PCI-E Raid cards

[4DoorGTZ]

I wanted to ask a knowledgable group of people what their take on PCI-E raid cards and if they "play nice" with PCI-E Video cards?

I have a few mobo's lying around that I'll pic one for my fileserver, however I'm not clear as to wich would be the best regards to the video/raid. I plan to run up to 10 drives, and as such have shyed away from PCI cards, PCI-X would mean I'd have to go buy a new mobo.

1.
Build in video, plus one PCI-E slot, if I'm using built in video, will I be able to use the PCI-E slot for a raid card? or is the slot completly disbled while using the built in video?

2.
Sli mobo with no built in video, will one video card and one raid card work? Or if I go get a cheap old PCI video card, can I run 2 raid cards in the 2 PCI-E slots?

Thanks for any help/ideas.

[oplin]

Areca cards i heard you can run 2 of them and have them work together to put all the drives in one array. If this is true let me know as i'm waiting for the 1230ml cards to come out hopefully sometime next month. I have a MSI K8N Plantinum SLI board and it shows it can run a vid card and raid card on Areca''s website, if anyone can confirm this that would be great.

[mjz_5]

from what i know... a PCI-Express 16x slot works with a 16x, 8x, 4x and 1x cards.. no? So technically in the future, motherboards could all just have 16x slots

[unhappy_mage]

All cards are required to support x1 signaling.

You should be able to use any motherboard, any slot, for any pci-e card, as long as it physically fits. Both of your scenarios should work.

oplin: why the ML version? I guess if you've got ML enclosures...

[litkaj]

All cards are required to support x1 signaling.

You should be able to use any motherboard, any slot, for any pci-e card, as long as it physically fits. Both of your scenarios should work.

oplin: why the ML version? I guess if you've got ML enclosures...

Well, 3Ware seems to be switching to all ML cards. They're including breakout cables for people so they don't need ML enclosures. I just got a 9590SE-16ML and only having 4 plugs on the card is going to make wire management a lot easier

[oplin]

What's ML mean exactly? It won't fit in a regular case and mobo? I was just going with their model number. The 1280 i know for sure i can't afford and i'm hoping the 1260ML is under a thousand. Let me know about what this ml means.Unless it's just the cable that splits into 4 sata connectors.

[Dew]

My fileserver runs a PCI Video card with a RR2320 in one of the SLi slots. No issues. Remember, the only thing a SLi board gets you is physical X16 slots with X8 electrical. What cards you put in only has an impact on the onboard if said cards are video cards.

[unhappy_mage]

ML means multi-lane. So unless you want the fan-style cables, there's no reason to wait for the 1230ML. The regular 1230 will work just the same way.

http://www.hardfolding.com/ftag1.php/mem/150072.png (http://www.hardfolding.com?go=38&tm=33&id=150072)http://www.hardfolding.com/utag1.php/mem/428/1.png (http://www.hardfolding.com?go=36&id=428&type=1)

[Binkt]

I've got the Areca to play nice in the PEGx16 lane slot on an old i915 motherboard with a PCI video adapter. That saved us a bundle!

If I could have gotten the ML card when I built the setup, I would have... Those SATA cable come out from the card too easily. :mad:

[oplin]

I was waiting for the 1260ML cuz it has the new IOP 341 processor from Intel and i'm able to upgrade the ram on it to 2 gigs. I haven't heard anything on the price though. Anyone heard word on when the 1tb drives are coming out? I heard October, but source wasn't reliable.