Advice On RAID-5 PCIe Controllers For Windows 10

TrevorK

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Sep 25, 2020
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Hello.

I am looking for advice on consumer array controllers to use in a home PC running Windows 10.

Need:
PCIe​
Hardware RAID-5​
Internal SATA ports (SFF8087 OK)​
Support consumer (non-TLER) SATA drives​

Nice-to-have:
RAID-50 / 60​
Cache​
Battery backup​
SATA3​

Possible systems are (chipset):
X58​
Q87​
X370​

I just tried an LSI 9260, but it did not work (Q87 & X370). Not sure if it was a bad card or if my systems did not support it. One motherboard I tried it in (Q87) was on the qualified list. Also have a 3ware 9650SE, but is not stable in the X58 & X370 systems.

Any suggestions are appreciated.
 
According to here:

https://www.broadcom.com/support/kn...araid-bios-webbios-configuration-utility-usin

And here:

https://serverfault.com/questions/1...-amcc-3ware-9650se-raid-cards-ours-seems-dead

Both cards you have don't play nice with UEFI BIOSes, and require a legacy BIOS to function; Like those found in Intel Core 2 and AMD Phenom/Bulldozer and prior motherboards. According to Broadcomm, the LSI 9260 can be fudged to work by putting an UEFI BIOS into CSM mode, enabling legacy option ROMs and using a PS/2 keyboard (and/or using PS/2 emulation).

I would just abandon the notion of using either card in a modern build, because neither will ever work properly on a UEFI system. If you want all of the features you listed, it's easier and more reliable to get a modern RAID controller card designed to work with UEFI.
 
Buy yourself an Areca 188x series card, and run RAID6 NOT RAID5! It will work perfectly with all the chipsets that you’ve mentioned.
 
I hope your using SSD in that raid 5 array? If you are using spinning rust and 2TB + drives in a raid 5 - you have almost a 100% chance of your arraying dying and not being able to recover.
 
All,

Thank you very much for the replies.

I got burned by the 3ware card I bought years ago. I just need to make sure the next, expensive RAID card I get will get the job done.

If I don't do RAID-5, then I will not be able to maximize my storage space. I plan on RAID-5 four 2TB Micron 1100 in one array and three WD Blue 4 TB drives in another.

It looks like things won't be cheap... That Areca 188x cards are over $600.. I just wished that LSI 9260 would have worked out as it fulfilled everything, including being affordable, except it didn't work. :-\

I now have my eye on the Areca ARC-1224-8i. I just need to find a place that has one for cheap.
 
For SSD drives, Raid 5 away!

WD Blues are well known for dropping out of raid arrays causing them to fail. Raid 5 is dead - unless you are backing up your data somewhere else and do not care about a rebuild, waiting and a 2nd drive likely dying due to the over head of parity calculations and ever single sector of an HD being scanned to rebuild which will also = almost unusable performance for a day or so.
 
All,

Thank you very much for the replies.

I got burned by the 3ware card I bought years ago. I just need to make sure the next, expensive RAID card I get will get the job done.

If I don't do RAID-5, then I will not be able to maximize my storage space. I plan on RAID-5 four 2TB Micron 1100 in one array and three WD Blue 4 TB drives in another.

It looks like things won't be cheap... That Areca 188x cards are over $600.. I just wished that LSI 9260 would have worked out as it fulfilled everything, including being affordable, except it didn't work. :-\

I now have my eye on the Areca ARC-1224-8i. I just need to find a place that has one for cheap.

just a risk with raid 5 as it only takes 1 disk fail and then data error to force you to have to rebuild the array (or a second one fails and you lose everything) as most raid cards won't let you rebuild a hole punched array (missing data)

But considering that SSDs are far more reliable than HDDs and likely will survive for longer in RAID5 , but it's not impossible to get into a Dual fault with SSDs as with raid 5 you have zero redundancy when you lose a disk and it only takes another error for it to be a problem (where as RAID 6 any data errors that happen while loss of 1 disk redundancy will be fixed on the fly as the second redundancy disk is been rebuilt)

issue with raid cards not working on your motherboards likely due to the SMbus pins and the bios just not handling it correctly, if one raid card is not working other most likely will not as most good raid cards use the SMbus to communicate to the motherboard IPMI interface (witch consumer motherboards don't have) witch monitors all parts of the server when its powered up or off (some specific motherboards don't post or you get random problems when the SMbus is connected from a raid card even in IT mode)

you need to block pins 5 and 6 off with Kapton or alike (i skipped to the point where he does it, below)
 
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Yup, with raid 5, you are guaranteed 1 flipped bit at about 12TB of data read, so if a rebuild has to occur, you will hit that 12TB, flip a bit and your array is now dead!
 
I hope your using SSD in that raid 5 array? If you are using spinning rust and 2TB + drives in a raid 5 - you have almost a 100% chance of your arraying dying and not being able to recover.
Why? I have been using spinning disk in my RAID5 since before I ever heard of an SSD. I still run OLD 4 320GB drives because I am too cheap and lazy to upgrade. Feel free to link things to read.
EDIT: found this thread because I am looking to RAID1 2 1TB drives for my wife's photos/movies.

Edit again, Sorry read more of the thread and realized what you were talking about.

Thanks!
 
I use 7 series adaptec cards in my ibm servers that use a uefi bios without issue, when I was testing them and firmware updating them I used a a regular lenovo desktop and they worked fine
 
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