Which IDE RAID card to buy?

[wallsfd949]

Here are the ones I've considered:

• Acard AEC-6880 ______________$44
• HighPoint RocketRAID 100______$46
• Koutech PIR133______________$16
• Adaptec 1200A_______________$60
• 3Ware Escalade 7006-2________$111

The only reviews I found were on the HighPoint (which were 90% positive) and the Koutech card.
This will be for 3*160 drives RAID -0- under Windows XP as extra DV storage (OS on separate disk).

Which would be your choice, and is the Adaptec worth the extra $15-20?

I'm also open to any other suggestions for a card not listed above.

 

[MichaelD]

You're looking to run a 3-drive IDE Stripe? Why? You'd be better off w/a 2-drive setup on a real, hardware card...not a software implementation like those cards you've linked to.

IMO, you should get a 3Ware 7006-2. And here's why!

This is the newer version of the card I have, the 7000-2. Physically, the cards are identical...probably just a bios flash update. This card ROCKS. Check out the ATTO run I linked to above. You won't see speeds like that with any of the cards you listed; not even close.

I used onboard RAID (Highpoint on Abit and Epox boards) for years and it was good. Then I got this card and don't regret it for a minute.

Heh...then a year and a half later...I wanted more...and the SCSI disease came for me in the night.

 

[wallsfd949]

wow, 73mb/sec write and 95mb/sec read.. that's amazing.. So even though the Acard says "A True Hardware RAID" it really isn't? What do you mean by "software implementation"?

Thanks for the link, I added it to the list for hopefully more responses!!

 

[Neyd3400]

I've had a few raids and am not a expert, but I didn't think you could boot up a raid and run XP off a seperate disk. I don't know why you would want to use a raid 0 for extra storage. I have always made it a pt. to have a third drive just to backup my OS, mp3 and pics.

You can use a card as a normal ata controller for use with extra ide drives, but you wouldn't have a raid.

 

[MichaelD]

"Software implementation" meaning a typical onboard solution. Such as what comes on motherboards. Basically, it's just an other IDE controller chip to implement two more IDE channels, but your CPU does all the striping or parity calculations.

A true hardware raid card has it's own processor onboard that does all the calculations itself. I'm not familiar with the Acard...after looking at the pics, it MIGHT have it's own processor...I can't really tell for sure. But at that price, I'd say it isn't.

There are bigger IDE raid cards that support 8 or more drives that cost $500, so you see what I'm getting at? It's unlikely to get a real hardware card for sixty bucks.

Both XP and W2K support bootable SCSI/IDE adapters; I run W2K and have been booting off one for quite some time now. When you are loading the OS and you're in the Text Mode of the install...when it first boots from the CD, you'll see a message on the bottom of the screen "Hit F6 to load SCSI or 3rd party drivers" and you take it from there. You have to give Windows the driver for your card(s) so it can "see" the HD you are trying to load to.

 

[tallman45]

While it may seem that a hardware controller based card like the 3ware would blow away a sw based card, in reality that only really produces a benefit in Raid 5. For the money go with the Highpoint, their controllers are used widely in many mb's.

 

[wallsfd949]

Anand's article on HW/SW RAID

What does this mean to you? Well, if you are a home computer user looking for only a RAID 0 or RAID 1 configuration, there is absolutely no reason to spend the extra money for a hardware RAID card. In fact, you are actually better off performance wise going with a cheaper software RAID solution.

Yes, the article is a couple of years old, but I don't think that much has changed. I'm 90% on the Highpoint card or the Acard.

Thanks for all the help and responses, I'll post some benchmarks after it's all said and done.

 

[spclwpns]

I use one of these.

Little more money (around 180.00 plus RAM), but I like it's speed over the on-board stuff