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Largest IDE & SATA PCI Adapters (RAID 5) ?

T

Tcalp

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 31, 2006
Messages
195
Hey All,

I've been searching around trying to find standard PCI adapter (not PCI-E / PCI-X / PCI-64) that has support for a large number of drives and hopefully RAID 5 support. Mainly looking for standard PCI as the bigger cards otherwise are A LOT of money. I'm hoping for a 12port sata and at least an 8port (16drive) IDE.

Regards,

Tcalp
 
I think 3ware is your best bet. Their cards support 64-bit/66MHz, but will work in a regular slot as long as it's keyed correctly. I'm using an old 7450-4 I got off eBay on a regular desktop motherboard without any issues (knock on wood). That's getting replaced with a 7500-8 this weekend. :D
 
One thing to look out for, you do not want an 8 port ide controller that supports 16 drives. Due to the limitations of the IDE you'll hit some serious performance issues with 2 drives per cable.

Also, any large raid controller like that is going to be expensive.
 
The problem with standard pci controllers is that even a couple of drives can saturate the bus. There's not all that much point having an 8-device card on a 133MB bus with each drive only getting 16MBytes/sec.

Having said that, the newegg search funtion should be your friend.

Tell it you want 'pci' interface and specify the number of internal connectors.

 
I just need data storage not speed... also asking for 'pci' would give me every pci not just 32-bit
 
Almost every 64bit pci and pci-X is back compatible with regular old 33/32 slots.

If you are going to spend that much on a controller you might as well spring for a new motherboard as well. There are lots of cheaper intel sets that have pci-x slots in them.
 
^ What he said. You'll need to make sure that the slots in the bottom of the card:
=== ============= ===
line up with your PCI slot; some cards have no gaps in either the left or the right place. This is to ensure you get the right voltage slot for the card; there's 3.3 and 5v. Other than that, it should Just Work (tm).

 
I'm getting a new board, but find me one with 4 or 5 PCI-X / PCI-66 :p
 
How much storage do you need if you want a 12 port card in 4 or 5 slots.


Thats like 40 or 60 drives. Thats a huge power requirement spin up demand on that will be over 80 amps on the 12v. Thats a hell of a power supply or even multiple ones.

If you only need one slot I would recomend the supermicro H8SSL-i it supports 939 opterons and has 1 133mhz pci-x.
 
I"m going to be using 2Kwatts of power :p

... and a 35-bay server tower (which in the end should fit about 50+ drives)
 
For systems that large I would really recomend you go with an external enclosure configuration.

As far as motherboards you are going to want to get something that has 2 or more seperate pci-x busses. Very few if any desktop style boards will be able to handle 4 or 5 pci cards on the same bus. There implementation are shitting relating to kind of situation. My guess is that it will crap out after running about 15 mins under heavy load.

As SAN style setup is much better for what you are trying to do.
 
draksia said:
There implementation are shitting relating to kind of situation. My guess is that it will crap out after running about 15 mins under heavy load.

As SAN style setup is much better for what you are trying to do.
Click to expand...


the who and the what implementation about shitting ?


I dont' see why it would CRAP out as long as I have sufficient power for the drives, and SAN is just far too expensive.
 
Tcalp said:
the who and the what implementation about shitting ?


I dont' see why it would CRAP out as long as I have sufficient power for the drives, and SAN is just far too expensive.
Click to expand...


A single pci bus generaly shits out with that many devices on it and a good amount of load running to it. Most chipset manufactures for the desktops don't spend of alot of time building good pci busses expecially modern ones because most things are now connected directly to the southbridges.

My personal feelings are anyone that needs 50 plus drives worth of storage should be able to afford to do it correctly. I work in the bussiness and I seen alot of really crappy setups.
 
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