SDH, I was hoping you would answer. I've read your posts on the subject before and your inputs seems to be based on real world experience rather than a mindset of "it should work, so I'll tell everyone it works".
Your knowledge has been very helpful in my sifting through facts and fiction! I was hoping for further progress in your research since the last post, though...
I think I'll put this matter to rest now. I've got my eye on a matched pair of X5675 from Hong Kong. Free shipping... They'll do.
But one resting matter leaves room for others.
Next out of spec question is RAID-related.
According to the almighty QuckSpecs, the Z600 supports RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 for up to 4 drives.
There are 6 SATA ports on the motherboard and with my LSI 3041E 4-Port SAS 3.0 Gb/s RAID Card I get another 4 for a total of 10 SATA ports. I realize that internal real estate is the big limitation here, but I was wondering about the specification once again. I guess HP only counts OEM-style instalations with the two hotswap bays, one 3.5" HDD in the bottom of the ODD bay and one right underneath the slim DVD drive for a total of 4.
Is the 4 HDD limit based on actual limitations in the BIOS or just the fact that HP didn't foresee a guy like me who has an empty 5.25" bay and an adapter for six SFF drives running on dual molex's and a mission to make a dream of filling a HP case to the brim come true?
The short question. Could I use more than the specified 4 HDD's in the built-in RAID?
For instance. Could I run six 1TB disks in IME in a 2x3 configuration from the onboard SATA ports while running my boot SSD and three "deep storage" HDD's from the SAS-card?
I don't know if this is a good idea or not. I know i can fit more discs. But could I RAID them...?
Guess I could run one 3-disc IME on the built in RAID and one on the SAS-card. But still. I want to know about the spec!
Hiatus