Asus P5w DH Deluxe question

[wahnula]

Hi folks,

All my goodies arrived on time, except the OS received was XP Home ***gags audibly*** instead of XP Pro SP2 as ordered. I will wait and let others beta-test Vista for me for now.

So, I have meticulously assembled the above mainboard with an E6600, Zalman Cooler, fanless Coolmax 480 watt PSU, 2GB OCZ Platinum RAM, (2) Seagate 7200.10 HDDs, ATI AIW 1300 in my old standby, a no-name ATX aluminum case that I will keep as I have the quiet cooling solution I want, plus I am loyal to an old friend.

I had planned to run the HDDs in a RAID 1 array through the red "SATA 1" connector and another. I enabled RAID in BIOS and built the array in RAID BIOS (CTRL+I).

Then, since I had no OS to install I read the manual (lol). Seems they have a "no driver" option for OS install, using the orange "EZ RAID" connectors. You install the OS to a single drive then enable RAID 1 through a Windows utility.

I would love a "non-F6" install (makes me feel like there has been some improvement in the OS scene) but wonder if this EZ RAID is as dependable as one assembled through BIOS than the EZ-RAID enabled through Windows.

Since I know we have some members that own this MB, I would like to ask them and everyone else their opinions on this...to EZ RAID or not to EZ RAID???

Thanks and have a wonderful New Year!

Tony

 

[wahnula]

Martin?

 

[paparazi]

Wayhay lol!
All I can say is that I didn't use the EZ Raid options so haven't experienced their operation.
I'll do a little research and post back if I find any useful info.
Nice board!
Side note* Many users are re-pasting the heatpipe (North bridge) cooler using AS5, I went one step further, removed those stupid shields (which prevent air circulation) and fitted a small 40mm fan in top of that heatsink as well as re-pasting (the Northbridge gets uncomfotably hot otherwise)

This board has been improved with newer bios revisions (flash if you feel confident)
Best of luck
Martin



We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[wahnula]

Wayhay to you too!

I'm not too keen on modding the board until I know it works

Besides I hate noise, fans add noise. My case's airflow is superb, 120 mm intake at front bottom across drives and up into Zalman cooler and then up through an 80mm blow-hole on the top, both controlled by an Enermax thingie.

The thingie also has two thermal probes, I will relocate from RAM to N & S bridge for now to keep an eye. Are you running RAID or single drive?

Tony

 

[paparazi]

Happy New Year Tony
Yeah! Raid 0 with two WD SE16's

That cooler pipe arrangement should be fine, I'm just a bit paranoid after my first P5W DH Deluxe overheated and burnt out it's Northbridge (it got so hot the PCB laquer went a queer colour underneath the Northbridge chip) but there is a bit of a story behind that particular board and a question over wether it was new to me!

Personally I would still re-paste using AS5 and take off those tin shields which definately do restrict the effectiveness of the heatsinks.
They are only held on with double sided sticky tape so can be cleanly removed and if need be, replace at a later date.

I'm running a LianLi V1000B case, which is also internally very cool, everything is mounted upside down though "New BTX standard"
Martin

We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[wahnula]

Happy New Year to you too Martin!

One more question, as the OS just arrived...did you need to F6 any drivers?

Tony

 

[paparazi]

From what I remember, definatey yes!

You have to create a driver disk using the supplied CDrom and sellect ich6 or 7 (hope thats right)
I've been to sleep since then lol.

Martin

We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[wahnula]

Funny thing when you look for "RAID drivers" on the Asus P5WDH support website the only RAID driver they offer is for the Z-micron for the eSATA. Not a single ICH7 driver for standard RAID or Sil for the EZ RAID. Made a floppy from the CD, but I went looking online for the latest, nothing to be found for ICH7 period.

The manual reads like the ICH7 is supported natively by SP1+. That's what I get for reading the manual! Seat-of-the-pants works better for me...

All is go-go-good!!!


Tony