ASUS P6T Deluxe (x58/ ICH10R)

[johnrr6]

The Marvel SAS is backwards compatable to normal SATA????

That would be excellent----can you refer me to the reading....

also----I assume the standard Marvell Controller driver is for the IDE and the EXTERNAL SATA port.....

Am I correct??

[chuckbam]

Originally Posted by johnrr6

The Marvel SAS is backwards compatable to normal SATA????

That would be excellent----can you refer me to the reading....

also----I assume the standard Marvell Controller driver is for the IDE and the EXTERNAL SATA port.....

Am I correct??

also----I assume the standard Marvell Controller driver is for the IDE and the EXTERNAL SATA port..... yep!

I read it in more than one review. I read so many of them in early nov.

[chuckbam]

SAS:

the two orange ones attach to a Marvell 88SE6320 Serial Attached SCSI controller. Backwards compatibility built into the SAS standard allows current SATA drives to work. When utilizing a standard SATA drive,

AnandTech: Intel X58 Motherboard Roundup - What does $300 Get You?

[johnrr6]

Excellent!!

Soooo....

You could really run two RAID Arrays at the same time

One on the Intel------and one on the Marvel

And the Marvel could be either SAS or Standard SATA II

AND you could run an external SATA as well....

A TON of different options!!

You have any experience with SAS???

The drives seem expensive and very low capacity compared to normal SATA....But the MTBF is HUGE!!! Must be thinking Sever or something.....

What's your experience with Dual Boot Systems????

I'm thinking i could set up Vista 64 on one RAID Array (the Intel)....

And maybe play around with Windows 7 (I have a pre-release Beta) on the other Array

[chuckbam]

Originally Posted by johnrr6

Excellent!!

Soooo....

You could really run two RAID Arrays at the same time

One on the Intel------and one on the Marvel

And the Marvel could be either SAS or Standard SATA II

AND you could run an external SATA as well....

A TON of different options!!

You have any experience with SAS???

The drives seem expensive and very low capacity compared to normal SATA....But the MTBF is HUGE!!! Must be thinking Sever or something.....

What's your experience with Dual Boot Systems????

I'm thinking i could set up Vista 64 on one RAID Array (the Intel)....

And maybe play around with Windows 7 (I have a pre-release Beta) on the other Array

You could really run two RAID Arrays at the same time

One on the Intel------and one on the Marvel

But only one can be a boot drive and the other is only supported in Vista ... Or, something like that. If you set up the SAS RAID as your boot drive it make changes to the ICH10R. I am not up on the exact detail. But, you can find it in the PDF.

When I looked at SAS the controllers were to expensive. Now with the new SATA so fast and SSD around the way. I staying out of SAS. I am also a big fan of Intel RAID for it Simplicity and integration etc.

I have some drive benchmarks, I looked at SAS benchmarks and was not that impressed. Even though I love the Enterprise stuff. Benchmarks and Stability Testing - chuckbam


I read you will not see Intel Ads for the i7 on TV. Soon a desktop 1558 (I think that is what is called) will be out. Looking at the roadmap, I think this board will be a killer for a long time.


/

[johnrr6]

Do you use Asus EZ-Flash for BIOS updating???

I don't have a floppy for this rig as I'm trying to ditch OLD technology.

But that means I've got to use a USB Flash disk for RAID Drivers and BIOS updates-----and that is requiring a new learning curve.

[chuckbam]

Originally Posted by johnrr6

Do you use Asus EZ-Flash for BIOS updating???

I don't have a floppy for this rig as I'm trying to ditch OLD technology.

But that means I've got to use a USB Flash disk for RAID Drivers and BIOS updates-----and that is requiring a new learning curve.

I always use EZ Flash. I had it on my P5B also. I love it, You need to set everything to optimum defaults and re-boot before it will work on this board, I did away with my floppy with this setup as well. A flash drive has worked great.

You probably know this, but, you take your life in your own hands with the Win Ver. ASUS update. I don't even know why they have it.

I did not use the RAID drivers during install, I loaded them once I was in Vista. I had a failed load when I attempted to use them (2x). The MS driver loaded everything just fine. And, I don't have a SP1 disk ver of Vista.

[johnrr6]

I thought you HAD to load the floppy RAID drivers at install----or Vista would NOT see the array----and you could go no farther on the install???

Windows BIOS flashing has gotten better over the years----but still riskier than standard methods....

At work----I just windows BIOS Flashed 450 machines-----300 desktops and 150 laptops----all Dells.....

Only one issue----and that was solved by jumpering back to default----and redoing the windows BIOS flash downloaded from Dell......

I HAVE to do it that way as I have NO time to use an enthusiast method....

But then again----if I bust a machine at work----oh well----I just get a new part and drive on

[chuckbam]

I used to need them with XP. But, I don't think I ever used them w/Intel RAID and any ver. of Vista. I have set-up a good number of computers with Vista/ Intel RAID.

[chuckbam]

Originally Posted by johnrr6

I thought you HAD to load the floppy RAID drivers at install----or Vista would NOT see the array----and you could go no farther on the install???

Windows BIOS flashing has gotten better over the years----but still riskier than standard methods....

At work----I just windows BIOS Flashed 450 machines-----300 desktops and 150 laptops----all Dells.....

Only one issue----and that was solved by jumpering back to default----and redoing the windows BIOS flash downloaded from Dell......

I HAVE to do it that way as I have NO time to use an enthusiast method....

But then again----if I bust a machine at work----oh well----I just get a new part and drive on

Wow, that is a bunch of bios. I killed a P5B board with the ASUS update. And, then after it failed, I was hoping on that CrashFree utility.

You been buzy

[johnrr6]

Originally Posted by chuckbam

I used to need them with XP. But, I don't think I ever used them w/Intel RAID and any ver. of Vista. I have set-up a good number of computers with Vista/ Intel RAID.

OK----I'm stumped....

Are you letting Vista somehow load default RAID Floppy drivers from within the install DVD??

It finds them automatically during the install???

Because without those floppy drivers-----there is NO way that the installer will see the array.....

I know I had to install Floppy Drivers for AMD RAID on my 9850 Black "Spider" rig.....

But I haven't done Intel for a while.....

[chuckbam]

Originally Posted by johnrr6

OK----I'm stumped....

Are you letting Vista somehow load default RAID Floppy drivers from within the install DVD??

It finds them automatically during the install???

Because without those floppy drivers-----there is NO way that the installer will see the array.....

I know I had to install Floppy Drivers for AMD RAID on my 9850 Black "Spider" rig.....

But I haven't done Intel for a while.....

Vista identified the Intel RAID volume with no drivers being installed from an external source.

[chuckbam]

Originally Posted by chuckbam

Vista identified the Intel RAID volume with no drivers being installed from an external source.

I have never installed Vista with a AMD CPU so I have no comment on that.
I like to install Vista with only the C drive and one DVD installed. I create the RAID and setup up Vista by default by simply clicking Next.

[shaihulud]

There is no problem with using any of the other PCIe slots for something rather than PEG. However, there is one nice caveat. The X58 has 36 lanes that can be used that do not have to go through DMI. These lanes also will take normal interrupts and decode them into MSI. I have found this motherboard to comply with this. The Gigabyte one I previously had did not do this correctly. The lower slot (PCIe 3) does not route through the X58 it routes through the ICH10R. The one above (PCIe 2) I am unsure and have not tested it , but will before I install a new video card. You can tell when the root port is set to a negative interrupt, noting that it is in MSI mode. While the peripheral card is in legacy interrupt mode. For example my 8800GTX is IRQ 24 however the root port, which needs an interrupt too, is -3. In full legacy mode it will be 24 for both or whatever the IRQ sharing scheme set by the BIOS.

I would not be shocked that he thought the ATK ACPI device should be updated. However, it was not the issue and the device that had the problem. At install, since I did not install the utilities you have to search for the driver on the disc provided or use Windows to search for it. Thanks, for calling them. I always figure it will be resolved sooner or later (hopefully). I always find it usually a waste because no one has any idea what is going on.

Yes, serial attached SCSI is backwards compatible with SATA. Been that way since it was percolating. One port to rule them all.

You do not need to reset the BIOS values to flash when using the EZ-Flash. The only caveats is that the flash drives needs to be FAT32 (or less), 8GB max, in the port before boot, legacy USB has to be on auto or enabled if you have a USB keyboard, and I thought there was a USB drive or mass storage setting but I cannot find it. Maybe another motherboard, all well. I highly recommend it, but you will need to reset your computer because it does not reboot after the flash. It may stop your heart, but do not worry me and Chuck's PC's are fine.

I extract the drivers to a flash drive and add the updated driver instead of using a default drivers. That is one beautiful thing about Vista-can use the flash drive. Download the Matrix Storage Manager-it has to be this one. You will need to use the follow command to extract them (let's say they are in C:\) C:\iata86enu.exe -a -a -pc:\. ti will extract the driver into a folder not following the command. You will need to look in the Intel folder placed in program files, x86 if you used x64. Go down to you get into the Winall folder, which will be second to last. The 32bit driver and 64bit driver will be in the next two folders. Copy the Driver64 folder to a flash drive and you just add the driver at the partition setup, pointing to the appropriate folder.

[johnrr6]

Fabulous post Shal---as usual...

Merry Christmas to you and yours!!!

Quick question------Asus has a "Make Disk" utility which seems to have the latest version of the Intel Marrix Floppy Drivers.....

And according to the P6T manual-----I can use it to prepare a USB drive as long as I'm using Vista.....

That would work vice extracting files from the Intel download wouldn't it????