like it, but there are several thing i like to point out! 1st. To get a fair performance test out, you can't just use sandra software. there are severa one like winbench 99, hdtach and so on which is very important also. sandra soft is not the best one out there. 2nd. Compare it to a better device then the via 686b bridge controller. Via686B is know to have problems on the UltraATA100 side, it's best to compare to some Intel815 Controller, or Promise Ultra100, or FastTrack100 Raid Card. You will then see the performance different. 3rd. Please give more details on the how the setup for the benchmark was done, type of harddrive, model, how it's setup, # of drives.... I personally have several system contain Promise Ultra100 Via 686B FastTrack100 and it seem to me like that having IDE raid controller is only good when you do video editing, capture.... not much impact on gaming, and so on. plus the harddrive you have hook up to the raid controller is also very important, if you have 1 slow and 1 fast, will not give performance gain at all. the drivers are prefered to be same rpm, transfer rate... which it will work best. because the concept of raid is (# of drive * performance of slowest drive) but that's not always true. actual use seem ot be 2(identical drive) give about 40% boost over 1x drive 3(identical drive) give about 100% boost over 1 drive 4(identical drive) give about 180% boost over 1 drive Programs which will benefit from this stuff is mainly video editing, windows 2000.... and major programs like that, not your internet explorer, or quake 3 games's frame rate....

03-04-2001, 04:57 PM	#14
DCook Plebe Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: NE Ohio Posts: 1	good review! i am using raid arrays on 3 machines. they are well worth the time and $$. if you get a chance, i believe it would be worthwhile to compare the Promise raid card(s) -vs- the Iwill cards. for folks wanting one, check out computergeeks, they have them for under $50.00

03-05-2001, 11:12 AM	#15
~~DoPeY5007~~ court-martialled Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Brig Posts: 0	Ok here we go...I just ordered this card..... I have one question... I want to run dual boot on my PC.... I am going to put two Maxtor 30gig 7200rpm drives on the RAID. My question is can I partition the drives on the raid into two drives so I can put Win2k on one?

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03-13-2001, 10:39 AM	#16
BurningSheep Plebe Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: The Netherlands Posts: 1	Is it possible to install Win2k and Win98 on it without also having a diskdrive connected to a standard IDE controller on your mobo? Coz it seems to me your bios isn't going to detect the drive. And What about the pci bus? how does it handle this kind of traffic, when it also has to send data to other devices or is this not a problem?

03-13-2001, 04:50 PM	#17
~~DoPeY5007~~ court-martialled Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Brig Posts: 0	ok I got my system with 98se and 2k... I have the two maxtors on the RAID, (formated as two drives)... I have a 20gig and a 30gig on my on board promise66 controlera, and a 12x dvd and a 12x plextor on the standerd ide... i only have data fils on the promise drives and when I need to access them it does seam to slow down my system, also the screen savor in Win2k is extreamly slow.... I don't have any IRQ conflicts... So i do think that the PCI bus get confused with all the trafic... BUT THE RAID IS FAST AS HELL....