sata Raid controller for mid server?

[ShoooterMcGavin]

Hi,

I'm in IT but have found it hard to find good reviews on raid controllers for a mid level server.
HDD speed is not essential, so I'm going for serial ata 7,200 in a raid 5 setup.

Here are a few I'm considering. Any opinions?

8506-4LP 3ware 4 drive $342

MegaRaid SATA 150-4 LSI 4 drive $244

MEGARAID SATA 150-6 LSI 6 drive $305

RocketRAID 1820 Highpoint 8 drive $164

FASTTRAK S150 SX4 Promise 4 drive $169

Shooter.

 

[sharkeeper]

MID level servers should be SCSI. Period.

With that out of the way and based on your decision to use SATA, the LSi products win bar none. Forget the Highpoint stuff. I wouldn't recommend that in any server unless I truly disliked that person or organisation! The Promise is OK if the LSi is too expensive, however you have LSi on your list and that would be first choice.

LSi also has a new product called the MegaRAID SATA300-8x which is a PCI-X 133MHz based product. It should be available by Q4 04.

Cheers!

 

[ShoooterMcGavin]

You don't trust SATA?

Thanks for your advice

Shooter

 

[sharkeeper]

It's not a matter of trusting an interface or a piece of hardware...

Mid level server typically involves hundreds of users. All SATA drives (including the beloved Raptors on Anandtech) have mediocre performance at best in the multiple user environment. How many users are we talking here? Will the server run any kind of database? If it's less than 50 users and no or very light database use SATA will do the job with satisfactory results.


Cheers!