Advise on Promise RAID controllers needed

[SpikeDodger]

I need some advise from someone that has experience with the low-end Promise
RAID controllers. I want to install a 2 drive RAID 1 setup in my home PC.
After some research it seems that the Promise TX2000 best meets my needs;
except, I read somewhere that there is/was a compatibility issue with
the TX2000 + i845 chipset + nVidia graphic cards. I am also considering the
TX4000 or even the SX4000. These other cards are only moderately more
expensive and would seem to allow more expansion/flexibility in the future.

I have emailed Promise (3 times over the last 2 weeks) with the following
questions and gotten no response.
* Does a compatibility issue exist with using the i845 + nVidia + TX2000
(or TX4000 or SX4000)
* In a simple 2 drive RAID 1 setup, does the TX4000 provide any performance
boost over the TX2000
* In a simple 2 drive RAID 1 setup, does the SX4000 provide any performance
boost (is it's cache used to enhance performance or just to support RAID 5)

Can anyone answer any or all of these questions?
Promise's lack of pre-sale support has me concerned about what might happen
after I purchase a controller. What has been people's experience as far as
needing and getting technical support?

[Dave Hau]

SpikeDodger wrote:
> I need some advise from someone that has experience with the low-end Promise
> RAID controllers. I want to install a 2 drive RAID 1 setup in my home PC.
> After some research it seems that the Promise TX2000 best meets my needs;
> except, I read somewhere that there is/was a compatibility issue with
> the TX2000 + i845 chipset + nVidia graphic cards. I am also considering the
> TX4000 or even the SX4000. These other cards are only moderately more
> expensive and would seem to allow more expansion/flexibility in the future.
>
> I have emailed Promise (3 times over the last 2 weeks) with the following
> questions and gotten no response.
> * Does a compatibility issue exist with using the i845 + nVidia + TX2000
> (or TX4000 or SX4000)
> * In a simple 2 drive RAID 1 setup, does the TX4000 provide any performance
> boost over the TX2000
> * In a simple 2 drive RAID 1 setup, does the SX4000 provide any performance
> boost (is it's cache used to enhance performance or just to support RAID 5)
>
> Can anyone answer any or all of these questions?
> Promise's lack of pre-sale support has me concerned about what might happen
> after I purchase a controller. What has been people's experience as far as
> needing and getting technical support?


I have used the Highpoint 404 with i845G chipset and nVidia graphic
cards with no problem. The Highpoint 404 also has 4 IDE channels vs.
only 2 channels available for the TX2000, and they sell for about the
same price (~$90).

RAID-0 performance on the Highpoint 404 is quite good. I get about
95MB/s from a 2-way RAID-0 array using WD1200JB drives. I haven't tried
RAID-1 on the Highpoint 404 so I cannot comment on the performance of
this mode.

Cheers,
Dave

[SpikeDodger]

Well, as luck would have it, shortly after I posted the original request for
advise, I got a response from Promise. According to the tech support guy,
there is indeed a compatibility issue with the TX2000 + i845 + nVidia graphic
card. I was told that the only work-around was to replace the graphic card.
Also, I was told that the SX4000 with it's cache would provide NO performance
boost over the TX4000 in a 2 drive RAID 1 setup.

It looks like I will be going with the TX4000 (or a different brand). I am
still interested in others experience with Promise's technical support; and,
experience with the Promise controller cards in general.

[Eric Gisin]

The only way PCI and AGP devices can conflict is if the both have fixed I/O
resources. They are both brain-damaged then.

"SpikeDodger" > wrote in message
m...
| Well, as luck would have it, shortly after I posted the original request for
| advise, I got a response from Promise. According to the tech support guy,
| there is indeed a compatibility issue with the TX2000 + i845 + nVidia
graphic
| card. I was told that the only work-around was to replace the graphic card.
| Also, I was told that the SX4000 with it's cache would provide NO
performance
| boost over the TX4000 in a 2 drive RAID 1 setup.
|
| It looks like I will be going with the TX4000 (or a different brand). I am
| still interested in others experience with Promise's technical support; and,
| experience with the Promise controller cards in general.

[Eric Gisin]

The only way PCI and AGP devices can conflict is if the both have fixed I/O
resources. They are both brain-damaged then.

"SpikeDodger" > wrote in message
m...
| Well, as luck would have it, shortly after I posted the original request for
| advise, I got a response from Promise. According to the tech support guy,
| there is indeed a compatibility issue with the TX2000 + i845 + nVidia
graphic
| card. I was told that the only work-around was to replace the graphic card.
| Also, I was told that the SX4000 with it's cache would provide NO
performance
| boost over the TX4000 in a 2 drive RAID 1 setup.
|
| It looks like I will be going with the TX4000 (or a different brand). I am
| still interested in others experience with Promise's technical support; and,
| experience with the Promise controller cards in general.

[Maxim S. Shatskih]

> The only way PCI and AGP devices can conflict is if the both have fixed I/O
> resources. They are both brain-damaged then.

No. There can be subtle DMA-related PCI spec violations in devices and the
bridge chip, for instance.

Turning Write Combining off in video driver properties can theoretically help
in these cases, though can slow down drawing.

Max

[Joshua P. Hill]

On 23 Jul 2003 14:58:00 -0700, (SpikeDodger)
wrote:

>Well, as luck would have it, shortly after I posted the original request for
>advise, I got a response from Promise. According to the tech support guy,
>there is indeed a compatibility issue with the TX2000 + i845 + nVidia graphic
>card. I was told that the only work-around was to replace the graphic card.
>Also, I was told that the SX4000 with it's cache would provide NO performance
>boost over the TX4000 in a 2 drive RAID 1 setup.
>
>It looks like I will be going with the TX4000 (or a different brand). I am
>still interested in others experience with Promise's technical support; and,
>experience with the Promise controller cards in general.

In general, not so great. I had to return one once because it was
incompatible with my existing NT 4 installation (drive geometry
issues). And my current card has data corruption problems when
transferring large files with both channels in use, which Promise
either never addressed or never addressed in a straightforward way
(customer support was friendly enough, but nothing ever happened --
and I wasn't the only one who had those problems).

OTOH, I've heard complaints about Highpoint too.

Josh

[Mr. Grinch]

Max I was wondering if you could comment in further detail the cause and
solution of these DMA conflicts.

I've been running my system for some time now, but I started experiencing
total screen driver crashes... system still working, but screen a total
mess. The problem stops if I turn off write combining.

I'm wondering, if this problem is the result of the 44.03 nvidia driver,
or, the fact that I updated the promise driver to the latest one for
Server 2003.

System:
Dual Boot Windows ME / Server 2003
Nvidia Driver 44.03
Promise driver for Server 2003
MSI Ti4200 8x vid
Promise TX133 ATA card
Tyan Tiger 100 1832 DL dual motherboard
2 x P3-800mhz cpus
SBlive sound card
Compaq Netelligent 10/100 nic
1GB ram
2 x Maxtor 160GB drives
1 x Maxtor 40GB drive
2 x IBM 22GB drives
1 x Aopen 20x cdrw
1 x TDK 4x IndiDVD writer


"Maxim S. Shatskih" > wrote in
:

>> The only way PCI and AGP devices can conflict is if the both have
>> fixed I/O resources. They are both brain-damaged then.
>
> No. There can be subtle DMA-related PCI spec violations in devices and
> the bridge chip, for instance.
>
> Turning Write Combining off in video driver properties can
> theoretically help in these cases, though can slow down drawing.
>
> Max