I have the ASUS Rampage II Extreme mobo, and I've occupied all the 6 SATA ports.
My harddrives in order as displayed in Vista(64)...
WD V-Raptor SATA II 300GB
WD Caviar SATA II 500GB
SAMSUNG F1 RaidEdition SATA II 1TB
SAMSUNG F1 RaidEdition SATA II 1TB
Maxtor MaxLine III SATA 300GB
WD Caviar SATA II 300GB
1. AT THE MOMENT I do NOT use RAID on these drives (in this case it would be the Samsungs), but I might in the future - you never know. That's why I've bought the RE editions. (NOTE They were bought on separate occasions, about 8 months or so, so that I'd have to do some file backup before launching the RAID function). Anyway...
EDIT Nvm, i could simply use the raid controller from the mobo. But for future disks...
2. What I'm looking for is a SATA controller that delivers speed and reliability (although I guess cheap (~150? controller) cards aren't as reliable as the motherboards controller (or? anyway..), but I'm pretty much out of choices here).
3. Preferably 4 ports (for the future), but for now a controller with 2 ports would do.
I'm not familiar with SATA II controllers at all, so I do not know whether a normal PCI controller delivers the same speed as a PCI-E? (According to the specs at newegg, even the PCI SATA controllers are said to deliver 300MB/s. Is this true? Or have I misunderstood it all. Are the differences between PCI and PCI-E SATA controllers then based on something else, other than their physical slot?).
So far I've been researching about the PROMISE controllers. The TX2300 and TX4310 to be exact. But the downside of these cards are said to be their compatibility with newer motherboards (since these cards were released few years ago). They do have a list of motherboards that are compatible, but neither one of them has mine listed.
Another product line would be the HighPoint controllers. I've been looking at the HighPoint RocketRAID 2300 to be exact. But reading one of the customers reviews, I feel VERY insecure.
You may read the entire review yourself (its posted 1/27/2009 10:29:15 PM). Press here.
I plan to spend about 150? for the SATA controller. Above 200? - no way.
Basically just to be short, i just want the controller to work with my mobo and deliver.
Another option to expand would of course be buying an external hdd, but that doesn't come close to the speed and other abilities of an internal disk - that I definately need.
Please someone with knowledge and experience - help me..
My harddrives in order as displayed in Vista(64)...
WD V-Raptor SATA II 300GB
WD Caviar SATA II 500GB
SAMSUNG F1 RaidEdition SATA II 1TB
SAMSUNG F1 RaidEdition SATA II 1TB
Maxtor MaxLine III SATA 300GB
WD Caviar SATA II 300GB
1. AT THE MOMENT I do NOT use RAID on these drives (in this case it would be the Samsungs), but I might in the future - you never know. That's why I've bought the RE editions. (NOTE They were bought on separate occasions, about 8 months or so, so that I'd have to do some file backup before launching the RAID function). Anyway...
EDIT Nvm, i could simply use the raid controller from the mobo. But for future disks...
2. What I'm looking for is a SATA controller that delivers speed and reliability (although I guess cheap (~150? controller) cards aren't as reliable as the motherboards controller (or? anyway..), but I'm pretty much out of choices here).
3. Preferably 4 ports (for the future), but for now a controller with 2 ports would do.
I'm not familiar with SATA II controllers at all, so I do not know whether a normal PCI controller delivers the same speed as a PCI-E? (According to the specs at newegg, even the PCI SATA controllers are said to deliver 300MB/s. Is this true? Or have I misunderstood it all. Are the differences between PCI and PCI-E SATA controllers then based on something else, other than their physical slot?).
So far I've been researching about the PROMISE controllers. The TX2300 and TX4310 to be exact. But the downside of these cards are said to be their compatibility with newer motherboards (since these cards were released few years ago). They do have a list of motherboards that are compatible, but neither one of them has mine listed.
Another product line would be the HighPoint controllers. I've been looking at the HighPoint RocketRAID 2300 to be exact. But reading one of the customers reviews, I feel VERY insecure.
If one of your disks fails, you can add another and rebuild your array. BUT, if the controller ITSELF fails, you are completely 100% X'd. Because NO OTHER PLATFORM will read the disks once initialized into the Highpoint controller. If the point of a RAID system is to protect you against data loss from hardware failure, THEN THIS SYSTEM IS A FAILURE, because while it may protect you if one of the hard drives fails (as long as you don't mind the fact that the HD will never work anywhere else), it will not protect you if IT ITSELF FAILS. If Highpoint discontinues this model, you will not be able to recover your data. Believe me, I've tried
You may read the entire review yourself (its posted 1/27/2009 10:29:15 PM). Press here.
I plan to spend about 150? for the SATA controller. Above 200? - no way.
Basically just to be short, i just want the controller to work with my mobo and deliver.
Another option to expand would of course be buying an external hdd, but that doesn't come close to the speed and other abilities of an internal disk - that I definately need.
Please someone with knowledge and experience - help me..