RAID Controller Card Recommendations

[Hans5849]

I'm building a server out of my old P4 2.8C CPU & 875P chipset running Windows Server 2008. I have decided to use a RAID 5 array with three 1TB WD Green Power Dives. Now I need a PCI RAID 5 controller card. Here are two I was looking at are they crap or good? If anyone has any other recommendations please voice them.

http://www.monoprice.com/produ...=1&format=1#largeimage
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16815124020

 

[Idontcare]

You want to protect the integrity of your data by going Raid-5 but you want to do it with a $20 raid card?

I wouldn't trust my bits to make it across the PCB traces on such a cheaply built card without getting corrupted on its way. Let alone the kind of Raid-5 performance you are going to get for $20.

It's not even within the right order of magnitude to be reasonable. Even a $200 raid-5 card is questionable, very low-end.

I would trust raid-5 on an Intel integrate ICHR-10 chipset on a well-built $200 mobo, but I'd expect the performance to be pretty paltry.

But a discreet raid card, sub-$200, for Raid-5? You are brave, very very brave.

 

[VaultDweller]

Any RAID cards at that price point are guaranteed to use host-based controllers. That means all parity calculations for RAID-5 will be offloaded to the CPU - and a Pentium 4 isn't going to handle that very well. You'd do just as well to use onboard RAID-5 or software RAID in Windows.

Also, the Syba card you linked to doesn't even support RAID-5.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

What is this server going to be used for? I definitely agree with the above about cheap RAID 5 controllers, but if you need redundancy for a file server, look to Windows Home Server or a linux variant file server.

 

[Evadman]

The WD Green Power Dives have issues when used in a RAID configuration, they land the heads way too much, which kills them fast.

 

[Hans5849]

So who makes good ones and where can I get them?

I do not trust software RAID no matter what OS.

This card?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16816115030

 

[Idontcare]

I know this is getting higher in price, a lot higher, than you originally envisioned but the cheapest newegg raid-card with raid-5 support and dedicated hardware for processing the data is this Areca card for $280 shipped.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16816131003

edit: I should not have said the cheapest...there's probably cheaper cards at newegg that meet these specifications but I could not find one from a quick look thru that I did. Others may know of one that is cheaper for you.

 

[taltamir]

OS level raid5 is better than a cheap raid5, only a 300+$ raid5 card is worthwhile.
Even then, it is a single point of failure, I would (and do) use a raid6 (raidz2) ZFS on opensolaris.
http://opensolaris.org/os/community/zfs/

www.genunix.org

 

[JASTECH]

Here is the one I ended up getting. I like it so far but have to learn what all I can do with it and how much muscle it has.

http://www.digiconcepts.com/ls...controllercards_36.htm

Thanks, JASTECH

 

[mxnerd]

DELL PERC 5i (basically a LSI 8480E, except it's internal)with battery sold on eBay is a very good choice (~$120). You need a motherboard with 8x PCIE slot, however.

http://www.overclock.net/hard-...-i-raid-card-tips.html

You need to cover pin 5, 6 if you use P35 chipset based moherboard, and have a fan blowing on the controller directly. I used PCI slot fan.

RAID 1 performance almost double of Intel MATRIX.

 

[Gooberlx2]

My lab's fileserver from pogo linux uses a 16-port 3ware (9650SE-16ML). I've been happy with it, and have read great things. I've also heard good things about Areca.

 

[tomt4535]

I would second a Perc 5/i or LSI 8480E. They are fairly inexpensive and preform well.

 

[taltamir]

and if 2 years from now that LSI card fails, good luck on securing an identical model replacement to get your data back. (via a method unique to that card maker)

OS level raid is migratable between different hardware configuration as long as you still have the drives.