Cheap Hardware RAID card

C

Citizen _insane

Gawd
Joined
May 2, 2006
Messages
565
I'm looking for a cheap hardware RAID card to run 4x500gb or 750gb drives in RAID5. This is going to be a file server for my render farm and will be running on the following system:

E6400
ECS PT890T-A
2gb Corsair DDR2-800
Ultra 500watt PSU (the good one - don't remember the model number)

The board currenty has an x1950Pro in it, but I'll probably replace that with a cheap PCI vid card since it looks like lots of the controller cards use PCI-Express x16.

I don't really want to spend more than $150-$200 on the card. Super high speed isn't really my goal, just something that's reliable. I'll probably also toss a network card into the computer so that it can host the network for my other 2 render boxes (q6600, 4gb ram). Access time isn't really a big deal, I just want the small boost of speed and the reliability of a RAID5 system.

The only reason I'm not going with software RAID is that this computer will be part of the render farm so I want as much of the processor available as possible for rendering cycles.
 
You should hit up Ebay for a Perc/5i controller. That will be your best bet for a "cheap" hardware RAID card. Something new from LSI or Areca is going to cost you around $350/$400 at least.
 
Yeah, I'm not willing to spend that much. I'd just go with software RAID before I spent that much. I only about $300 to work with here (still have to build that 2nd quad, that's the main priority).
 
I agree with Dan D. I got a PERC 5/i plus everything needed (BBU, cables) for under $200. If you really need hardware RAID on the cheap it's your best solution, otherwise go with a low-end LSI/3ware card.
 
Another vote for the Perc 5/i card.

You could buy a Dell Perc 5/i card off eBay for ~$125 or so plus two of these SFF-8484 to 4 x SATA Cables for ~$25. Thus, you get 8 ports and a true hardware RAID controller for around ~$150 or so. Not a bad deal considering that a new true PCI-E hardware RAID controller is around $300 (Areca ARC-1210) for 4 ports. But those Dell Perc 5/i cards are a bit finicky about motherboards. It will take up PCI-E x16 slot if you don't have have PCI-E x8 slot.

Read these threads for more info:
Finally went to a Hardware Raid5 controller...
Dell Perc 5/i - Mainboard Compatibility List
Solution for Dell Perc 5/i for Intel Chipsets
 
Is there a list of confirmed chipsets that it will work with or is it compatibility pretty much board to board?
 
Citizen _insane said:
Is there a list of confirmed chipsets that it will work with or is it compatibility pretty much board to board?
Click to expand...

Board to board pretty much. However, pretty much any Intel chipset will work as long as you do the tape mod mentioned in the link I provided.
 
Ok, sounds good. I'll probably just pick up another P35 motherboard then since they support Penryn and the Nelalem chips aren't even 775.
 
Danny Bui said:
Another vote for the Perc 5/i card.

You could buy a Dell Perc 5/i card off eBay for ~$125 or so plus two of these SFF-8484 to 4 x SATA Cables for ~$25. Thus, you get 8 ports and a true hardware RAID controller for around ~$150 or so. Not a bad deal considering that a new true PCI-E hardware RAID controller is around $300 (Areca ARC-1210) for 4 ports. But those Dell Perc 5/i cards are a bit finicky about motherboards. It will take up PCI-E x16 slot if you don't have have PCI-E x8 slot.

Read these threads for more info:
Finally went to a Hardware Raid5 controller...
Dell Perc 5/i - Mainboard Compatibility List
Solution for Dell Perc 5/i for Intel Chipsets
Click to expand...

Don't skimp on the BBU (usually like $30 more), especially if you EVER plan on using OCE, are often transferring large amounts of data to the array, or if your power is at risk and you don't have a UPS. Spend the little extra to avoid a potential heartache later.
 
cold-cell said:
All i'm seeing on ebay right now is batteries for $50-65 and cards for $125 and up.
Click to expand...

Hrm... I see the same thing. I can't seem to find the ebay store I bought mine from... I'll keep looking and keep you posted (I can't access ebay signed in from work!)
 
Is that battery backup really that necessary? I probably won't be transfering large chunks of data very often. Probably a few hundred megs at most. My scene files are only about 20-100mb and then there's texture data, which can range from a few megs to a few hundred megs depending on the scene.

I also shut down my computers during heavy rains storms because I'm always paranoid about power outages. I might just pick up a UPS for my file server anyway since that would allow for any frames that are rendering to be finished before shutting down.
 
Citizen _insane said:
Is that battery backup really that necessary? I probably won't be transfering large chunks of data very often. Probably a few hundred megs at most. My scene files are only about 20-100mb and then there's texture data, which can range from a few megs to a few hundred megs depending on the scene.

I also shut down my computers during heavy rains storms because I'm always paranoid about power outages. I might just pick up a UPS for my file server anyway since that would allow for any frames that are rendering to be finished before shutting down.
Click to expand...

You should be fine then, unless you're paranoid! :p

The BBU just protects data that might be in the cache should the power to it be cut, so yea don't worry.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top