sata 2 controller card

[Dorkenstein]

Is having a dedicated pci-e sata card beneficial over an on-board solution in terms of stability and speed? Thanks.

 

[supremelaw]

> Is having a dedicated pci-e sata card beneficial over an on-board solution in terms of stability and speed? Thanks.


Yes: no doubt about that statement, not only from personal experience
but also from comments posted in this User Forum.

And, fortunately there are now plenty to choose from e.g.
Highpoint, Promise, 3Ware, Areca, LSI, Adaptec, Belkin,
Addonics etc.

Go to Newegg.com and enter "RAID controller"
in the Search window, then browser under "Manufacturer"
in the left-hand navigation column.


Sincerely yours,
/s/ Paul Andrew Mitchell, Inventor and
Webmaster, Supreme Law Library

All Rights Reserved without Prejudice

 

[Dorkenstein]

I don't know what brand is best, but thanks for your reply. Also, it looks like the good ones are really expensive... Or am I wrong?

 

[QuixoticOne]

Personal preference for me is to avoid NVIDIA and ATI chipsets like the plague given their history (in my opinion / experience) of flaky hardware & drivers.

I'd also avoid the "tacked on" ports provided by an auxiliary controller like the JMICRONs as opposed to the several ports provided by the main motherboard chipset.

If you have an onboard Intel ICH9 / ICH9R I'd trust it and its drivers about as well or better thans I'd trust any low end or mid-range third party product (think Silicon Image / Silicon Labs / SIIG / Addonics / Rosewill / ....).

If you want a truly intelligent standalone RAID card that doesn't need much/any host CPU involvement to manage a RAID-5, with NVRAM, cache memory, etc. those will be relatively expensive .

If you just want a JBOD mode or "fake RAID" (done via CPU software as opposed to autonomous hardware/embedded processing on the RAID controller card) card then there are plenty of low to moderate cost options like the ROSEWILL products NEWEGG carries, stuff from SIIG, Addonics, Adaptec, LSI, et. al. and the prices will vary from $19 to $300 depending on the features and market positioning of the device. I usually would just buy a motherboard with an ICH9R or better on board if I wanted 4 or so SATA drives. If I want more I'll look at something like a SIL32xx SIL31xx Silicon Labs (Image?) controller chip card like many of the rosewills. If I wand something SAS or smart I'd look at the LSI products in the $130-$250 range or others, Areca, whatever.

 

[Dorkenstein]

Hmm, I have ICH10 so maybe I will stick with that. Thanks for your informative post.

 

[supremelaw]

The ICH10 is Intel's latest I/O Controller Hub. I believe it must have an "R" at the end e.g. ICH10R
for it to support integrated RAID with Intel's Matrix Storage Technology.


Sincerely yours,
/s/ Paul Andrew Mitchell, Inventor and
Webmaster, Supreme Law Library

All Rights Reserved without Prejudice

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I'd read brief mention and evaluations of the nVidia versus Intel on-board controllers.

At this moment, with the latest drivers, I have a second nVidia-based system where I've actually chosen to use the on-board controller, and it doesn't seem problematical . . . . yet . . . But I've only set up the system for dual-drive RAID0.

I'd always had an Intel preference for chipsets, though. With the nVidia system built last summer, I'd chosen -- and planned -- to use a PCI_E controller.

I chose to use one that had its own processor -- XOR engine. That takes a load off the CPU, and provides a performance advantage.

Last year, Tom's Hardware had done a comparison-review of RAID5-capable controllers, and the numbers pointed to a less-likely choice: a 3Ware 9650SE card that -- for the four port option versus 8 or more (and more expensive) -- used or needed only a PCI_E x4 slot.

The benchies didn't lie, and with SATA2 drives that matched the older SATA150 Raptors for sustained throughput, the sustained throughput for read operations with the 3Ware was about triple that of single-drive speed with a 4-drive RAID5.

This year, there was a comparison review in Maximum PC Mag, and the 3Ware was blown away by an Adaptec controller, which was in turn matched by a Highpoint 3510. You can probably find the review at the mag's on-line website per getting the model numbers, price and features straight over what I've provided here.

But that option is going to cost you at least around $300+.

 

[QuixoticOne]

Here's someone's review of some popular commodity fairly high capacity & high performance (for the price) drives on ICHxR.
http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2216982&enterthread=y
http://www.alternativerecursion.info/?p=31

If the ICH10 has enough ports for you, and you're happy enough using it even if you don't have the (R) version of the part, I'd certainly use it over spending $40+ on something that'll probably just be comparably good in many use cases.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Originally posted by: QuixoticOne
Here's someone's review of some popular commodity fairly high capacity & high performance (for the price) drives on ICHxR.
http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2216982&enterthread=y
http://www.alternativerecursion.info/?p=31

If the ICH10 has enough ports for you, and you're happy enough using it even if you don't have the (R) version of the part, I'd certainly use it over spending $40+ on something that'll probably just be comparably good in many use cases.

I'd say the same thing. With my project, I wanted to try a RAID5 and pay to compensate for performance-loss over RAID0 with the hardware controller and an extra drive or two. It was a hefty chunk of change -- and I admit it.

 

[mooseracing]

Are you wanting to do RAID or you just want a better controller for SATA than what is built in?

For the first the Dell PErc 5/I card can't be beat for the price. If you are going to a card you better get one with cache and processor, other wise it's waste.

For the latter I see no reason.