Help with selecting a new motherboard.

[Azimuth]

I just about lost a hard drive today. I decided the risk is too great and I need to get a motherboard that supports hardware RAID.
I already have 4 PVR150 cards so the board needs to have a minimum of 4 PCI slots.
I would prefer onboard video as this is just a server that sits in the closet.

I was looking at the MSI 945P Neo3-F but am unsure as to whether it has onboard hardware raid.
The MSI 945P Neo3-F does not have onboard video

I prefer to go with socket 775.

Does anyone use a board that they can recommend to suit my needs?

[Mysteryman]

I've been interested in knowing more about RAID on a PVR. In servers, its fairly straight forward.

The part that gets me is the amount of IO that you have going to the drives for recording, transcoding, and time shifting. Generally speaking you'll be chewing through a pile of CPU (or embedded CPU) to be doing reads and writes if using a 3 drives RAID 5. If we're only going for drive redundancy we could get away with a mirror (RAID 1). The only thing I don't know is how much of you the CPU this goes though. Even with the "hardware" IDE RAID that is built into most motherboards these days, its still using the CPU for the calculations. I don't know if this is true with SATA.

[capone]

Just an advisorty note, there can be a conflict w/ some nvidia-based MB and the 150 card. May not be a problem any more. It's more a cautionary tale to make sure you google your final selection a little.

[nia]

I have done extensive research in several iterations. Every time coming to the same conclusion, that I'm now finally about to implement.

Intel and Nvidia (i have an MSI-implementation of the latter) both have Motherboard/chipset support for RAID5. The implementation however depends on the CPU to do the math. This on the other hand has been somehow restricted on both chipsets. End result is (verified by numerous tests available if you search) a downright terrible performance particularly for write operations. It's basically "HW support" in the way that you can configure RAID5 in "hardware", but it's useless as it lacks the dedicated chips that does the XOR calculations etc.

You are basically just as well off with a pure software-RAID5. And that's really not 'well off' anyway...

If you really want to have true RAID5 support that works, there is unfortunately no way around digging into the pocket for a dedicated RAID-adapter.

Usually there is no free lunch. That seems to be particularly true for RAID5.

Sorry

/Niels

PS: I'm installing an 8-port Raidcore BC4000 one of these days with 6 400GB drives in RAID5

[Azimuth]

the issue with adding another card is the demand for PCI slots.

[Mysteryman]

Though I've never used one, this is the only thing I can think of to fit your situation:

http://www.usbgear.com/computer_cable_de...C161%2C312

external, hardware raid 1 (mirror), USB interface.

It looks like this is a true hardware raid (8032 Microprocessor RAID ASIC). As you can see, like other real RAID cards, its pricey. It does, however, satisfy your need for raid without adding any PCI cards.

Beyond this, a NAS box would work.