IDE options for an OS drive

bgiddins · Post by **bgiddins** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 4:42 pm

Kicking around the idea of an Atom based build... probably running Ubuntu. Most of the boards I've seen have an IDE connector and two SATA ports - with no onboard RAID. I would like to run RAID 1, so using Linux I can use mdadm for this - but I would need to install the OS on an IDE drive.

I looked at IDE flash modules, but the performance appears to suck. Has anyone installed an OS on an IDE flash module before, or have an alternate suggestion?

Looking to minimise cost, noise, consumption and form factor - so would look at using cheap 2.5 drives as opposed to one big SSD.

shleepy · Post by **shleepy** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 4:45 pm

Have you considered a PCI SATA RAID card, instead?

bgiddins · Post by **bgiddins** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 4:51 pm

Briefly, but the question of compatibility crops up with Ubuntu... might look further into it as an option. Expect it would need to be low profile - haven't selected a case yet. I was thinking of working out the components and then selecting the smallest case that it would fit in, so I wanted to avoid adding a card to the board if possible.

mcoleg · Post by **mcoleg** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 5:20 pm

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820208445

is a pretty descent SSD (and relatively cheap) for IDE. not as fast as newer SATA SSDs but isn't bad. i put one in my old dell laptop, 25 seconds from BIOS to Desktop and 40 seconds to load everything with WinXP.

they also have 16Mb version for about half the price.

lowpowercomputing · Post by **lowpowercomputing** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 3:03 am

You could also use a very fast CompactFlash card in a CF->IDE adapter. A 266x or 300x card should be sufficient, just make sure you get a good adapter that supports UDMA. The "fixed disk" issue (some cards will always appear as removable drives rather than fixed ones, no matter how they're connected to the system, with no way to remedy that) is unimportant on Linux.

As for PCI RAID cards - as long as you get one with a Silicon Image chipset (PCI: SiI3112, PCIe: SiI3132) you are safe, Linux supports them. Just leave the IDE (non-RAID) BIOS flashed on them and use mdadm as you intended. There should be plenty low-profile cards around, cheap as well.