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Best RAID Card?

P

PhreakZilla

n00b
Joined
Jul 22, 2005
Messages
12
Sorry if this has already been asked & answered. I'm looking for a RAID card, one that supports expansion & migration. It needs to be compatible with regular PCI slots or PCI-E 1x slots. I only need a 4-slot card, but am open to 8-slot cards for future expansion. Maximum performance is not really an issue, it will mostly be used for storage.

I'd like to start off with one 400-500 GB drive, then as I get the money, buy another drive & use it to mirror the data on the first one. After that, I want to further expand the RAID (and switch over to level 5) by adding another drive, and finally one more (for a total of 4 400-500 drives in RAID 5). I would like to do this without having to copy all the data to another drive, rebuilding the RAID, then copying back to the RAID. Is something like this even possible?I think there are cards out there that can do this, but does anybody here have experience with any of these cards?

Please feel free to hurl n00b insults. Thanks...

No, Hold the newbie insults. This guy needs some help, and if you don't have anything nice and helpful to say, then please don't say anything at all. - DL
 
This RAID card fits the bill. Provides six ports, a happy medium between a cramped four port and an expensive eight port. It supports 3gbps transfer and hot plug, along with online capacity extension and RAID level migration. Pretty pricey, but the features you outlined aren't cheap.
 
Thanks for the fast reply, Doug. I know RAID cards aren't cheap, I was pretty much resigned to spending at least $200. I just didn't want to spend $500+ for one of the 12 port ones. I can't really afford to lay down ~$1000 in one chunk, so I wanted something that would allow me to add drives in the future. The extra 2 ports would be handy for a hot-swap (or a fatter RAID, hmmm), if I can find a place to put them. Well, maybe 4/6 online, with spare sitting in the closet (I'll see how finances work out). I guess I won't be happy until I've got a RAID over 1 TB...

Anybody else have any suggestions?
 
Another possibility is this: SuperMicro's aoc-sat2-mv8. It's about $110 online. It supports 3gbps, not sure about hotplug. I'm buying one of these, and hope to do Linux software raid on it. The Linux EVMS allows one to do raid, and change between levels, and expand raid5s. However, my plan is to start with 3 disks and not try expanding across raid levels. In any case, I've used SW raid before with a good degree of success. On my cyrix 166 mHz chip back in the day, I got up to 15-20 MB/s reads and writes over a 20 MB/s scsi bus. That's pretty good, and processors certainly haven't slowed down.

 
I'm looking for a RAID card myself, and have found this thread to be helpful.

I have heard that if I want RAID 5, I really need to have a board with the hardware XOR engine.

If that is true, then if I want RAID 5, it seems that that Dougs solution may be better for me.

Correct?
 
You need to realistically assess your performance requirements. For example, if you're shuffling files over 100mbps Ethernet, it won't matter if you get only 12MB/sec writing to a software RAID-5 array, as you'll still be limited by the network bandwidth. If your RAID-5 array will only store movies for playback, you don't need huge performance, and once again software RAID-5 will be fine. Software RAID-5 is also much more flexible and eaiser to move to a new system. Cost isn't its only advantage ;)

If you want serious RAID-5 performance, check out Areca. Be prepared to shell out big bucks for it though. That Intel card looks pretty solid, but if you don't need on the fly RAID expansion and level migration, you can probably find a RAID card with a hardware XOR engine for a lower cost, although I must confess I am too lazy to look right now. Don't make me post a RAID controller Buyer's Guide :eek:
 
DougLite said:
Don't make me post a RAID controller Buyer's Guide :eek:
Click to expand...

I wouldn't think about asking you to do that. Thanks for the time/effort you've already spent...
 
unhappy mage:
Thanks. I'd prefer to get a hardware-RAID 5 card, but if I can do it through software with that card, I may consider that option.

DougLite:
Go ahead. Post it. I triple dog dare you... :D
 
That's a new one. Can't tell from the write-up if it has Hardware Parity though. The price is certainly fine, especially if it DOES have hardware parity.

I suspect not though.

I like my 3Ware 9500S-8 a lot, but the $~500 Price Range may be out of his market, and I'm not sure about the 'live' migration stuff.

Everything else is a fit.

-Larry

DougLite said:
This RAID card fits the bill. Provides six ports, a happy medium between a cramped four port and an expensive eight port. It supports 3gbps transfer and hot plug, along with online capacity extension and RAID level migration. Pretty pricey, but the features you outlined aren't cheap.
Click to expand...
 
Listen to Doug. He's pretty much on the Ball here, and he kept me out of trouble when I did all this a few months ago.

Even though mine is a 1.8TB RAID-5 File Server, running WinServer 2003 Enterprise (at home LOL) and serves files and media over a network, I still prefer the hardware XOR based cards. Maybe it's because I despise software DVD decoders so much !

Anyway, the 3Ware 9500S-8 was perfect for me.

I have 802.11 WiFi, 802.11g WiFi, 100BT and Gigabit segments scattered around the house, so the extra write performance of the hardware XOR helps (I think) at least on the Gigabit segment.

Maybe not. I can't tell for sure because I don't want to tear it all apart to test it :)

I know this. Accurately performance testing a RAID-5 array is a pain in the ass and I don't trust a thing I've seen so far.

-Larry

Edited to please the Smiley-Police LOL

DougLite said:
You need to realistically assess your performance requirements. For example, if you're shuffling files over 100mbps Ethernet, it won't matter if you get only 12MB/sec writing to a software RAID-5 array, as you'll still be limited by the network bandwidth. If your RAID-5 array will only store movies for playback, you don't need huge performance, and once again software RAID-5 will be fine. Software RAID-5 is also much more flexible and eaiser to move to a new system. Cost isn't its only advantage ;)

If you want serious RAID-5 performance, check out Areca. Be prepared to shell out big bucks for it though. That Intel card looks pretty solid, but if you don't need on the fly RAID expansion and level migration, you can probably find a RAID card with a hardware XOR engine for a lower cost, although I must confess I am too lazy to look right now. Don't make me post a RAID controller Buyer's Guide :eek:
Click to expand...
 
DougLite said:
This RAID card fits the bill. Provides six ports, a happy medium between a cramped four port and an expensive eight port. It supports 3gbps transfer and hot plug, along with online capacity extension and RAID level migration. Pretty pricey, but the features you outlined aren't cheap.
Click to expand...

Have you got a recommendation for one that's PCI and not PCI-X?

That would be a cheaper card, right?

Or would this one work in the PCI slot?....the ad doesn't say, or I missed it.


 
pci-x cards work in pci slots, to make a generality. If the card has two notches in the pci-like part of it, it'll work anywhere. This means it supports both 3.3 and 5v signaling.

 
Been away for a while...running from Hurricane Rita!

What about this? What about a reverse engineering of Windows XP to enable server licensed products in a workstation product? What about violating the Windows XP EULA? Sorry, can't talk about that here. Invest in a Windows Server Product or check out Linux if you want to run software RAID-5 - DL

I have the AN8-Ultra, & it came with RAID drivers on the floppy. Has anyone here tried using the NVRAID software? If so, how is it?
 
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