Cheap PCI-e RAID card that will do multiple virtual disks on RAID 10?

[Viper GTS]

I currently have 8x320GB drives on a PERC 5e. I'm running them in RAID 50, so a little under 2 TB in usable space. This works out fine for the ESXi VMFS volume size limit (2 TB - 512B).

I just ordered enough Spinpoint F3 1 TB's to rebuild the array. My main motivation is performance, the move from RAID 50 to RAID 10 should help things. The extra space would be a nice benefit. Unfortunately a combination of ESX + PERC limitations will keep me from utilizing the full space of these drives. Those limitations being:

1) 2 TB - 512B VMFS volume limit (ESXi)
2) One VMFS volume per LUN (ESXi)
3) One virtual disk per RAID 10 set (PERC 5)

I don't see an easy way around this while still getting the full performance benefits of having this many drives. I'm OK sacrificing the space and making a 1.99 TB volume (effectively short stroking the drives), but if I could come up with a way to use all the space it certainly wouldn't hurt my feelings.

So this leads me to looking for a reasonably inexpensive hardware RAID controller that will do multiple virtual disks on a RAID 10 set.

Any ideas? Any easy ways around these limits that I'm missing?

Viper GTS

 

[imagoon]

3) One virtual disk per RAID 10 set (PERC 5)

You shouldn't have this limitation, is the firmware current? We have used these to run multiple luns out of RAID 10 Disk groups before on MD1000's.

--EDIT--

Just logged in to one of my 2950's and verified this is exactly what we are doing.

 

[Viper GTS]

3) One virtual disk per RAID 10 set (PERC 5)

You shouldn't have this limitation, is the firmware current? We have used these to run multiple luns out of RAID 10 Disk groups before on MD1000's.

--EDIT--

Just logged in to one of my 2950's and verified this is exactly what we are doing.

Maybe it has changed in more recent firmware. I haven't touched the firmware on it in 2+ years, it was current when I built it originally.

I found this last night, maybe it's just outdated:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/storage/raid/perc5/en/ug/html/chapterh.htm#wp1069357

NOTE: For RAID levels 0, 1, and 5 only, you can use part of the available disk space to create one virtual disk and then use the rest of the disk space to create another virtual disk or disks.

I have some 2950's that aren't in use right now I'll have to go check. They're PERC 5i's but close enough.

Viper GTS