Old Radeon = RAID works, new Radeon = RAID fails

[DeLorean]

Abit KV8
Sempron 2600+
1Gb stick of Generic RAM
Radeon 9550SE
2x 80Gb HD (S-ATA RAID 0)
1x DVD-RW

This is the basics of my system as I type this. I have inputted all of the above into an online PSU Watt calculator I found plus ticked the relevant boxes for USB devices etc, plus I made one change which was to swap my Radeon 9550SE for a Radeon X850 Pro and I get a total of 287 Watts. Less than my PSU's 350 Watt max.

Here's the prob tho, when I plug in my X850 the RAID bios displays that it has detected both my harddisks but there is no array setup.

I plug the 9550SE back in and PC boots into windows perfectly.

Plug X850 and array disappears again.




I've googled and found nothing about this, it has me bugged because if it was a Power issue surely the RAID failure would be down to underpowered drives yet it detects both of my harddisks but displays that I haven't setup an array, despite the array being detected again as soon as i switch the cards. It may be that the drives have sufficient power to detect but not enough to boot but surely array info would be saved in the RAID bios and not on the disks.

Lastly the new card has a PCI-E 6pin supply but I was given a splitter that connects the 6pin to two 4pin molex connectors so if push came to shove i could take the card's supply from both 12v rails, but whether I take power from a single empty rail, both rails together or even disconnect every device and have the harddisks on one rail and Radeon on the other I still get no RAID array.


This has me totally confused, don't want to shell out on a new PSU if I don't need it as my system is pretty much bare expansion card-wise. Any RAID / Radeon ideas guys?

 

[JohnWill]

I suspect the real reason is the capability of the various voltage rails in the P/S. This seems to be a P/S issue, I'd be looking for a 450-500W quality supply.

 

[DeLorean]

Bump.

Wanna get a few more opinions before I shellout hard cash.

 

[GripS]

I'm with John Will on this one..... Lets take a look at the situation:

9550...... An older video card. Not very power hungry.

X850.... A newer video card. Needs an extra power lead from the power supply.

You NEED a better power supply. Even though you have done research and found that your system shouldn't need the full 350 watts of power you need to keep a couple things in mind. Wattage ratings are 'Peak output' under 'Ideal' environments(environments that don't exist in the real world). Wattage is not the whole picture in terms of adequate power either. You also need to pay attention to the amperage ratings on the +12v (most important) +3.3 and +5 volt rails.

Bottom line. You need more power from a good quality PSU.

 

[DeLorean]

Ok, almost 2 whole weeks later and I have enough spare cash to buy a new PSU, a 550w EZcool with dedicated PCI-E rail and a SATA rail.

Problem is still there, the X850 kills raid...

 

[DeLorean]

Additionally I just spent several hours cramming the most important parts of 153Gb onto a single DVD-RW so I could attempt to create an array with the X850 in.

I expected 1 of 2 things to happen, the most unlikely being that the new array (I kept blocksize exactly as i had it) would contain my intact working system, the more likely being that I'd now have a blank array that I'd have to reinstall to.

Infact neither happened, every created array wouldn't stick, all disappearing as soon as i exited the RAID bios. My only comfort is that putting the 9550SE back in brought back my array.

How the hell is it that 2 systems that couldn't be further away from each other somehow conflict? A graphics card that kills RAID arrays.