SCSI Ultra320 RAID Questions

[Pragma]

Hi, on a new workstation im building I'm going to be setting up a small-mid sized scsi ultra320 raid. I figured adaptec was the best way to go for the controller, but I am a SCSI noob and a bit confused.

In one category, titled "SCSI RAID" there is one card that looks interesting, the 2120S:
http://www.adaptec.com/worldwide/product/proddetail.html?sess=no&language=English+US&prodkey=ASR-2120S&cat=%2fTechnology%2fRAID%2fUltra320

As the others dont seem applicable, one is dual channel (I dont need dual channel do I? Im talking 3-5 drives here) and the other 2 dont seem to have controller chips

There is then another category "SCSI" where there is a section titled "New Ultra320 SCSI"
The first card is a dual channel the other two seem the same cept one is low profile here is a link:
http://www.adaptec.com/worldwide/product/prodtechindex.html?sess=no&language=English+US&cat=%2fTechnology%2fSCSI

Im sort of overall confused hehe, not sure what it is I want. I want something with data stripping support to increase transfer rates (like raid-0). Both of these seems to have that. The less expensive one uses something called HostRaid? Also is Raid-5 worth considering? Any clarification is GREATLY appreciated.

Also, forgot to add, the RAID category one is pci-66 but the other one is pci-X-133, is that gana help speeds?

 

[Pariah]

I can side step most of your questions by saying avoid Adaptec RAID cards, they aren't any good. Look for LSI (Mylex) or ATTO. Search for MegaRAID on Ebay. There are always good deals to be found there. If you are using a motherboard that doesn't have something better than standard 32bit 33MHz PCI, the number of channels and the SCSI standard are pretty irrelevant because the PCI bus will limit you to about 115-120MB/s.

Also, you definitely don't want data stripping. Anything that strips your data off the drives would be quite bad. What you are looking for is data striping.

 

[Pragma]

Lol yea, good call

My board has pci-x 133mhz slots, if that helps.

 

[Pragma]

The mylex cards are ultra160, not 320, but they got some nice looks 320 cards there as well...

 

[Pariah]

Mylex was purchased by LSI Logic, so all their products are about a generation old. A dual channel U160 card would be plenty for any reasonable configuration and can pretty easily handle four current generation SCSI drives in RAID 0.