Need SATA II RAID Controller suggestion

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KingGheedora

Diamond Member
Jun 24, 2006
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I just bought four Seagate 7200.10 320GB drives at $60 each. I plan to RAID 0 them together.

(Hold your comments about RAID 0 and data loss, don't need that for what I'm using the drives for. Also, refrain from posting comments about the lack of performance improvement of RAID, that's irrelevant here).

What's a good PCI-X or PCI-E, hardware RAID card to use with SATA II drives? If it could support more drives for future expansion that'd be nice but not necessary. I will run the OS off a single Raptor so won't need to boot from RAID.

This is for a new system, which will use a Q6600. I don't know what motherboard to use yet, but whatever controller I get needs to work with a socket 775 mobo, preferably one that will support Penryn (for when that comes out), and will also work with vista 64bit, and/or win2003 64 bit). Feel free to suggest a mobo too, if you know a good one that will fit with what I have in mind.

 
Fullmetal Chocobo

Fullmetal Chocobo

Moderator<br>Distributed Computing
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May 13, 2003
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First and foremost, what is your budget? Secondly, what is this configuration going to be used for? I have an Areca ARC-1220 RAID controller in a Asus P5N32-E SLI motherboard, and they work beautifully together. If you are requiring more of a server, I'd go with a different motherboard, but you'll likely have to use a different processor as well.

EDIT: My next machine I build is going to be a dual quad core using dual Xeon E5310's and a Supermicro X7DVL-E-O motherboard, and it will be utilizing PCI-X RAID controllers.
 
Knavish

Knavish

Senior member
May 17, 2002
910
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I've had luck with 3ware controllers, though I haven't built a server using PCI-E. I've both built and bought servers with them (purchased from Penguin Computing.) For what it's worth, it looks like Penguin Computing is now using Adaptec 3405/3805 cards.

--Plan on spending more than $300

--Unless you're planning on using a server motherboard (which is probably a bad idea for a workstation or gaming box), I think you should go with PCI-E.

--Just looking over at Newegg, I'm curious about the PROMISE SuperTrak EX8350 since it apparently has 8 SATA ports for less than $400. I have no idea if it's a good card, though.
 
K

KingGheedora

Diamond Member
Jun 24, 2006
3,248
1
81
The machine will be used for development and testing. Databases from 300-600GB in size, and doing analysis on the data. The reason I don't care if the drives fail is this is a my workstation, no one else is accessing besides me, and the data all comes from another machine so I can recover if something fails.

My budget for this is < $400. Hopefully I can buy it on amazon, I have over $300 in gift cert's there. If not I can buy other parts for this system on amazon.

I want to stick with socket 775, getting either the q6600, or the x3220 (basically the same cpu). I'm not sure if there will be any benefit to getting a "server" board.
 
K

KingGheedora

Diamond Member
Jun 24, 2006
3,248
1
81
Originally posted by: Knavish
I've had luck with 3ware controllers, though I haven't built a server using PCI-E. I've both built and bought servers with them (purchased from Penguin Computing.) For what it's worth, it looks like Penguin Computing is now using Adaptec 3405/3805 cards.

--Plan on spending more than $300

--Unless you're planning on using a server motherboard (which is probably a bad idea for a workstation or gaming box), I think you should go with PCI-E.

--Just looking over at Newegg, I'm curious about the http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16816102071"> PROMISE SuperTrak EX8350</a> since it apparently has 8 SATA ports for less than $400. I have no idea if it's a good card, though.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what the diff. between pci-e and pci-x is. Is one or the other more commonly found on either consumer/enthusiast boards vs. server boards?
 
Fullmetal Chocobo

Fullmetal Chocobo

Moderator<br>Distributed Computing
Moderator
May 13, 2003
13,704
7
81
Originally posted by: KingGheedora
The machine will be used for development and testing. Databases from 300-600GB in size, and doing analysis on the data. The reason I don't care if the drives fail is this is a my workstation, no one else is accessing besides me, and the data all comes from another machine so I can recover if something fails.

My budget for this is < $400. Hopefully I can buy it on amazon, I have over $300 in gift cert's there. If not I can buy other parts for this system on amazon.

I want to stick with socket 775, getting either the q6600, or the x3220 (basically the same cpu). I'm not sure if there will be any benefit to getting a "server" board.
Click to expand...

Then you will definitely be wanting PCIe on a consumer board. And your budget of $400 is for what components exactly? Just the RAID controller? If so, what motherboard do you have now?

Originally posted by: KingGheedora
Originally posted by: Knavish
I've had luck with 3ware controllers, though I haven't built a server using PCI-E. I've both built and bought servers with them (purchased from Penguin Computing.) For what it's worth, it looks like Penguin Computing is now using Adaptec 3405/3805 cards.

--Plan on spending more than $300

--Unless you're planning on using a server motherboard (which is probably a bad idea for a workstation or gaming box), I think you should go with PCI-E.

--Just looking over at Newegg, I'm curious about the http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16816102071"> PROMISE SuperTrak EX8350</a> since it apparently has 8 SATA ports for less than $400. I have no idea if it's a good card, though.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what the diff. between pci-e and pci-x is. Is one or the other more commonly found on either consumer/enthusiast boards vs. server boards?
Click to expand...

Yes. PCIe is the prominent on consumer boards, and is a technology to replace PCI expansion slots (eventually). PCI-X are almost exclusively on server motherboards. PCIe does exist on server motherboards, but I have never seen a PCI-X slot on a consumer board.
 
K

KingGheedora

Diamond Member
Jun 24, 2006
3,248
1
81
Originally posted by: Knavish
I've had luck with 3ware controllers, though I haven't built a server using PCI-E. I've both built and bought servers with them (purchased from Penguin Computing.) For what it's worth, it looks like Penguin Computing is now using Adaptec 3405/3805 cards.

--Plan on spending more than $300

--Unless you're planning on using a server motherboard (which is probably a bad idea for a workstation or gaming box), I think you should go with PCI-E.

--Just looking over at Newegg, I'm curious about the http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16816102071"> PROMISE SuperTrak EX8350</a> since it apparently has 8 SATA ports for less than $400. I have no idea if it's a good card, though.
Click to expand...

The Promise SuperTrak X8350 sounds pretty good from quick google searches. Examples:
Text
Text
 
K

KingGheedora

Diamond Member
Jun 24, 2006
3,248
1
81
Found this comparison:
Text

Which compares the Promise 16350 to some other cards (mostly areca's). The Promise is horrible here. Especially in the database test. I think the only difference between the 16350 and the 8350, at least judging from the model numbers, is that the one in that link supports 16 drives, while the promise I was looking at supports 8.

 
Knavish

Knavish

Senior member
May 17, 2002
910
3
81
Originally posted by: KingGheedora
I'm not sure what the diff. between pci-e and pci-x is. Is one or the other more commonly found on either consumer/enthusiast boards vs. server boards?
Click to expand...

PCI-X looks like a double length PCI slot. I've only seen it on server boards that usually have things like integrated video and dual CPU sockets.

PCIe appears on most all consumer boards. Just make sure you've got a free slot... i.e. if it needs a PCIe 4x slot, make sure you got one :)


 
Tristor

Tristor

Senior member
Jul 25, 2007
314
0
71
Areca, 3Ware, and Adaptec are the brands you want to look for. LSI is good too for some of their low-end SAS stuff since they work well with Windows desktop OSes.
 
Y

yuppiejr

Golden Member
Jul 31, 2002
1,317
0
0
Originally posted by: KingGheedora
Going with this: Areca 1210
Click to expand...

Since that is an 8x card and you intend to use a 16x graphics card you are going to be stuck trying to use most P35 chipset boards which only allow the second "16x" PCIe slot to run at 4x. Since this is a 4 drive array you should be fine with one of the 3Ware 4-channel / 4x PCIe controllers.
 
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