Okay, spent a few hours making some speed tests between the two built in controllers.
I have stats to back up my words, but I don't feel like dragging out all the tests I did and splicing up the graphics/results. I may get to it later.
In a nutshell, with Windows 2008 RC1 64 Bit on a ASUS DSEB-15/SAS Board with 2 Xeon Quads;
- Intel Matrix controller is ever-so-slightly faster for SATA drives than the LSI Megaraid, but not enough to really worry about.
- ESX 3i 3.5 does see the Intel matrix controller, but doesn't see the RAID sets created on it - Just the individual drives.
It looks like you'll still need the SAS option for this board if you want to run RAID of any kind in ESX 3i 3.5
I have stats to back up my words, but I don't feel like dragging out all the tests I did and splicing up the graphics/results. I may get to it later.
In a nutshell, with Windows 2008 RC1 64 Bit on a ASUS DSEB-15/SAS Board with 2 Xeon Quads;
- Intel Matrix controller is ever-so-slightly faster for SATA drives than the LSI Megaraid, but not enough to really worry about.
- ESX 3i 3.5 does see the Intel matrix controller, but doesn't see the RAID sets created on it - Just the individual drives.
It looks like you'll still need the SAS option for this board if you want to run RAID of any kind in ESX 3i 3.5
Hi,
ReplyDeleteIm looking for a motherboard that has support for ESX and some kind of built in raid and found Asus P5QL-E that has Intel Matrix Storage Technology Support RAID 0,1,5,10.
Just want to check if you got ESX working with your intel matrix raidset.
Or if you know any other workstation motherboards that works with ESX.
Well, the Matrix controller is software only, and it does show up as a SATA controller, but not for any RAID levels, which have to be built in software. ESX just sees it as single controller SATA.
ReplyDeleteI Happen to have a P5QL-PRO board, and it's a great little board - but it has a Marvell network controller, so you'll need to use an add-in card. I believe it's only Intel, Broadcom, and some nVidia (forcedeth) chipsets that work for networking.
If you dont' mind a lack of RAID, sure, use it.
Otherwise get a board with a built in Intel or Broadcom or nVidia networking chipset, and add in a cheap LSI MegaRaid based SAS/SATA controller - they are around $130-$150 for a bare-bones branded under HP or SuperMicro, and then you can run the RAID levels you want.