Question Would you get a Megaraid 9560-16i or a SmartRAID 3256-16i, or 3258-16i

[boed]

Would you bother with any of them if you were just running 16 Spindle drives?
What if you were running 16 Sata SSDs?

I currently have a 3154-16i and 16 spindle drives. I hear the new ST16000NM0092 will be much faster but I'm not sure if I'd be taking advantage of the card when I buy those drives.

 

[Tech Junky]

If you run Linux just get a couple of hba card for a lot less. Use mdadm for raid if that's what you're planning.

 

[boed]

Thanks - I'm running Windows.

 

[Tech Junky]

Does the mobo support raid? You can still do it from the bios or UEFI like you would with an expensive card.

 

[boed]

The motherboard might support raid (I haven't purchased it yet) but I sincerely doubt the onboard raid supports 16 drives. If you are talking about setting it to UEFI in the bios which interacts with the board -yes it should do that.

 

[Tech Junky]

If you use the BIOS/UEFI method it's the same as a card and transparent to the os. Most Mobos have 6-8 SATA ports on them and then you just need a HBA or two for the additional drives.

I have 5 drives running off the native ports in raid 10 and the speed is normal. I get 400MB/s out of spinners and the 5th drive is a hot spare.

You can get 6-8 port HBAs for under $50/ea and they're pcie 3 typically and x4 for the slot. Just check the reviews for bootable capability for the system to detect them on boot.