PCIe (>x1) RAID Controllers

[bhelhokie]

Hi. I (RAID noob) have a quick question.

Can you use PCIe x16/x4 slots on a non-server motherboard (say H67 board) for a RAID controller? Or are these slots dedicated to graphics cards?

TIA!

 

[Yorokonde]

you can, but some cards (my IBM M1015) have issues with consumer chipset boards.

 

[boochi]

Yes and no. A x16 can handle them all. Some cards require x8, x4 and x1 PCIe slots to work properly. Any higher rated slot will work with any lesser rated card. Server/Desktop motherboard makes no difference. What card did you have in mind?

 

[bhelhokie]

@Yorokonde, Arigatou for a quick response. 🙂 I'll carefully check the chipset compatibility.

Do you (or anybody else) have a suggestion for controller brands? I remember Adaptec, Promise, and High Point from about 10 years ago when I rigged a server together. But, now there seems to be a lot more choices.

 

[boochi]

LSI

 

[bhelhokie]

@boochi, thanks.

> What card did you have in mind?

I'm wide open right now but want hardware RAID in the $100-$300 price range. It'll be used in a NAS server, so I performance could be more bottlenecked by the network speed (maybe?)

 

[poofyhairguy]

I'm wide open right now but want hardware RAID in the $100-$300 price range. It'll be used in a NAS server, so I performance could be more bottlenecked by the network speed (maybe?)

Why not software RAID? Hardware RAID is for companies that have the money to blow on redundant RAID controllers. With software RAID you will still saturate the network, but you won't be screwed if the RAID controller card dies.

 

[bhelhokie]

@poofyhairguy - I don't have much to argue... If the network is the bottleneck and both hardware and software RAID solutions are equally reliable, I have no reason not to go with software. I must admit that I may have formed (uninformed) bias toward hardware RAID.

So, you are essentially saying that going with an Intel H67 mobo and just using the onboard RAID solution are more than sufficient for my purpose. right?

I'd love to hear others' opinion on software vs. hardware RAID to educate myself.

 

[boochi]

LSI SAS9260-4i

http://www.amazon.com/SAS9260-4I-Rai...8173281&sr=8-1

and SAS cable

http://www.amazon.com/Multi-lane-Int...8166215&sr=8-1

 

[poofyhairguy]

@poofyhairguy - I don't have much to argue... If the network is the bottleneck and both hardware and software RAID solutions are equally reliable, I have no reason not to go with software. I must admit that I may have formed (uninformed) bias toward hardware RAID.

So, you are essentially saying that going with an Intel H67 mobo and just using the onboard RAID solution are more than sufficient for my purpose. right?

I'd love to hear others' opinion on software vs. hardware RAID to educate myself.

For a NAS I am a huge fan of software RAID. With really good software RAID, it is better than hardware raid because you can swap out the mobo or whatever and maintain the array. Hardware RAID controllers are expensive because they have little CPUs on them- for a NAS why not use the big CPU to do the work? In a home environment, the best you can do usually is consumer gigabit equipment which cancels out the biggest reason for hardware RAID (insane speed) with a network bottleneck.

Last best thing about software RAID is that there are many good options to basically make a NAS appliance- FreeNAS, Unraid, Flexraid. Between these options is everything you could want from multi-disk parity to files systems like ZFS to the ability to mix and match drives. Hardware RAID usually offers only the regular RAID levels that a business uses.

My big thing is don't use a business solution for the home if something is better. If you need a transaction database for your website, use hardware RAID. If you want a simple home NAS, use software RAID.