good raid controller

[drwoo123]

I am looking for a good raid controller. Any recommendations.

It will probably be a raid 0 array for the operating system, and another raid 5 array for data.

I can spend up to about $600, max maybe $700.

Thanks in advance

 

[Big Lar]

SAS Sata or Scsi?

Larry

 

[drwoo123]

either sata or sas - scsi drives are too expensive

 

[drwoo123]

leaning more towards sata as i already have a few sata drives lying around

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

PCIe x1, x4, x8, or PCI-X? If you can do a PCIe x8 card, then I highly recommend the Areca cards. I have a Areca ARC-1220 and it is wonderful.

 

[drwoo123]

I can do PCIe x8. Have you ever had to use their technical support? That is the main issue that is steering me towards 3ware.

 

[Blain]

You're looking at spending "about $600, max maybe $700", yet installing "a few sata drives lying around"? :roll:

That doesn't really make sense. If you're serious about a high-end RAID controller, pair it up with some solid RE3 HDs.
They're designed for RAID operation, unlike random drives you have laying around.

* RAID 5 Array *
* Areca ARC-1220 @ $440 shipped Vendor Lifetime Rating = 9.78
* 3 x WD RE3 500GB WD5002ABYS @ $231 shipped
Total = $671.00 for a very solid performance/redundant setup :thumbsup:


X-Bit Labs Review
"<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/storage/display/areca-arc1220_14.html#sect0">The Areca ARC-1220 controller has turned in superb results in our today?s tests!
The RAID5 and RAID0 arrays show excellent scalability of performance relative to the number of drives per array and are generally very fast.
The controller keeps data secure in fault-tolerant arrays (RAID1, RAID5, RAID6 and RAID10)</a>"

 

[Shmee]

But isn't SAS backwards compatible to SATA? That way you could use your SATA drives, but get SAS ones later. Of course, if I were you, I would get an SAS controller and some Seagate cheetahs, for ultimate awesomeness.

 

[Rubycon]

Originally posted by: Shmee
But isn't SAS backwards compatible to SATA? That way you could use your SATA drives, but get SAS ones later. Of course, if I were you, I would get an SAS controller and some Seagate cheetahs, for ultimate awesomeness.

Yes it is - you can run SATA drives on a SAS controller but you CANNOT run a SAS drive on a SATA controller. Get a SAS controller for best compatibility.

 

[drwoo123]

point well taken. i didn't know that I can use my sata drives with a sas controller. that being the case it is a no brainer to go with a good sas controller for now, and get sas drives in the future when they come down in price.

I've got 3 seagate drives that I bought back in march, which will work for now.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16822148288

Now I guess back to the drawing board for a good sas controller?

 

[bigi]

3ware 9650. Excellent card(s), great drivers and mgmt utilities.

 

[Sentry2]

Adaptec 5405 or 5805 depending on how many drives you'll be running.

 

[drwoo123]

So if I get an 8 port 9650 for example, is there any way to connect more than 8 devices to it? If in the future I decide to get an additional external array then this would be helpful.
Just poking around online I saw rumors of a newer / faster SAS spec - any ideas on how futureproof the current spec is (from what I can read its not really much faster than SATA??)


Thanks in advance

 

[Blain]

There will always be "newer" & "fast"... do you have an unlimited budget for storage devices?
If so, that changes the whole equation. :laugh:

 

[drwoo123]

understandably there is always something better. I am just wondering if in 3 months something significantly faster is on the horizon, then I can hold off. It's more a matter of timeframe, then needing / wanting the latest and greatest. My budget is definately not unlimited but my internal case only supports so many drives. Down the road it would be nice to plugin an external array. I do a lot of heavy photo editing so disk space is eaten like waffles with butter on them .

Thanks in advance

 

[drwoo123]

so what exactly are sas expanders?

 

[MalVeauX]

Heya,

Ahh, a simple solution for you. Go on Ebay and search for "PERC 5/i". You should find them for $70~150. It will support up to 8 drives. They're normally really expensive, but, people sell them out of servers very often and you can get them on ebay (just looked, saw several) with buynow options. Scoring one of these for less than $200 is like buying a porche for the price of a civic. They're high end grade stuff from dell servers. You just get appropriate wires and you can link 8 SATA drives to it from two backwards compatible cables. Does RAID5, hardware. Amazing card.

Very best,

 

[drwoo123]

wow those are some excellent deals on the perc 5i and 6i. do they work on most conventional motherboards? It is only $300 direct from dell.

http://accessories.us.dell.com...&sku=341-7395#Overview

I have a evga 780i board
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813188024

If it works looks like it is the best way to go

 

[Blain]

Dell SAS 6/iR User Guide

 

[MalVeauX]

Originally posted by: drwoo123
wow those are some excellent deals on the perc 5i and 6i. do they work on most conventional motherboards? It is only $300 direct from dell.

http://accessories.us.dell.com...&sku=341-7395#Overview

I have a evga 780i board
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813188024

If it works looks like it is the best way to go

Heya,

Yeap, works on our motherboards. It seems to have a few problems with some intel chipsets, but it can be fixed just by covering the 5th and 6th pins on the PCI bridge (if memory serves correctly). On an AMD board, you should have zero conflicts. It's flashable too, so you can update it and change quite a few things. They're very impressive boards. Once you check them out, you'll wonder why you were looking at consumer entry level hardware RAID options that were $300 that don't do as much as one of these things.

Very best,

 

[Shmee]

Hmm, seems like a good deal. the perc 5/i seems to be at a sweet spot. found one on ebay for $55. another for $79. dont think they come with the memory though. Will these cards take any ddr2 dimms? or only specific ones?

also, was considering getting 2 of the ST3300555SS (300 GB 15k RPM seagate cheetahs) for around $199 each.

And what cables/accessories would I need to run just 2 of them? (at least for the time being)

 

[Keitero]

I love my Adaptec 31205 card. Bought one off the bay for $200ish. Supports 12 drives and so far, I have yet to see any of my arrays dip below 175MB/s sustained.

 

[drwoo123]

wow i have no idea how you got the 31205 for ~$200. Its mostly around 500-600 on ebay right now

 

[drwoo123]

i got the 31605 for about $415. so far so good. any good benchmark apps?