8 channel SATA Raid card

[Genx87]

Are there any of these babies in PCI?
If there isnt are there any 4 channel cards that will allow you to control both cards array as a single volume?

I am toying with what how to build my file server for home and decided it would be nice to have the expandability of 8 drives vs the standard 4 and really want to use this AXP system instead of purchasing a new MB + CPU just to get PCI-X.

btw require RAID 5 capability

thanks

 

[ProviaFan]

There's a US$207 Highpoint or a $469 3Ware. Both are PCI-X, but they are backward compatible so that you should be able to plug them into any system with only PCI slots.

 

[canadageek]

yeah... but you'd still want pci-x, because the standard PCI bus would create a huge bottleneck

 

[Genx87]

The only thing on the PCI bus would be this controller. You think having a 6 drive RAID 5 array could saturate the 133MB\s of PCI?

I basically have two options.

Build a new machine or stick a controller card inthis AXP 2400+ system.

If you think it will be backwards compatible with PCI that presents an interesting option.
I didnt realize you could stick PCI-X cards into a PCI slot.

I have to consider the purpose of this thing. To stream DVDs + MP3s over a Gbit network to any computer in the house. Do I need more performance than PCI can deliver?

 

[CrashX]

I ran a 4 channel 3ware PCI-X Raid card with 4x 400GB drives in a Raid5 array for a few months in a P4 2.8GHz motherboard with PCI slots for several months. It was my home mp3 and dvd server running samba on Linux. It ran just fine. I just recently upgraded it to an Intel low end server motherboard with PCI-X slots. It wasn't a noticeable difference, but all it's doing is file serving.

 

[Tostada]

If it's going into a home file server obviously the PCI bus isn't the biggest bottleneck. You'd need to get a GB ethernet switch before you worry about a PCI-X motherboard.

 

[mamisano]

I picked up a Dell-Pulled Adaptec 2610SA 6-port SATA Adapter on Ebay for $135! Using it in my home A64-3400 powered server w/3x250GB Hitachi SATA-II drives in Raid5. Works great for my needs in a standard PCI slot. Can always upgrade the board later on if I need more bandwidth.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: Genx87
The only thing on the PCI bus would be this controller. You think having a 6 drive RAID 5 array could saturate the 133MB\s of PCI?

I basically have two options.

Build a new machine or stick a controller card inthis AXP 2400+ system.

If you think it will be backwards compatible with PCI that presents an interesting option.
I didnt realize you could stick PCI-X cards into a PCI slot.

I have to consider the purpose of this thing. To stream DVDs + MP3s over a Gbit network to any computer in the house. Do I need more performance than PCI can deliver?

Yes, it likely will saturate the PCI bus. I've got a 4 drive RAID 5 setup here, and it gives me sustained read speeds of 100MB/sec, and 106MB/sec for burst speeds, as reported by AIDA32.

 

[Genx87]

The more I thought about it the less the 133MB\s bottneck of the PCI bus is the issue.
Even if my Gbit network had zero overhead it would be at 125Mb\s and the things Ill be doing will honestly require no more than 5-10Mb\sec.

Going to grab that highpoint controller and stick 5x250GB drives on it in RAID 5 for starters. If my DVD collection eats up that space Ill keep sticking more on until I run out of channels.

God forbid I end up with 1.75TB of DVDs hehe.

Thanks for the input guys.

 

[CZroe]

I filled up my 720GB file server with time-shifted DVD images VERY quickly (Time-shifted = didn't have the time to watch before returning to Blockbuster)

I used a Promise SuperTrak SX6000 6-channel IDE RAID5 controller w/ 256MB SDRAM and I have since purchased a second SX6000 card . I plan on putting both cards in the same PC and creating two 720GB RAID5 arrays and striping them using XP's software RAID0 (Unless both card's BIOSes work together, which is possible). The CMStacker is the only case choice! To bad it doesn't have full-length PCI card support and a full-length PCI card blocks the optional CrossFlow fan.

Anyway, I've been implementing Gigabit one part at a time and now all I need is the switch but here's something you might wanna pay attention to: PCI Gigabit will use ALL the PCI bandwidth as will a high-end RAID card so you will want to make sure they aren't on the same bus (PCI). I went out of my way to find one of the few nForce2's with on-chip Gigabit (Most use integrated PCI Gigabit).

 

[Genx87]

Originally posted by: CZroe
I filled up my 720GB file server with time-shifted DVD images VERY quickly (Time-shifted = didn't have the time to watch before returning to Blockbuster)

I used a Promise SuperTrak SX6000 6-channel IDE RAID5 controller w/ 256MB SDRAM and I have since purchased a second SX6000 card . I plan on putting both cards in the same PC and creating two 720GB RAID5 arrays and striping them using XP's software RAID0 (Unless both card's BIOSes work together, which is possible). The CMStacker is the only case choice! To bad it doesn't have full-length PCI card support and a full-length PCI card blocks the options CrossFlow fan.

Anyway, I've been implementing Gigabit one part at a time and now all I need is the switch but here's something you might wanna pay attention to: PCI Gigabit will use ALL the PCI bandwidth as will a high-end RAID card so you will want to make sure they aren't on the same bus (PCI). I went out of my way to find one of the few nForce2's with on-chip Gigabit (Most use integrated PCI Gigabit).

Ahh good point about the integrated GBit.