Whats the best IDE RAID controller card to get?

[KDOG]

???? Want to start picking up this and that to go to an IDE RAID setup....

 

[JimMc]

Anand's July High-End computing reivew gives the nod to the Promise FastTrak 100--link ed here High End Buyers Guide--Promise FastTrak 100

 

[Mday]

um, i really like the adaptec one, just because of the processor and cache onboard. but it costs $300 online...

other than that, PROMISE all the way.

 

[beer]

The cheapest way is to buy a Promise Ultra66 controller and solder a resistor to make it a FastTrac 66. Although it does void your warrenty, it is a RAID card for more or less $25.

I think I heard that the last flashing utility wouldn't work on modded Promise cards, although the latest BIOS flashed with an older flashing utility would.

TheTechZone.com has a link somewhere telling you how to do this...as does HARDOCP, I just don't have them bookmarked.

 

[DeadMan11]

http://www.geocities.com/promise_raid/english.htm has good directions for h4x0ring a Ultra 66/100 to FastTrak 66/100. I'm running on a hacked FastTrak 100 now with 2 WD 20gig 7200rpm drives and I love it! Shaves at least 20 seconds from boot up time and I'm always first getting into Quake3 levels Modding an Ultra 66 is a slightly easier though..

 

[AndrewR]

Hey, KDOG, if you want an already modded Promise controller, I have one available for $25 shipped. I paid more (not modded by me), but I never used it. Email if you're interested!

 

[Quickfingerz]

get a ATA100 RAID controller since ATA100 will be the standard for a long time. I think we will go to another standard instead of switching to something like ATA200 or something like that. I don't think a PCI bus can even push out 200 mb/s esp with two hard drives on two different channels.

 

[Beatnik]

Check out the 3Ware stuff. Not too expensive, performance
numbers look pretty darn good.

Seems like a nice alternative to the older Promise. Also
has some support for Linux or FreeBSD 4.1 and greater if
you need that kind of thing.

 

[Dznuts007]

RAID? OR, NO RAID? I've been hearing stuff about RAID and how it doesn't make much of a difference in performance unless you're accessing/moving huge files, not huge programs. Anyone have any opinions on this article?

http://www.overclockers.com/articles119/

 

[kranky]

After reading that article, I would agree with the findings. RAID is a solution for specific situations, not something that is automatically a benefit like a faster CPU. It's certainly possible to make a system run worse with RAID, depending on what the system is used for.

One thing that makes me cringe is the number of people who are implementing RAID 0 without addressing the problem that RAID 0 will actually increase the chance of losing their data - with RAID 0, when one disk fails you lose everything. It's one thing to use RAID 0 when the data is not critical, there are external backups, etc., but I'd hate to see someone use RAID 0 and not fully grasp the implications of a disk failure.

Besides, people who really need the benefits of faster I/O from RAID should probably also implement multiple controllers.

A good source for understanding the tradeoffs involved in the different RAID levels can be found here.

 

[Darius]

There is a RAID review in the latest issue of Maximum PC. They give the nod to the Promise 100. I think most people agree. Check it out!