Cheap IDE Hardware RAID card?

[BassKozz]

Hello again,
Yup, I've got another raid question

The prices have been dropping like rocks on PATA drives (I assume due to the popularity of SATA), and I've come across a plethora of IDE HD deals that I just couldn't pass up on FW...
I purchased:
2xMaxtor 300gb - ($80 a piece shipped) - Outpost
2xSeagate 400gb ($130 a piece shipped) - Outpost
I even picked up 1x WD 250gb for $20 after rebates and price match at CircuitCity (didn't need it but for $0.08per GB, how could I pass this up

And I already have 2x Seagate 200gb drives laying around

So now I need to put these in a raid array, and here is what I was thinking:
2x400gb = RAID 1 = 400gb redundant
2x300gb+250gb = RAID 5 = 500gb redundant (sure I lose out on 100megs [50 on each 300gb drive] but I figure 500 is better then 300raid1
2x200gb = RAID 1 = 200gb redundant

Now here's the problem...
I don't have a RAID card, and I am looking for something cheap... If I have to sacrafice the RAID 5 and only get a RAID 1 card, that's fine... I'll leave the 250gb HD out of the picture (and just run 3 RAID1 arrays). I am not looking for the top of the line, just something that will get the job done. Also I'm going for cheap here, so if that mean's I need to purchase two cards separate thats fine also (i.e. if the card only supports two IDE channels).
Did I mention cheap ?
Any Ideas?

Thanks,
-BassKozz

 

[unhappy_mage]

Are you planning on using these on your main box, or is running a seperate machine over network an option?

 

[BassKozz]

These wouldn't be in my main box...
I have a spare box, that used to be a Presario SR1710NX (Sempron (P) 3400+ 2.0 GHz + 2gigs of RAM), I removed the MOBO and parts and placed in a new case, and added a gigabit NIC. I plan on using this as a NAS. (it will be dedicated to Fileserving and backup processes, and maybe a few other minor apps)

I am open to idea's thou?

 

[unhappy_mage]

Are you open to using Linux instead of Windows on it? Then you could use the onboard IDE controllers, plain IDE cards, etc, and it'd be cheaper than a dedicated solution like the 7506-8.

 

[BassKozz]

Well, I dunno, I am a linux newb... little to no experiance, which distro would you recommend?
Could I still run Samba ... share files with my XBMC?

 

[Aronj66]

You could look for some used LSI Megaraid i4 cards.. I'm not sure how good they are, but htey were used alot in Dell and HP low end servers.

 

[BassKozz]

You could look for some used LSI Megaraid i4 cards.. I'm not sure how good they are, but htey were used alot in Dell and HP low end servers.

Is this the best cheap IDE Hardware RAID card?

 

[Megalomaniac]

take a look here

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1056642

unhappy is helping me set up my own linux raid box.

 

[Farva]

wouldnt it be cheaper to do this with a raid 5 card instead of buying 3 raid 1 cards? i know u_m knows a lot about raid and linux. he would know about prices much better than i

 

[unhappy_mage]

Well, I dunno, I am a linux newb... little to no experiance, which distro would you recommend?
Could I still run Samba ... share files with my XBMC?

Debian is easy to set up and install. Running samba is fairly easy to get going, and there are lots of HOWTOs on the Samba site and on the web in general.

Is this the best cheap IDE Hardware RAID card?

Well, THG (shudder) say it's ok for raid 0/1, but not raid 5. No great surprise, since it's using the rather antiquated 80960RS processor.

As for "cheaper with this": The i4 is $115 on eBay or $300 elsewhere. Two-port IDE cards are cheap as... something very cheap. The one linked is $17.50 shipped, and the chipset works fine with Linux.

 

[general]

Hunt around the online forums. IDE raid cards are pretty cheap nowadays.

"So now I need to put these in a raid array, and here is what I was thinking:
2x400gb = RAID 1 = 400gb redundant
2x300gb+250gb = RAID 5 = 500gb redundant (sure I lose out on 100megs [50 on each 300gb drive] but I figure 500 is better then 300raid1
2x200gb = RAID 1 = 200gb redundant"

2x400 and 2x300 in RAID-5 = .9TB
2x200 and 1x250 in RAID-5 = .4TB

You'd get extra space.

 

[BassKozz]

Thanks for all the help...

I purchased a MegaRaid i4 from e-bay used for $50

I just realized thou, that the controller is UDMA/100 and not 133... what will happen if I connected a 133 drive to this controller?
Will it still work?
Is there a major preformance differance between 100 and 133?

Thanks,
-BassKozz

 

[Farva]

Thanks for all the help...

I purchased a MegaRaid i4 from e-bay used for $50 HERE

I just realized thou, that the controller is UDMA/100 and not 133... what will happen if I connected a 133 drive to this controller?
Will it still work?
Is there a major preformance differance between 100 and 133?

Thanks,
-BassKozz

as far as i know, there really isnt that much of a different. sure the stats say the 133 is faster, but u wont notice a difference...if u can, ur not human, lol

 

[drizzt81]

Thanks for all the help...

I purchased a MegaRaid i4 from e-bay used for $50 HERE

I just realized thou, that the controller is UDMA/100 and not 133... what will happen if I connected a 133 drive to this controller?
Will it still work?
Is there a major preformance differance between 100 and 133?

Thanks,
-BassKozz

the drive is very, very likely to still work, but run at ATA-100 speeds, which barely make any difference in a real-world scenario.

 

[Blitzrommel]

I picked up an adaptec 2400 off ebay for $50, it's a full-size PCI card, but it works just fine. People bitch about it, but it runs just great in both Windows and Linux.