Best SCSI Raid Controller

[azev]

Well my number one concern is speed. Let say I have 4 15K drives, what would be the best 1/2 channel raid controller for these drives ??

 

[SCSIRAID]

Check out LSI's MegaRAID line. The 320-2 is a good possibility.

 

[sharkeeper]

What's your budget? There's everything from $400 to $400,000.

Cheers!

 

[JSA2]

Originally posted by: SCSIRAID
Check out LSI's MegaRAID line. The 320-2 is a good possibility.

That is OK if ur running 64-bit...but their are a couple of variable's that are in play here.

First off, if u are running all 32-bit PCI slots, then a 64-bit card is a total waste unless u need DUAL channel or more, and it HAS to be RAID...because almost all of the higher speed cards are going to be 64-bit unless u go single channel. In which case u can get a single channel Ultra160 AMI Express 500 for less than 200.00 on ebay....

But if u have the 64-bit slots on ur board...which u would most likely have to be at bare minimum running a dual P3 or dual/quad XEON board, since they are about the earliest third party boards to come out with it, short of having a Compaq / HP / Dell Server.

On the newest XEON boards, PCI-X Slots are common (133Mhz PCI Bus Speed). I own a Supermicro X5DAE w/Dual XEONS and a AMI Megaraid ELITE 1600 RAID Dual Channel Ultra160 64-bit 66Mhz PCI Controller with 2 10k Seagate 36gb Cheetahs and it really flys.

Ur best bet is to get on ebay and do a search for SCSI RAID, then narrow ur search down to the controller brand u want once u have looked over some the RAID cards available.

The brands best to stick with are: Adaptec, Mylex, AMI/LSI Logic, ICP-Vortex, IBM, Compaq. What speed u get is pretty much only dictated by price.

I have found that if u can get a dual channel card its normally better, just for the simple fact that u have a second channel to play with, tape backups and scanners, etc. or just to get more speed out of ur setup depending on the amount of drives and whether or not u have a actual drive cabinet (int/ext) or SCA bay system.

Hope this helps...

Joe Arnold
JSAII Sales and Service
Indianapolis IN