MSI H97 Gaming 3 Manual

							
Appendix A
A-3Realtek Audio

Device Selection
Here you can select a audio output source to change the related options. The “check” sign (in orange) indicates the devices as default.
Volume Adjustment
You can control the volume or balance the right/left side of the speakers that you plugged in front or rear panel by adjust the bar.
Application Enhancement
The array of options will provide you a complete guidance of anticipated sound effect for both output and input device.
Jack status panel
This panel depicts all render and capture devices currently connected with your computer. 
Auto popup dialog
When you plug into the device at the jack, a dialogue window will pop up asking you which device is current connected.
As you know, each jack corresponds to its default setting, you can refer to the next section “Hardware Default Setting”.
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Appendix A
A-4Realtek Audio

Hardware Default Setting
The following diagrams are audio back panel default setting.
Backpanel audio jacks to 2-channel speakers diagram
F r o n t
Backpanel audio jacks to 4-channel speakers diagram
R e a r
F r o n t
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Appendix A
A-5Realtek Audio

Backpanel audio jacks to 6-channel speakers diagram
R e a r
F r o n t
C e n t e r&Su b w o o f e r
Backpanel audio jacks to 8-channel speakers diagram
R e a r
F r o n t
C e n t e r&Su b w o o f e rSi d eSur r o u n d
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Appendix B
Intel RAID (optional)
This appendix will assist users in configuring and enabling RAID functionality and accelerating system on platforms  
						

							
Appendix B
B-2Intel RAID

Introduction
The motherboard comes with the Intel RAID controller that allows you to configure SATA hard drives as RAID sets.
SATA hard drives deliver blistering transfer speeds up to 6 Gb/s. Serial ATA uses long, thin cables, making it easier to connect your drive and improving the airflow inside your PC. The most outstanding features are:
Supports 3 Gb/s or 6 Gb/s transfers with CRC error checking.
Supports Hot-plug-n-play feature.
Data handling optimizations including tagged command queuing, elevator seek and packet chain command.
Intel® RAID controller offers RAID level 0 (Striping), RAID level 1 (Mirroring and Duplexing), RAID level 5 (Block Interleaved Distributed Parity), RAID level 10 (A Stripe of Mirrors) , Intel® Rapid Storage Technology.
RAID 0 breaks the data into blocks which are written to separate hard drives. Spreading the hard drive I/O load across independent channels greatly improves I/O performance.
RAID 1 provides data redundancy by mirroring data between the hard drives and provides enhanced read performance. 
RAID 5 Provides data striping at the byte level and also stripe error correction information. This results in excellent performance and good fault tolerance. Level 5 is one of the most popular implementations of RAID. 
RAID 10 Not one of the original RAID levels, multiple RAID 1 mirrors are created, and a RAID 0 stripe is created over these. 
Intel® Rapid Storage Technology is the advanced ability for two RAID volumes to share the combined space of two hard drives being used in unison.
Intel® Rapid Storage Technology utilizes RAID 1 functionality to copy data from a designated Master drive to a designated Recovery drive. The size of the Master drive must be less than or equal to the size of the Recovery drive. When a Recovery volume is created, complete capacity of the Master drive will be used as the Master volume. Only one Recovery Volume can exist on a system. There are 2 methods of updating the data on the Master to the Recovery drive. They are Continuous Update Policy and On Request Update Policy.
 Important
The least number of hard drives for RAID 0, RAID 1, Recovery or Matrix mode is 2. The least number of hard drives for RAID 10 mode is 4. And the least number of hard drives for RAID 5 mode is 3.
All the information/ volumes/ pictures listed in your system might differ from the illustrations in this appendix. 
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Appendix B
B-3Intel RAID

Using Intel Rapid Storage Technology Option ROM
The Intel Rapid Storage Technology Option ROM should be integrated with the system BIOS on all motherboards with a supported Intel chipset. The Intel Rapid Storage Technology Option ROM is the Intel RAID implementation and provides BIOS and DOS disk services. Please use  +  keys to enter the “Intel® RAID for Serial ATA” status screen, which should  appear early in system boot-up, during the POST (Power-On Self Test). Also, you need to enable the RAID function in BIOS to create, delete and reset RAID volumes.
Creating, Deleting and Resetting RAID Volumes:
The Serial ATA RAID volume may be configured using the RAID Configuration utility stored within the Intel RAID Option ROM. During the Power-On Self Test (POST), the following message will appear for a few seconds.
 Important
The “Device Model”, “Serial #” and “Size” in the following example might be different from your system.
RAID VolumesNone defined.
Physical Disks:
Port   Device Model    Serial #   Size Type/Status(Vol ID)
1        XXXXXXXXXXXXX     XXXXXXXXXXXXX XXX.XGB 
Non-RAID Disk
2        XXXXXXXXXXXXX     XXXXXXXXXXXXX XXX.XGB Non-RAID Disk
Press    to enter Configuration Utility..  
After the above message shows, press  and  keys simultaneously to enter the Intel Rapid Storage Technology Option ROM.
 Important
The following procedure is only available with a newly-built system or if you are reinstalling your OS. It should not be used to migrate an existing system to RAID.  
						

							
Appendix B
B-4Intel RAID

After pressing the  and  keys simultaneously, the following window will appear:
Create RAID Volume 
Select option 1 “Create RAID Volume” and press  key. The following screen appears. Then in the Name field, specify a RAID Volume name and then press the  or  key to go to the next field.
Use the arrow keys to select the RAID level best suited to your usage model in RAID Level. 
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[                                     ]CREATE VOLUME MENU
[             ]HELP
           Name :
RAID  1 : Mirrors  data  (redundancy) .
[ ↑↓] - Change         [TAB] - Next          [ESC] - Previous Menu         [ENTER] - Select 
      RAID Level :     Disks :     Strip Size :     Capacity :     Sync :
Volume0RAID1(Mirror)Select  DisksN / AXXX.X  GBN / ACreate Volume
MAIN MENU[                     ]
DISK / VOLUME INFORMATION[                                                ]
4.       Recovery Volume  Options5.       Acceleration Options6.       Exit
RAID  Volumes :None  defined.
Physical  Devices :Port  Device  Model                 Serial  #                                                  Size    Type/Status (Vol  ID)1       XXXX-XXXXXXXX          XXXXXXXXXXXXXX                    XXX.XGB    Non-RAID  Disk2       XXXX-XXXXXXXX          XXXXXXXXXXXXXX                    XXX.XGB    Non-RAID  Disk
[ ↑↓] - Select                            [ESC] - Exit               [ENTER] - Select Menu
1.       Create  RAID  Volume2.       Delete  RAID  Volume3.       Reset Disks to Non-RAID
[                        ]MAIN  MENU   
						

							
Appendix B
B-5Intel RAID

In the Disk field, press  key and use  key to select the disks you want to create for the RAID volume, then click  key to finish selection. This field will become available according to the selected RAID level.
Then select the strip size for the RAID array by using the “upper arrow” or “down arrow” keys to scroll through the available values, and pressing the  key to select and advance to the next field. The available values range from 4KB to 128 KB in power of 2 increments. The strip size should be chosen based on the planned drive usage. Here are some typical values:  RAID0 -128KB / RAID10 - 64KB / RAID5 - 64KB. This field will become available according to the selected RAID level.
Then select the capacity of the volume in the Capacity field. The default value is the maximum volume capacity of the selected disks.
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[                                     ]CREATE VOLUME MENU
[             ]HELP
           Name :
The  default  value  indicates  the  maximum  capacity  using  the  selected disks.  Entering  a  lower  capacity  allows  you  to  create  a  second    volume  on  these  disks.
[ ↑↓] - Change         [TAB] - Next          [ESC] - Previous Menu         [ENTER] - Select 
      RAID Level :     Disks :     Strip Size :     Capacity :     Sync :
Volume0RAID1(Mirror)Select  DisksN / AXXX.X  GBN / ACreate Volume
 Important
Since you want to create two volumes, this default size (maximum) needs to be reduced. Type in a new size for the first volume. As an example: if you want the first volume to span the first half of the two disks, re-type the size to be half of what is shown by default. The second volume, when created, will automatically span the remainder of two hard drives.  
						

							
Appendix B
B-6Intel RAID

Then the following screen appears to indicate that the creation is finished.7.
Go to the Create Volume field and press , the following screen appears for you to confirm if you are sure to create the RAID volume. Press  to continue.6.
[                                     ]CREATE VOLUME MENU
[             ]HELP
           Name :
Press  ENTER  to  create  the  specified  volume.
[ ↑↓] - Change        [TAB] - Next          [ESC] - Previous Menu         [ENTER] - Select 
      RAID Level :     Disks :     Strip Size :     Capacity :     Sync :
Volume0RAID1(Mirror)Select  DisksN / AXXX.X  GBN / ACreate VolumeWARNING : ALL DATA ON SELECTED DISKS WILL BE LOST.Are  you  sure  you  want  to  create  this  volume?  (Y / N)  :
DISK / VOLUME INFORMATION[                                                ]
4.       Recovery Volume  Options5.       Acceleration Options6.       Exit
RAID  Volumes :
ID       Name                     Level     Strip                  Size    Status           Bootable
0         Volume0                      RAID1(Mirror)               N / A        XXX.XGB    Normal            Yes
Physical  Devices :Port  Device  Model                 Serial  #                                                  Size    Type/Status (Vol  ID)1       XXXX-XXXXXXXX          XXXXXXXXXXXXXX                    XXX.XGB    Member  Disk(0)2       XXXX-XXXXXXXX          XXXXXXXXXXXXXX                    XXX.XGB    Member  Disk(0)
[ ↑↓] - Select                            [ESC] - Exit               [ENTER] - Select Menu
1.       Create  RAID  Volume2.       Delete  RAID  Volume3.       Reset Disks to Non-RAID
MAIN MENU[                     ][                        ]MAIN  MENU