Looking for feedback: recommended sata card for file server

[Spudsdude]

Hi all,

I'm putting together a small file server and need to get a few more key items.

Here's what I have
Motherboard: Intel D925XECV2
Processor: P4 2.6ghz
Case: 4U Rack Mount 4U22ATX450-2EC Antec with 450watt power supply
Intel Pro 1000 nic's
PCI Video Card

Budget:
$1500 less $250 for the case, $1250 available.

Needed Items:
Ram - 1GB DDR2
Hard Drives and controller card
Case - I picked the Antec 4U22 with 450watt power supply, if there's others on CDW that are better and in the same price range with the power supply figured in, i'll consider those as well.

Overall available space requirements
Space needed after Raid: 1.5 TB (approx), expandable as needed
Raid 5 Required

Order Restrictions
I have to order from CDW

Requirements & Stability
The drives will be mostly reading data, and will be hammered all the time with critical data.
100% uptime is required.

OS
The server will more then likely be running W2K3 Server.

I'm thinking about 3 of these Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 HD 750GB SATA II, about $750
leaving 500 for the raid card and ram. Or 4 of the 500GB drives about $600, leaving 650 for the ram and controller. I'd prefer 3 750gb drives to leave room for expansion later.

Noise doesn't matter, it's going into a rack in a climate controlled room.


What combo of drives/controller and 1gb ram would be good for this setup?

[gigabyte1024]

Hi all,

Requirements & Stability
The drives will be mostly reading data, and will be hammered all the time with critical data.
100% uptime is required.



Ouch! If this is *that* critical you should increase your budget and buy a Dell 2950 or an HP something rather that comes with a warranty and support.

[Spudsdude]

Ouch! If this is *that* critical you should increase your budget and buy a Dell 2950 or an HP something rather that comes with a warranty and support.

It's critical data to me, but not for the business. I'm tired of rebuilding images of boxes due to drive failures. This is a new department so we have some hand me down hardware, I'm sure I can make something alot better then the 12GB scsi array (yeah, total) hooked to a P3 to store the new images. Funny part is there's a 5TB SAS and 2 poweredges with almost 2TB of space all collecting dust next to the old box that's being replaced (part of another groups gear, we can't use it, I already tried)

So come on folks, hit me with your ideas.. or is it that there's no stable hardware out there?

[phildabill]

You say the data is critical, and needs 100% uptime, so this is what I would suggest:

1 - Get a spare drive in the system for faster rebuilds in case a drive dies.
2 - Software raid over hardware raid, as you can easily migrate your array to another computer without depending on the controller
3 - Using option 2, any reasonable sata controller would do the job
4 - I don't know if Windows Dynamic software raid 5 partitions are expandable. I DO know they can be migrated to another computer. Therefore I would recommend using Linux for your software raid, as it can do both.

Hope that helps.