What Raid cards are people using these days for home rigs...?

MrGuvernment

MrGuvernment

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Since i am building out a new desktop, it will also host some VM's with in a VM for testing.

I wanted to ask what are the go to raid cards these days people are using, for cheap. I don't have a set storage config yet and just looking for info to see what my options may be.

I recall years ago it was then Dell Perc 6/i series cheap off Ebay, but i see those are iffy on SSD support, in terms of speed really.

Are newer Dell Perc 710's or something else the preferred go to raid card for home users that will work in desktop boards that can get full performance from SSD's and even use SSD's as cache....

All input is appreciated.
 
MrGuv, for my last few I haven only used SSD for my OS setup and then I have been using ZFS for all critical data.
 
I see a lot of ZFS usage, but don't really want to get into freeBSD i guess to get the proper ZFS. Also this is a desktop system as well so there won't be any registered memory in it to protect things on that side. I was thinking pure hardware raid 10 likely with an SSD for cache.
 
Here is what I do when I want it in a desktop system is just have a FreeNAS system present an iSCSI drive to me. Works great nice and fast and reliable at one customer site we have 15-20 POWER users running their storage etc for fairly powerful engineering work stations.
 
the set up idea was

1 system:
P6T x58
X5650
48G of memory (have 16 so far)

4 x 3TB drives raid 10 (i already have 2 x 3Tb drives)
1 x SSD for cache (which i could set up with in ESXi if i can pass it through to the host)

Using vmware workstation with in windows with ESXi nested in that. This is purely for testing purposes and educational usage to keep my brain functioning. I guess i could do a Vm with FreeNAS or something on it to show the storage to the esxi vm's ?

I may have 5-10 VM's at most going, with several being little centos 7 boxes as proxies / cache / web servers and then exchange, lync et cetera for testing as well as some other vmware tools, vcenter et cetera.

Nothing with overly high I/O usage at a given time really.

Then when not using my laptop will be using it for gaming now and then and day to day usage so i do need to have Windows as the base OS on the system.
 
I just recently moved from hardware RAID to ZFS for my primary system, mainly as a way to try it out for a year or two (or longer). I must say, ZFS (ZOL on Proxmox) has been pretty easy to set up, and seems pretty stable to me.

Anyway, if you want a hardware RAID controller, I'd recommend the LSI MegaRAID 9260-8i (or the 9261-8i, which is the same thing but low profile). I ran the 9261-8 with a Chenbro SAS Expander for over 3 years, and never had an issue with it. There are plenty of them on eBay, and they are getting pretty cheap. Buy two, though, so you have a backup available!
 
Bare metal zfs serving FC targets, 4gb FC to desktop. Nothing like a bootable ZFS target! Windows loads in 5 seconds or so lol.

Other than that a 9260-8i is an affordable & fast way to go.
 
M1015 + SnapRAID.

striped raid is pointless for home media storage.
 
Main server has:
LSI 9265-8i with BBU
Intel RES2SV240 Expander
M5016 with SuperCap
8087 to 8088 adaptor to feed external SAS

Mini Proliant:
LSI 9240-8i

I get the love for ZFS, I really do, but decent hardware RAID is still the thing for me.
 
I've still got an old Adaptec 5805. Solid running, but I may run out of free space in the next 6 months :/
 
Dell Perc h200 here in IT mode. Mostly only using that as a convenient way to get 8 sata ports out of one card as I run ZFS.
 
Switched from Intel fakeraid to Storage Spaces. Moves between OS re-installs and motherboards much easier.
 
M5015 in a N54L. I carved 400GB off my raid 5 array for vm's using iSCSI with Starwind.

The 400GB drive also has a ssd cache of 128GB with PrimoCache. The VM hosts (2x intel nucs) also have a ssd for caching. So far it works pretty well and I can do HA.
 
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LSI2308 card for both of my boxes. Both use software RAID. ZFS for one, and Storage Spaces for the other.
 
good info, i do want to keep it all in one case so an external system i won't be building, more to buy really and then something else i need space for.

Just moved to Calgary and with a friend right now and will be renting after that until we look at buying a house so space will be a little limited for now.

will check out though what everyone has suggested, options are always good.

with the LSI MegaRAID 9260-8i, does it have ssd cache, or does it need a license for it? I know i could just do vflash if i get vcenter installed.
 
Areca 1882i in one server, 1880i in another, and 1680ix-24 in the last. LSI 9240-8i in my desktop.
 
i may be able to grab a LSI 9260-4i for about $140 CAD barely used...I was thinking 8 ports may be nicer, are there any expanders i could use with this card?
 
MrGuvernment said:
i may be able to grab a LSI 9260-4i for about $140 CAD barely used...I was thinking 8 ports may be nicer, are there any expanders i could use with this card?
Click to expand...

i use an intel res2sv240 with mine,

well 2 actually.

i had 2 9260's and one died.

found a not used but used 9260 on ebay for 98 american.
 
MrGuvernment said:
Would a Dell H700 work in a desktop rig?

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Dell-PERC-H7...802?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20fe99ccea

price is decent....
Click to expand...

Define: "desktop rig"

That's a PCIe x8 connector. Not many "desktop rig"s have a spare connector of that size. (or if they do it only has 4 lanes running to it)

It only works well in my fileserver because i've got the controller in the x16 "graphics" slot. (using a PCI video card just to get the thing to boot, it's a headless box)
 
I have an Asus p6t with a spare x16 since i only have a single video card, don't plan to go Xfire or SLI.

3 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (at x16/x16/x4 mode)

But nice catch i didnt even think to check the lanes needed for it.
 
MrGuvernment said:
I have an Asus p6t with a spare x16 since i only have a single video card, don't plan to go Xfire or SLI.

3 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (at x16/x16/x4 mode)

But nice catch i didnt even think to check the lanes needed for it.
Click to expand...

Looks like it's got a bridge chip in there. Still, you should be fine if those numbers are accurate. Not sure if you want to just provide disks (JBOD mode/IT mode/etc...) or do the actual RAIDing though.
Be sure to check for drivers though, make sure they've got them for non-server versions of Windows.
 
The card will work in an x4 lane slot, it will not go the full speed it is capable of, but that is up to debate if you really need the full x8 too.
 
I have a Dell Perc H310 flashed with LSI 9211-8i IT firmware. I've read complaints about it's performance as a RAID card with the stock Dell firmware, but I'm happy with it as a HBA with the LSI firmware.
 
the m1015, h310, lsi 9211, 9207, ..., are not made for raid, they support raid, but it's only recommended for boot disks.

You can use some ssd's in raid on them ok, but still slow.

The issue is, there is no onboard memory, and no battery, so you get all the speed benifits of nothing. Where a real raid card is going have a nice cache to use, to help buffer writes.
 
BTW, you do know that the reason people chose ZFS instead of hardware raid, is that ZFS is much safer and protects your data very well, whereas hardware raid has some problem protecting your data? If your data is critically important you should use ZFS and scrap hardware raid. Lot of people run ZFS on Linux or Solarish or FreeBSD. Here is some information about how unsafe hardware raid is:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZFS#Data_integrity
 
mdadm with btrfs or zfs. For bonus points add bcache or flashcache or another caching method.
 
Robstar said:
mdadm with btrfs or zfs. For bonus points add bcache or flashcache or another caching method.
Click to expand...

Is btrfs anywhere near ready for RAID-5/6 stuff yet? Just kinda wondering here, it's been in development for quite a while now.
 
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