best , cheapest sata2 x4 true raid card ?

[spawn447]

looking for a card that will work on my 780i setup.
most likely going for speed (raid 0), i should see a boost compaired to the onboard raid ?

right now im running 2 x 320's raid 0 , 1 x 320 backup.
hd tach gives my access time @ 13.5
avg read 115.6
burst 226.1 MB/s

also will a pci-x work on my board ????

[Blue Fox]

Cheapest would be a PERC 5/i. For RAID 0, you really won't see much of a speed increase. Sometimes, it is actually worse. PCI-X will work in your board, but it would be considerably slower than PCIe.

[spawn447]

ouch.
is the speed issue due to the amount of drives im using ?

[Adidas4275]

highpoint makes nice cards for the $$

[spawn447]

would this be better http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-3ware-9650SE-4LPML-4-Port-Serial-ATA-RAID-Contro_W0QQitemZ400006825336QQihZ027QQcategoryZ16145QQcmdZVi ewItemQQ_trksidZp1713.m153.l1262 ?

[Christobevii3]

I have a 3ware 9650 se 8 port and really like it. But i think you need more drives or faster drives to see much of a performance increase.

[MrMike]

You're not going to see much of a difference with only two drives. You may not even see a difference with three drives in RAID 0. Four you would.

[spawn447]

alright , so with 4 drives i should see a difference.
so i should just buy more drives , forget the raid card and use the onboard ?

[stainremover]

i dont know enough about storage to recommend you what path to consider (software vs. hardware), but i would like to point out that the perc 5i requires a SASx4 to 4xSATA cable that most ebay auctions do NOT include. that cable will run you an extra 20-30, depending on where you get it. you should take that into account if you are going to pursue a hardware raid card.

[Blue Fox]

i dont know enough about storage to recommend you what path to consider (software vs. hardware), but i would like to point out that the perc 5i requires a SASx4 to 4xSATA cable that most ebay auctions do NOT include. that cable will run you an extra 20-30, depending on where you get it. you should take that into account if you are going to pursue a hardware raid card.
You can find them for ~$10 these days. Even paying $20 for a cable isn't bad when you consider the overall cost.