Which raid controller should I choose?

[KimiBCN]

Hello, I edit video and I would like to mount a system with 2 raid0 volumes on my system. For this I would like to buy a quality raid controller.

I currently have 8 hard drives for data and I'm using RAID0 software of windows system.

Volume 1 RAID0 8TB (for editing):
Toshiba HDWD120 2TB x4

Volume 2 RAID0 16TB (to store):
Hitachi HGST HDS724040ALE640 4TB x2
Hitachi HGST HDN724040ALE640 4TB x2

I have a SSD Samsung 850 PRO 256GB for windows 10.1 x64.
My motherboard is Asrock Fatal1ty Z97 Professional. CPU 4790K.

Which RAID controller to choose? How much money do I need to spend? I do not want crap. I want something that works well. Stable. Confable. Of course always I have a backup of my data in a backup station.

I've seen this cards but i don't know that it are good for me:
Adaptec 8805E PCIe 3.0 x8 12Gbit/s 512MB - 370€
Intel RS3UC080 PCIe 3.0 x8 12Gb/s - 242€ (LSI3008)
LSI 9211-8i PCIe 2.0 x8 6Gb/s - 210€ (drivers?)
RocketRAID 2720SGL PCIe 2.0 x8 6Gb/s - 171€ (SW RAID)
[URL='http://www.tiendafujitsu.es/tienda/recambios-servidores/16547-fujitsu-praid-cp400i-controlador-de-almacenamiento-raid-sata-6gb-s-sas-12gb-s-pcie-3-0-x8-0000090139889.html']Fujitsu PRAID CP400i (LSI SAS3008) - 250€[/URL]
https://www.newegg.com/global/es/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816115100
In ebay i can found many raid controllers with good price but I don't know that this cards are good or not. For example this:
Lsi Logic Controller Card 3Ware Sas 8Port 9750-8I 6Gb/S Pci-Express Q | eBay
Brand New IT Mode LSI 9211-8i SAS SATA 8-port PCI-E Card Bulk-pack

Sorry for my poor english, i'm spanish speaker.
Thank you!!

 

[XavierMace]

You can't beat the LSI 9211-8i for it's price. It's very popular with the home server crowd. You can get it for 85 USD, so I would think you should be able to find it a bit cheaper that 210 on your side of the pond. Try looking for some of the rebrands, such as the IBM M1015. Your eBay link for the 9211-8i references IT mode, meaning it's been flashed to be an HBA rather than RAID controller. You would have to flash it back to a RAID controller to use it for your specified usage.

 

[KimiBCN]

Thank you for the information! what is the difference between HBA and RAID? sorry I'm new with this type of cards!
is it possible change between HBA and RAID only flashing the firmware?
what is IT mode?
how to know what version of firmware have the raid version?

thank u!

 

[KimiBCN]

I can get the Fujitsu PRAID CP400i for 100$ in second hand. is a good option? better than 9211-8i??

 

[XavierMace]

For $100, it would be pretty hard to pass up the CP400i. That's a much newer controller than the 9211 and that's a REALLY good price.

HBA/IT Mode means RAID functionality is disabled, it's just giving you SAS/SATA ports. This is preferable for people running software RAID setups, like ZFS so that the OS has full control of the drives. The controllers have RAID firmware on them by default. There's an article on ServeTheHome on how to flash the cards. It's not terribly complicated.

 

[KimiBCN]

Thank you very much for all the information! One more question

Are all cards based on LSI SAS2008 similar?

I have seen for example this fujitsu for 42 €:
Fujitsu 9211-8i D2607 (LSI SAS2008)

Then I have seen this IBM for 66 €:
IBM ServeRaid M1015 (LSI SAS2008)

Are they both the same?

Is it advisable to pay more for a 3008? Like this cards:

Fujitsu PRAID CP400i (LSI SAS3008)
Intel RS3UC080 (LSI3008)

This 2 cards for 120-150€ are a good price too? this is x2 of the SAS2008.
If I use only 2 volumes raid. Where I will notice the difference? Both will give me to give speed of about 600-700MB/s copying files?
Where is the difference??

Thank you so much!

 

[XavierMace]

Yeah, they should both be the same. For your intended usage you don't really have a need for the SAS3008, but as I mentioned it is a newer controller. Either are more than capable of providing more throughput than your spindles can put out.