Nvidia Raid Focus Group: Participants Wanted

[BDR_NVIDIA]

Hi all,

Members of the NVIDIA nForce MCP team will be in Dallas on December 16th and would like to conduct an informal focus group at a downtown hotel.

We are looking for good candidates with excellent verbal and technical skills to discuss storage and RAID functionality.

Candidates must:

• Be living in the Dallas area or visiting Dallas on December 16th.
• Have familiarity with RAID configurations and RAID software management interfaces.
• Be using or have used an NVIDIA nForce4, nForce4 Ultra, or nForce4 SLI AMD or Intel-based motherboard and configured or attempted to configure a RAID 0, RAID 1, or RAID 5 setup.
• Be available Friday morning around 11:00 a.m. for 1 to 2 hours.

Lunch will be provided.

We are looking for feedback on our current implementation, (what you like, what you do not like), and suggestions for our upcoming products.

If you are interested and meet the above requirements, please send me an email with your full contact information, including phone number and we will be in touch shortly to confirm details.

Thanks in advance!

Bryan Del Rizzo
NVIDIA Corporation
[email protected]

 

[END]

To Bad Im in IL. I would go for sure.

 

[Om1kron]

im using the other controller on my nforce4 mobo.. I only have my sata "slave" hooked up to the nvraid connectors.

 

[Dan_D]

That's interesting. I live in Dallas, and I am very familar with RAID's on all the current NF4 chipsets including the nForce Professional.

HrrMM Free lunch at the least.

 

[dilmonen]

Cool. I've pinged Bryan since I live in Dallas and I do use RAID on my NF4 system.

Hope I get picked... If not I'll just call him and pester him directly. j/k

Oh, and I'm less about the lunch and more about making the product better.

I still say nForce4 for laptops though. That would make me swap my desktop for a laptop.

 

[KillDFurby]

message sent

 

[Manuel Guzman]

This is a little off topic but is there any chance NVIDIA could post NDIS DOS ethernet drivers for the NVIDIA ethernet controllers found on the nForce3 and nForce4 motherboards? These drivers are necessary in order to load an image with Norton Ghost. So far, the only place our IT department has been able to locate these drivers has been on Asus' website. Thanks.

 

[Electronic Punk]

This is a little off topic but is there any chance NVIDIA could post NDIS DOS ethernet drivers for the NVIDIA ethernet controllers found on the nForce3 and nForce4 motherboards? These drivers are necessary in order to load an image with Norton Ghost. So far, the only place our IT department has been able to locate these drivers has been on Asus' website. Thanks.

Would be nice as I would love to share our images from a network share without having to add 3com nics to all our machines - which is just a silly expense. It's nice that Asus offer this but surely nvidia should offer them as well? Cheers Pidge2k, I will check out Asus website as well.

 

[BDR_NVIDIA]

Let me ask you guys something.

If we posted it with a disclaimer that we will not offer support for the NDIS driver, would that be something okay with you guys?

Obviously, support is a big issue for any driver we publish. That said, if you used it at your own risk for ghosting, would you want us to post it?

 

[Dan_D]

Let me ask you guys something.

If we posted it with a disclaimer that we will not offer support for the NDIS driver, would that be something okay with you guys?

Obviously, support is a big issue for any driver we publish. That said, if you used it at your own risk for ghosting, would you want us to post it?

I'll chime in on this since I actually need that driver. For Ghost, and for another program called Altiris. While I don't use it with Altiris, it's possible I might have to in the future, although not while the company I work for doesn't allow the purchase of AMD based systems.

As long as the driver is out there, I think the people that use those drivers will be fine. I don't see there needing to be much support for it. The main thing is that the NVIDIA networking controllers are at least PXE compatible and the NDIS driver be available.

I can live without official support for it.

 

[/dev/null]

To Bad Im in IL. I would go for sure.

QFT! I'd love to go 1 thing no motherboard has that would make nvidias raid totally rule: Online capacity expansion!!!

Rob

 

[/dev/null]

Let me ask you guys something.

If we posted it with a disclaimer that we will not offer support for the NDIS driver, would that be something okay with you guys?

Obviously, support is a big issue for any driver we publish. That said, if you used it at your own risk for ghosting, would you want us to post it?

Yes! Definately put it up, say it's unsupported, and good luck don't-call-us. I know I'd at least give it a shot.

Rob

 

[Dan_D]

My biggest complaint about RAID implimentation on nVidia chipset based boards is that the RAID controllers BIOS interface isn't standardized. Not the part in the CMOS anyway. All the Intel chipset based boards that support Matrix RAID all are. Makes things alot easier.

I am about ready to kick Asus's ass over the the RAID setup of the A8N32-SLi. (Don't get me started on why)

 

[BDR_NVIDIA]

Hey guys. We have some more open spots.

So, if you are going to be in Dallas, tomorrow, Friday, December 16th, and would like to discuss RAID over lunch, please let us know.

We're at the Dallas Hyat Regency downtown.

Please let us know if you would like to join us.

Cheers!

 

[END]

Let me ask you guys something.

If we posted it with a disclaimer that we will not offer support for the NDIS driver, would that be something okay with you guys?

Obviously, support is a big issue for any driver we publish. That said, if you used it at your own risk for ghosting, would you want us to post it?

sure it's a step anyway.

 

[Jonjolt]

im using the other controller on my nforce4 mobo.. I only have my sata "slave" hooked up to the nvraid connectors.

Really? The NVRaid is faster than, what im assuming is the Silicon one found on the A8NSLI

Unless if the NVraid comsumes CPU cycles then I wouldn't know..

 

[Dan_D]

Really? The NVRaid is faster than, what im assuming is the Silicon one found on the A8NSLI

Unless if the NVraid consumes CPU cycles then I wouldn't know..

In my tests, the CPU cycles of the NVRAID controller and the Silicon Image controller typically found on most motherboards is similar. Where the NVRAID usually outshines the addon controllers is in performance. Speed tests with IO Meter consistantly show better performance with the NVRAID solution. BTW this also applies to Intel controllers built into the Intel Southbridge. Consider that the addon chips are lower end solutions provided by companies like Silicon Image and Promise. The controllers added onto the motherboard PCB are never as full featured or as high end in the performance arena.

Although my Foxconn review on the front page doesn't have any Silicon Image or other addon controller chips, (the board in question didn't have them) I can tell you that in other reviews I have done (still in progress) the NVRAID controller is always faster than the integrated ones. If only by a smaller margin. It seems to me that the NVRAID or Intel ICH chips have better NCQ support and overall higher throughput, likely due to being integrated into the motherboards core logic chipsets. Not that the Silicon Image 3112 or 3132 are bad solutions. They just aren't high end. Aftermarket addon boards that are found in the $200 on up price brackets have performance that is on par to integrated NVRAID or Intel ICHR solutions, but have a much broader feature set. Sometimes, they even outperform the integrated chips.

 

[themus]

Let me ask you guys something.

If we posted it with a disclaimer that we will not offer support for the NDIS driver, would that be something okay with you guys?

Obviously, support is a big issue for any driver we publish. That said, if you used it at your own risk for ghosting, would you want us to post it?

You would make my week if you had those drivers. I have tried Asus' website and they don't work for my Asus A8N-SLI motherboard. The ones' on Asus's website appear to be older, or for Nvidia nForce 2. My MOBO is nForce4.

I am trying to use Ghost with Bart's network boot disk or the Universal Boot Disk. However, I can't find Nvidia nForce4 NDIS drivers that will work. Weeks and hours later I still haven't been successful. Those out there don't seem to work.

I would be thrilled to solve this one!