Inbuilt RAID vs. PCI RAID

[Bl00dFox]

Hey

I am planning to get RAID 0, but my motherboard doesnt support it. I plan to get a PCI RAID card to fix this problem.

My question is if PCI RAID offers same performance as inbuilt RAID in the motherboard. Is it true that using a PCI RAID card will bottleneck your computer?

Thanks

 

[computermaineack]

I have my RAID 0 through an onboard RAID controller, but form what I've read there doesn't seem to be much difference between PCI and onboard RAID. As for bottlenecking the computer, I don't think so, but I don't have much experience with PCI RAID controllers.

 

[Bl00dFox]

Thanks for your reply

So, if the RAID controller resides on the PCI bus, doesnt it have to share bandwidth between my USB card and TV tuner card? Wont this create a bottleneck?

Also, I heard that there is no difference between SATA150 and SATA300. Should I pay more for a SATA300 RAID controller or should I get the standard SATA150 compatible RAID controller?

Thanks

 

[Cromewell]

Hardware RAID is hardware RAID. About the only difference will be if you are trying to run a large number of hard drives off the PCI bus. A SATA300 controller would only be faster in burst transfers, and those would be limited by the PCI bus again making it no better than a SATA150.
You will be bottlenexked a little if you are running a lot bandwidth needing PCI cards.