PCI-X SATA/SAS RAID card

[krakadic]

I am revitalizing an older server and am looking to have a minimum of 1TB under a hw controlled RAID 5. Being that this is an older server I only have PCI and PCI-X slots available.

Anyone know what card is currently available from a retailer so that i may achieve my goal? Also, would i see a noticeable performance difference using SAS over SATA for a community fileserver with webdav, ftp, and basic filesharing being hosted?

I appreciate the information.

Krak Adic

[AreEss]

Depends on the real disk loading, rather than the theoretical. SAS is faster than SATA, period. Do you need the performance? Probably not. In fact, putting SAS in 99% of home servers, is flat out overkill. You need multiple systems demanding >60% of gigabit bandwidth and/or significant random seek loads before you start seeing a real need for SAS. However, SAS controllers are always going to be faster than SATA.

As for PCI-X, Areca and LSI still make PCI-X controllers. If cost is a concern, the LSI MegaRAID 300-8X SATA can be had fairly cheaply (do not forget the battery; cache will not enable without it!)

[spotter]

I have an unused 3ware pci-x 8 port sata card (9550SXU-8LP), if you're interested I can sell it pretty cheaply.