Question Regarding RAID with 890FX Upgrade

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If you are certain that the array is running on the SB850, chances are good that you can migrate it to the SB950. The chip itself is basicly the same, a so called rebrand. But firmware differences may cause you trouble. On the other side, most mainboard manufacturers don't care about AMD's AHCI/RAID firmware when updating their BIOS, so most of them use one from 2009 or 2010 (inappropriate for SSDs by the way).
Although it doesn't change anything for you, I wouldn't use SSDs in RAID arrays, because especially on todays AMD boards, an important function does not work. It's called TRIM.

As for compatibility, I'd rather set the AMD SATA controller to AHCI (best for SSDs) and make use of Windows' own RAID functionality (making the disks dynamic ones and create a striped array, or, if your drives are of different sizes, a spanned volume). If you need help with that, let me/us know. This will make you hardware independent in the future!

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WKjun Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 17 Aug 2015 Status: Offline Points: 56	Post Options Post Reply Quote WKjun Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Question Regarding RAID with 890FX Upgrade Posted: 14 Jul 2016 at 4:40pm
	If you are certain that the array is running on the SB850, chances are good that you can migrate it to the SB950. The chip itself is basicly the same, a so called rebrand. But firmware differences may cause you trouble. On the other side, most mainboard manufacturers don't care about AMD's AHCI/RAID firmware when updating their BIOS, so most of them use one from 2009 or 2010 (inappropriate for SSDs by the way). Although it doesn't change anything for you, I wouldn't use SSDs in RAID arrays, because especially on todays AMD boards, an important function does not work. It's called TRIM. As for compatibility, I'd rather set the AMD SATA controller to AHCI (best for SSDs) and make use of Windows' own RAID functionality (making the disks dynamic ones and create a striped array, or, if your drives are of different sizes, a spanned volume). If you need help with that, let me/us know. This will make you hardware independent in the future!
	PC1: FX-9590@def\|290 \|16GB@2133\|Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 PC2: FX-8320@4.5\|290 \|16GB@2133\| " PC3: FX-9590@def\|280X\|16GB@2133\| " PC4: FX-9370@def\|280X\|16GB@2133\| " PC5: FX-6300@4.6\|7950\|16GB@1866\|990FX-UD3

parsec Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Moderator Group Joined: 04 May 2015 Location: USA Status: Offline Points: 4996	Post Options Post Reply Quote parsec Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 27 Jun 2016 at 5:26pm
	If the RAID array is the OS/Windows drive, simply moving it to a new, different chipset mother board that also has other different components, may cause problems.


wardog Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Moderator Group Joined: 15 Jul 2015 Status: Offline Points: 6447	Post Options Post Reply Quote wardog Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 27 Jun 2016 at 5:19pm
	Back the array up prior if it holds mission critical data. That doesn't need repeated.

wardog Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Moderator Group Joined: 15 Jul 2015 Status: Offline Points: 6447	Post Options Post Reply Quote wardog Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 27 Jun 2016 at 5:18pm
	Na, Not that I've done it but I can't foresee an issue going from AMD to AMD.

andrewnprice Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 27 Jun 2016 Status: Offline Points: 4	Post Options Post Reply Quote andrewnprice Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 27 Jun 2016 at 5:02pm
	Thanks for taking the time to reply. However, just so we are clear the SB950 and SB850 use compatible storage methods so it should automatically detect her RAID array if she gets the new motherboard? I have pretty much always used a dedicated controller, but I know with those sometimes you run into issues so I just wanted to make sure before I made a purchase. Sorry if it seems like I am being overly cautious or anything.

wardog Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Moderator Group Joined: 15 Jul 2015 Status: Offline Points: 6447	Post Options Post Reply Quote wardog Report Post Thanks(1) Quote Reply Posted: 27 Jun 2016 at 4:43pm
	I believe you and her should be good to go. The JMB361 is the IDE and eSata controller, so should be of no consequence.

andrewnprice Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 27 Jun 2016 Status: Offline Points: 4	Post Options Post Reply Quote andrewnprice Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 27 Jun 2016 at 12:32pm
	So I am helping a friend of mine upgrade her system, and her current system board is a M4A89TD PRO which of course uses AMD's 890FX chipset, the SB850 south bridge, and JMicron's JMB361 as the storage controller. (Link to list of specifications posted below.) https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M4A89TD_PRO/specifications/ As part of a system upgrade she was considering getting a new Asrock motherboard, more specifically the 990FX Killer. However, she currently has a couple of SSD's in a RAID 0 and was hoping to avoid wiping them as part of this process. In an attempt to help her I have been trying to research if the newer SB950 (and whatever storage controller it uses) is backwards compatible with arrays setup on a system using SB850 hardware, but unfortunately have not been able to come up with an answer. So with that in mind: does anyone here happen to know if upgrading motherboards will necessitate a complete wipe of her system? Edited by andrewnprice - 27 Jun 2016 at 12:34pm