Best RAID Controller Card - SATA II

[BassKozz]

I am building a Media/File Server and I am looking for the best SATA Raid Controller card.

Features Must Include:
-At least 6 Ports Minimum
-SATA II compatable
-RAID 3 and/or 5 Configs
-Strong Manufactorer Presents (Incase the card fails, and I need to buy a duplicate card in the future it will still be available)
-Solid Warrenty (I am not familar with the Standard Warrenty on these types of cards but I am looking for the best one)
-Best overall preformance in the industry (Could you please point me to test/reviews URLs ?)

I am looking for two suggestions:
1. If money were NO issue ?
2. If I am on a budget ?

Thanks for the help,
-BassKozz

 

[unhappy_mage]

1) Areca 1[12][12367]0 - 1 for pci-x, 2 for pci-e; from 4 to 24 ports. Major ass kicking.

2) Highpoint 2[23]20.

That's about all I have to say. They're both great cards; the Highpoint is about $250, the Arecas go from $400 for 4 ports to $600 for 8 to $800 for 12 to $1000 for 16 to $2000 for 24. The 8-port version is my suggestion.

 

[BassKozz]

Thanks for the help unhappy_mage,

Any idea on what the warrenty's are for these cards ?

I've seen alot of people with 3ware Raid Cards (more then any other) around these forums, why is 3ware not a recommendation ? Are they cheap ? What makes Areca/Highpoint better ?

Thanks,
-BassKozz

 

[drizzt81]

I second the 8-port Areca card, either the PCI-X or PCIe version, depending on what mobo you are getting. Certainly something that I would love to be able to afford purchasing.

3ware used to be the top-dog in RAID cards, but it appears that Areca has just blown them out of the water with their new cards. http://www.areca.com.tw/index/html/index.htm <- have a look at their site, I am sure it has warranty information for you.

 

[BassKozz]

3ware used to be the top-dog in RAID cards, but it appears that Areca has just blown them out of the water with their new cards.

Do you have any reviews to back this ?

http://www.areca.com.tw/index/html/index.htm <- have a look at their site, I am sure it has warranty information for you.

Already searched there site, No results for Warrenty

Thanks for the help

 

[unhappy_mage]

Do you have any reviews to back this ?


Already searched there site, No results for Warrenty

Thanks for the help

3 year warranty. I wouldn't worry about it; as long as it's kept adequately cool it will likely work forever - the only moving part is the fan.

This review shows why not to buy a 3ware card. No NCQ, no expansion, no sata2, performance lagging behind the Arecas when in raid 5.

3ware is not a recommendation because nobody likes them anymore. There is precisely one review, and it's possibly the worst review of a raid controller I've seen in a long time (look at this page - what the hell were they thinking? And then they draw conclusions from this?). It's not any cheaper than the Areca from what I can find, and the fact that nobody has reviewed it since September 2005 doesn't speak well for it. The 8500 series was the top of the line when they came out, but they haven't done anything to keep on top of the industry, and it's showing.

 

[BassKozz]

3 year warranty. I wouldn't worry about it; as long as it's kept adequately cool it will likely work forever - the only moving part is the fan.

Guess I didn't search well enough, sorry

This review shows why not to buy a 3ware card. No NCQ, no expansion, no sata2, performance lagging behind the Arecas when in raid 5.

3ware is not a recommendation because nobody likes them anymore. There is precisely one review, and it's possibly the worst review of a raid controller I've seen in a long time (look at this page - what the hell were they thinking? And then they draw conclusions from this?). It's not any cheaper than the Areca from what I can find, and the fact that nobody has reviewed it since September 2005 doesn't speak well for it. The 8500 series was the top of the line when they came out, but they haven't done anything to keep on top of the industry, and it's showing.

Great this is exactly what I was looking for... Thanks Mage !!!

 

[hokatichenci]

The fan is not required on the Areca, it even comes with a standalone heatsink that you can put on if you don't want that moving part. My Areca is my first real raid card, and it has absolutely blown me away. The management software is incredibly easy to use, and multiplatform. Along with open source drivers for Linux and FreeBSD mainline support this card just totally rocks. If you got the money I totally suggest getting it, though if you plan on expanding later you might want to go with the 12 port which has its own NIC port as well as expandable ram.

 

[rodsfree]

1) Areca 1[12][12367]0 - 1 for pci-x, 2 for pci-e; from 4 to 24 ports. Major ass kicking.

2) Highpoint 2[23]20.

That's about all I have to say. They're both great cards; the Highpoint is about $250, the Arecas go from $400 for 4 ports to $600 for 8 to $800 for 12 to $1000 for 16 to $2000 for 24. The 8-port version is my suggestion.

So u_m.....

When does the Areca paycheck come in? (j/k)

As soon as I saw the thread title - I knew that Will would be the first poster and what his post would say. And he even managed to work the Tweakers review into his second post!


Do you have these replies saved to a text file????

On Topic - I wish I could afford one.... :-(

 

[unhappy_mage]

Hey, the formula works, stick with it. Or maybe that's "forumula"?

Anyways, any time they want to send it to me (or a "sample" ) all they have to do is email me[/url] and let me know, and I'll get them a shipping address straightaway!

[URL=http://www.hardfolding.com?go=38&tm=33&id=150072][/URL][URL=http://www.hardfolding.com?go=36&id=1392][/URL]

 

[BassKozz]

I found a review that put the 3Ware 9500 above the Areca ARC-1120 in a few categories:

In the I/O-sensitive benchmarks, Areca came up short compared directly with 3Ware. We believe that for the most part, 3Ware's StorSwitch architecture works more efficiently than many of the Intel RISC chips used by other controller makers.

While the transfer rates of the ARC-1120 are high and beat those of 3Ware in nearly all block sizes, our IOMeter Suite reveals serious differences that count against the Taiwanese manufacturer. It is not surprising that high I/O performance could not be counted on during the simulation of one or even two defective drives. But in part, the 9500 from 3Ware yields up to double the performance in these situations - not a good showing for Areca when high-availability applications are a priority.

We must stress that this controller series was designed particularly for maximum data security, and in our experience this is not feasible without cutting performance.

-Tom's Hardware Review

What are your thoughts on this ?

 

[unhappy_mage]

Honestly, I can't read the graphs in the review, so I don't know what to make of it. And this graph doesn't look particularly repeatable - what reason could there be for the transfer rates being all over the place like that? And as to their argument that the performance is bad when the array is degraded, that's ridiculous - when the array goes to degraded status, you don't care about how fast it works, just whether the data is intact. Running an array degraded for any length of time is just dumb, and trying to get performance out of it while it's degraded is even dumber. Not to mention this assertion directly contradicts the tweakers review - there the areca performs just as fast in regular mode as in degraded, and does almost twice as well as the 9500.

I wouldn't say the tweakers.net review is gospel, but it's pretty dang close in my book.

 

[drizzt81]

not wanting to rag on THG, but I have yet to hear anyone say anything bad about the Areca cards (apart from price). Considering the lack of features of the 3Ware cards, why consider them, unless they have either vastly superior performance, with both cards priced about the same?