Matrix RAID

07:00 - Saturday 19 June 2004 by Patrick Schmid
Source: Tom's Hardware – Keywords: intel, stakes, its, vision, of, the, pc, future, with, 775, launch

Table of content:
31 – Matrix RAID
  1. 1 – Intel's 775 Launch Mixes Ambition With A Strong Aftertaste
  2. 2 – First Contact
  3. 3 – Obstacles And Hurdles
  4. 4 – More Findings
  5. 5 – New Socket: LGA 775
  6. 6 – LGA 775 Processor Installation
  7. 7 – LGA 775 Processor Installation, Continued
  8. 8 – LGA 775 Processor Installation, Continued
  9. 9 – MSI's CPU Installation Tool
  10. 10 – Transitional Products
  11. 11 – Poor Thing: Intel Reference Cooler
  12. 12 – New Processors: P4 Prescott Up To 3.6 GHz
  13. 13 – Specification Overview
  14. 14 – Model And Pricing Information
  15. 15 – Processor Overview:
  16. 16 – New Chipsets: 925X, 915G, 915P, 915GV
  17. 17 – New Chipsets: 925X, 915G, 915P, 915GV, Continued
  18. 18 – 925X Express Chipset
  19. 19 – 915G Express Chipset
  20. 20 – 915G Express Chipset, Continued
  21. 21 – 915G Express Chipset, Continued
  22. 22 – 915P Express Chipset
  23. 23 – Chipset Devices
  24. 24 – Intel Puts The Lock On Overclocking
  25. 25 – How To Unlock The Overclocking Lock
  26. 26 – New Memory: DDR2-533, Continued
  27. 27 – DDR2 Memory Vendors
  28. 28 – Intel Flex Memory Technology
  29. 29 – New Interlink: PCI Express
  30. 30 – More SATA, More RAID, More Ports
  31. 31 – Matrix RAID
  32. 32 – Creating A RAID Array
  33. 33 – More HD Performance For Free: Command Queuing
  34. 34 – More Networking: Intel Wireless Connect Technology
  35. 35 – New Audio: High Definition Audio
  36. 36 – Asus P5AD2 Premium
  37. 37 – Foxconn 925A01
  38. 38 – Test Setup
  39. 39 – Benchmarks And Settings
  40. 40 – Platform Benchmarks
  41. 41 – DirectX 8 Benchmarks
  42. 42 – DirectX 8 Benchmarks, Continued
  43. 43 – DirectX 9 Benchmarks, Continued
  44. 44 – Video Benchmarks
  45. 45 – Video Benchmarks, Continued
  46. 46 – Application Benchmarks
  47. 47 – Application Benchmarks, Continued
  48. 48 – Synthetic Benchmarks
  49. 49 – Synthetic Benchmarks, Continued
  50. 50 – Processor Power Consumption
  51. 51 – Integrated Graphics Benchmarks
  52. 52 – Game Benchmarks
  53. 53 – Halo
  54. 54 – Far Cry
  55. 55 – Video Performance
  56. 56 – Networking Benchmarks
  57. 57 – Storage Subsystem Benchmarks
  58. 58 – Conclusion
  59. 59 – A Final Note

Matrix RAID

Ad


This image is taken from an Intel presentation, but it perfectly shows how Matrix RAID works.

Matrix RAID is one of the most interesting storage subsystem features ever, as it finally fuses the performance advantage of a RAID 0 array with the data safety that only a RAID 1 array is able to provide - but with using two drives only! If you wanted to get a faster drive subsystem and simultaneously increase fault tolerance, you would have to go for a four-drive RAID 0+1 array, which of course is expensive.

Because of the flexibility of Intel's software layer, it is possible to install two different RAID arrays on the same set of hard drives. Choose a RAID 0 for performance reasons first for installing your operating system and applications, while a RAID 1 array could be used to store your vital data.

If one of the two hard drives (unfortunately, you cannot use three or four) should crash, the operating system running on the RAID 0 array would be lost forever, while the mirrored information of the RAID 1 array would remain available in order to restore important data.

Of course we also benchmarked all the different RAID configs possible (see the benchmark section later in the article).


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