• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Raid Card..What should I get?

S

SomeGuy133

2[H]4U
Joined
Apr 12, 2015
Messages
3,447
So I am looking at getting this 4770K computer off craigslist or build my own and I wanted to create a raid 0 of 3 or 4 480GB Sandisk Extreme Pro. I already have one that is in decent shape so I planned on just buying 2 to 3 extra depending on how much wear is down to my current one. I also plan on using 3-4 3 TB drives in raid 0 as back ups and data storage. (doing a weekly and/or daily back up would be pretty fast in acronis with 3-4 HDD in raid 0.

I am concerned about toms hardware review with a xeon equivalent of the 4770K where they were using at much as 70% of the CPU according to them under heavy load. I do not want to have an issue where AV/Malwarebytes is running or I am playing a game or I am doing some sort of other work where a program and IRST are fighing for CPU time. That would defeat the purpose of the raid and be a major bottleneck.

I was wondering if anyone has had experience and knows if a Raid 0 with 3-4 SSDs with IRST really has a major drain on host processor like they had in their review. Is it worth getting a raid card? If so which one?

If i got a raid card I would consider putting the SSDs on the raid card and using IRST for the HDD since back ups, AV/AM, data files, and the like will not cause a major drain on the CPU compared to I/Os and these are HDD so their speed isn't even comparable.

I want to do this raid set up as an intermediate build computer until i have the money for a large high end PCIe card. Consider this the poor mains way to get faster performance and larger space.

Also please no trolls about you won't see a performance gain blah blah. Its a waste of time blah blah. I know what my applications are and how this will affect them. I just need the questions above answered not will this work, I already have seen some people in different threads waste posts and time on raid topics with no basis for their comments.


Thanks you for sincere help. I really appreciate it!
 
2x SSD in RAID 0 on any kind of fakeraid, softraid, MB raid, is about as good as you are going to get before CPU is battling software and handling the array. either get a hardware controller that has full ssd support. or bite the bullet and get your all in one PCIE solution, cost of your drives and card will be nearly = to the dedicated PCIE device. but the seperate card and drives will be upgradeable with out replacing the entire thing. and or expandable to contain non SSD for extra storage pools.

out of curiosity what is the use case of this system? as you mention having AV/Malwarebytes running so i assume this is just a gaming rig and not a dedicated application server with high iop requirements? or maybe a shared system of some sort.
 
I use it for everything. Photoshop, gaming, storage, network storage for other PCs. I also do daily scans and back up frequently (did*).

I am on the PC most of the day -_- so whenever a AV scan hits system just tanks. I use kaspersky because Norton sucks in my eyes and for whatever reason Kaspersky murders drives and takes forever. The system will start to hang when Kaspersky runs even with a 480GB sandisk extreme pro with 25% OP. Also if a back up runs I don't want that to hurt Photoshop, games, windows performance. I am very picky about load times and how it wastes my time. I can tell on my system with how loads happen that a faster file system would do wonders in my case especially when several of those tasks go on at once. Also i am getting tired of the revolving door of games, programs, files, and the like due to 340GB drive is too small. If i had 4 of those my storage issues would be completely gone for the next couple years until i build my idle rig.

Also i would like to start encrypting my systems to some extend. I need to find a good balance in security and performance.

So basically IRST for my 4 or so 3 TB Raid 0 is cool but SSD raid 0 is a dead no go then. So what card meets my needs? I see some cards show 2 12 GBps SAS but then it says 2 channel and I am concern that it means 6 GBps per channel. Or I see 4 SATA cards that are two channel or something. Whats a good card that's also affordable?

I known nothing about raid cards so i really need help in picking one

I only need 4 SATA 3 ports but it must allow full speed and not be bottlenecked anywhere. I don't mind future proofing but it better be justified because money is tight for the next 6-12 months

I also am heavily CPU restricted in my work too so that's why I was asking. Try running adobe bridge on a 4k screen with images sized to your screen and not to the low 720p or whatever previews are at on default...it runs like a complete dog. This is why I am trying to secure an unlocked desktop because i need better storage and better CPU. My 3920xm is TDP limited. I am at the point of trying to most my laptops case so I can stick a peltier cooler on the heat sink lol

Also the Raid card is a good option for down the road as well because I'll just use this SSD raid card set up to back up my future PCIe SSD instead of HDDs.

So yea bulk data transfers with videos, pictures, back ups, and more will help with the faster system especially if i expand my storage further.

*My back ups will be like this so this is another reason for the raid to make sure it doesn't affect my work/life

daily iterations for 7-14 days
weekly iterations for 8 weeks
monthly iterations since forever.

This is what I will do since I abandoned my back ups because of a couple issues i ran into and it interfered with my work too much. to bother with it.

I plain on buying a rig off craigslist in the next few weeks so I would like to figure this out so I can get it all up and running at once. The rig I should secure from a college kid has a spare PCIe 3.0 16x slot though it runs at PCIe 2.0 x4 IIRC, which is the minimum speed I need if I am not correct to get maximum performance out of the PCH's DMI 2.0 5 GTs
 
Adaptec 8405 (2277600-R) or the 8805 as it would have 8 ports. both would be good cards for your work load. you will need a sas breakout cable (or 2 if you get the 8805)

im not sure what your acquiring off craigslist but it just doesnt sound like a good deal if it only has 1 usable slot.

the for sale section on this forum can net you a good deal and is a lot less shady than some of the craigslist deals i have seen.
 
Thanks for the recommendations. Can you explain a little more about these. I see no reviews on newegg so are these any good? Also what exactly do I also have to buy? I have done a lot with PCs but this server stuff/raid controllers is all new to me.

I am getting a decent temp rig for my needs for like 650/700 bucks.

4770K
cheap MOBO
2TB
GTX 770
BluRay
waterblock
16GB of ram 2x 8GB

all in all the rig is worth at least 800-900 but its a college kid moving, which means score for me. 2nd college kid that'll save me a few hundred.

First link for googling that cable.
http://www.cableleader.com/0-5m-30a...t-cable.html?gclid=CPL5hJqh9MQCFQwQaQodowUAeA

is this what i need? So the raid card can tell 4 separate HDD are connected? If i am not mistaken 12 GBps SAS is only good for 2 SSDs right?
 
It's talking about a 12GBps SAS drive. I have a LSI 9211-8i and have two of those cables connecting 8 drives. Works great. I would personally just get something like that and call it a day, especially if you are connecting that many drives. I bought mine for less than $100 in forums.
 
yes that cable is what you need.

you can hook up 4 SSD drives to that card (the 8405) performance (IOPS and throuput i can not even delve into in a timely manner)

the adaptec is hardware raid, it will take a large strain away from the CPU IF you for sure want raid duties.

as recomended a LSI 9211-8i will get you lots of server class connections but YOU will need to manage how things are connected. rather its snapraid or unraid or some sort of software raid. or if you need raid at all) this is not the wrong way to go by any standard.

but if you plug 4 drives into the adaptec card and configure it for raid 5 you will get more performance in the array and more performance on the computer because the computer will not be handleing the raid duties.

there is a substantial cost difference also. weigh rather hardware raid is worth it for your config. sometimes it really is, sometimes it really is not.
 
alright i am not tracking at all on what this snapraid is. So is the LSI not a normal raid card?

If the adaptec only has 2 12 Gbps ports that means I am limited to 4 SATA 6Gbps SSDs by bandwidth correct?

I read something like command lines needed for snapraid? I am assuming this is something i don't want due to complexity and time. 100 more bucks to save a bunch of hours configuring sounds better at least to me.
 
SomeGuy133 said:
alright i am not tracking at all on what this snapraid is. So is the LSI not a normal raid card?

If the adaptec only has 2 12 Gbps ports that means I am limited to 4 SATA 6Gbps SSDs by bandwidth correct?

I read something like command lines needed for snapraid? I am assuming this is something i don't want due to complexity and time. 100 more bucks to save a bunch of hours configuring sounds better at least to me.
Click to expand...

LSI is a regular RAID card. All you do is configure the RAID in its own Bios prior to reaching the motherboard Bios and install drivers for it when installing your OS. The card does the work instead of the onboard chip which forces the CPU to do the heavy lifting. I think it needs a x8 PCIe slot.
 
this
http://www.lsi.com/products/host-bus-adapters/pages/lsi-sas-9211-8i.aspx

not comparable to this
http://www.adaptec.com/en-us/support/raid/sas_raid/asr-8405/

when comparing onboard raid functionality and performance.

the LSI is an HBA, the adaptec is a dedicated RAID product with no ability to even be used as an HBA. so depending on what you want, there is a correct and incorrect option available.

i actually use a mix of both products. my current system has an adaptec card for raid 5 that the OS runs from and 2x lsi HBA cards dedicated to a ZFS array. im no stranger to either product and their usefulness.
 
Last edited:
Zedicus said:
this
http://www.lsi.com/products/host-bus-adapters/pages/lsi-sas-9211-8i.aspx

not comparable to this
http://www.adaptec.com/en-us/support/raid/sas_raid/asr-8405/

when comparing onboard raid functionality and performance.

the LSI is an HBA, the adaptec is a dedicated RAID product with no ability to even be used as an HBA. so depending on what you want, there is a correct and incorrect option available.

i actually use a mix of both products. my current system has an adaptec card for raid 5 that the OS runs from and 2x lsi HBA cards dedicated to a ZFS array. im no stranger to either product and their usefulness.
Click to expand...

That's not entirely true. Right on the product page it says that the adaptec can be used as an HBA, and the LSI can be configured for RAID or HBA depending on if its flashed for IR or IT mode.

The adaptec is a newer product and has more bandwidth available (12GBps vs. 6GBps), but if the OP is looking at $60 cards at Newegg, it makes more sense to grab a 9211-8i for around $100 and use that instead since he's on a limited budget. If he had $400 to spend on the Adaptec, then sure, get that.
 
my simple RECOMMENDATION is that they are 2 different productions designed for 2 different use cases. if budget is a concern the adaptec 6405 (6805) or 7405 (7805) could also be used at the sacrifice of 12gbs. (you could still use 4 SSD and have very good performance)

there are lots of choices but if you want a dedicated RAID array that will gain you performance the adaptec makes light work of this.

if you want disk level options and direct access to the drives as if they were plugged into the MB, then the LSI platform is the way to go. (my performance testing between IR and IT firmwares resulted in only minor differences, rather the card was sold as 'LSI hardware RAID or LSI HBA. MOST LSI platform cards are designed around the LSI HBA and might have additional features added based on firmware)
 
ok side note...ZFS looks interesting and if I ever made my NAS would that be ideal for data integrity?

ok so i keep seeing 6Gbps and 12 Gbps. What is the top speed of either card in a raid zero in a PCI 3.0 8x slot? Ignoring DMI issues.

So this whole HBA/RAID is confusing as hell. From what i tell there is a lot of obfuscation and the terms have evolved and warped and blurried together over the decades :/

So let me restate this. My option must support at least 4x 6Gbps SATA* and "off-load"? the CPU work to the PCIe card. Do both of those do it? Also i can't afford reading manuals and spending 2 days learning how to get a marginally cheaper option up and running. If it takes my naive kiester 15 hours to save 100 bucks that's relatively a waste of time in my eyes.

*That is PCI 2.0 4x or above correct?
Click to expand...

If a card only has 2 12 Gbps cables that means its only good for 4 SSDs right?

Also assume i known nothing on raids and cards. The most I have done was set up a software raid like 12-15 years ago in 8th grade to high school in my old desktop. This is a completely new field to me.

Also please understand I am trying to google as much as i can so i don't waste your time explaining easily googled stuff.
 
each SAS connector will run 4 drives. an adaptec 8405 has one connector, http://www.pc-pitstop.com/sas_cables_adapters/8682-1m.asp. caution must be used when aquiring internal multihead cables. the card supports SAS and SATA drives but some cheap cables will only allow SATA drives to be plugged in.

if "15 hours to save 100$" is not quantifiable to you than do not even delve into ZFS at this point. Go with an all out hardware solution and in your free time you can read up on ZFS. then in a few years when you are looking at buying new hardware again, you can re-evaluate rather you want to stay hardware or try a ZFS solution.

heres a review of some sas 12g gear but not the exact stuff. it will get you a performance idea though.
http://www.thessdreview.com/our-reviews/adaptec-pmc-asr-8885-review-lots-ports-lots-bandwidth/


IF you end up with an adaptec product avoid the E and H variants. they are listed as HBA cards but they do not truly work well in ZFS, and they contain limited hardware RAID.


adaptec number code generation, internal drives, external drives, (last digit i never remember but ever card has a 5 there)
so an 8885 would be 8th gen, 8 internal drives, 8 external drives. they have cards with up to 16 ports via onboard expanders.
 
Last edited:
Zedicus said:
each SAS connector will run 4 drives. an adaptec 8405 has one connector, http://www.pc-pitstop.com/sas_cables_adapters/8682-1m.asp. caution must be used when aquiring internal multihead cables. the card supports SAS and SATA drives but some cheap cables will only allow SATA drives to be plugged in.

if "15 hours to save 100$" is not quantifiable to you than do not even delve into ZFS at this point. Go with an all out hardware solution and in your free time you can read up on ZFS. then in a few years when you are looking at buying new hardware again, you can re-evaluate rather you want to stay hardware or try a ZFS solution.

heres a review of some sas 12g gear but not the exact stuff. it will get you a performance idea though.
http://www.thessdreview.com/our-reviews/adaptec-pmc-asr-8885-review-lots-ports-lots-bandwidth/


IF you end up with an adaptec product avoid the E and H variants. they are listed as HBA cards but they do not truly work well in ZFS, and they contain limited hardware RAID.


adaptec number code generation, internal drives, external drives, (last digit i never remember but ever card has a 5 there)
so an 8885 would be 8th gen, 8 internal drives, 8 external drives. they have cards with up to 16 ports via onboard expanders.
Click to expand...

But if the cable is 12 Gbps and you put 4 SSDs on it, doesn't that make it bandwidth limited via cable to 3 Gbps...thats what i am saying. Thats cool for HDDs but for gen 3 SSDs that's counter productive unless i am not tracking.

I want a system that has no bottle necks. Am I right or do I not understand something in regards to how a single 12 Gbps cable can support 4 6 Gbps SSDs (24 Gbps total bandwidth needed)?

Also as a side note, the reason why I refuse to use a hardware NAS is because I don't trust that its back hole free. I rather spend the time and build a home made PC as a NAS that I known is not vulnerable. QNAP or one of the major companies had a massive security exploit on their NAS like a year ago. Plus once you learn how to do a solid home made NAS you know forever. Though this is down the road...like a year or two from now so I am passively gaining knowledge until that point. "Captains log 2015.04.12.2338, ZFS is a solid candidate for home made NAS."
 
If your motherboard is Z97 and it's in your price range, look into the Intel 750.

Unfortunately, I only have one Sandisk Extreme Pro on hand so I can't speak for RAID performance, but the Intel drive is a monster in the content creation tests I've thrown at it so far. Also, at least some of the hype about NVMe leading to reduced CPU usage seems true, in early testing.
 
Also, props on asking the right questions and looking at your workload :D

To expand a little more on my last post, if you're in for $400+ on a RAID card and $700 or so for 3 480gb Extreme Pros, $1100 for the 1.2TB Intel 750 doesn't seem quite as hard to swallow. The drive loves heavy workloads and high queue depths. It's begging for you to pull its hair and abuse it.
 
It won't work this time around for a few reasons.

The PC I am looking at doesn't have that chipset.
I need far more space then 400GB
The raid card option is an affordable middle ground
it will also carry over to multiple new systems
it is a flexible option. It works for SSDs HDDs and so on.

The next system I will get will have an NVMe card or one of those memory SSDs combos...lawsuit and injunction should be over by then :)

This raid card allows me to get 3-4x the space with middle ground performance. I'll take it..plus it allows me to buy this cheap computer that will suffice for the next 2 or so years. That allows all this dust to settle with storage interface wars (NVMe, Ultra dims or whatever, M.2), DDR4 to be mass supported, cannon lake, die shrunk GPUs, and what not. Oh and my budget should grow by then :)

Also the 480 GB drives are now $200 at adorma o_O So 3 of them plus my used one gets me 1,920 GB-> 1,440GB OP or I can just get 2 and save 200 bucks.

I figure the raid card is not applicable in price since it can be used again and again....granted....how long on average do these last? I should count a life span on this. 5 years? 10 years? 50-100 bucks a year in cost?

Basically I am looking to snag a compromise with budget and performance. I can't out right buy a 2k computer and 2k storage solution. Plus that computer isn't even what I want..see statement above about dust settling.

I am looking at a system like this for 650-700. That's a cheap deal plus I'll sell GPU down the road and buy a different one. GPU is ~200 bucks so I have good salvage room. I can't get close to that price new. Granted that MB is utter crap but again...temporary.

RAIDMAX Cobra ATX-502WBG Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
MSI Z87-G41 LGA 1150 Intel Z87 Motherboard
AMD Branded Liquid Watercooler
Intel Core i7 4770K Haswell Quad Core Processor @ 3.50GHz
16GB DDR3 RAM (2x8GB 1600mhz)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 2GB Graphics Card (Zotac brand)
2TB Toshiba 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
700W Power Supply
LG 12x Blu-ray Reader/24x DVD-RW Burner
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Edition


This will run circles around my M17x R4.
3920XM TDP 4.3 GHz but TDP limited to 45-50w
32 GB RAM 1600
single 480 GB SSD with 1TB 7200 RPM HDD
7970m

I no longer have a massive need for a high powered gaming laptop and I can salvage this for some decent amount of money still. If anyone wants it let me know :)

EDIT: Also you do have a valid point on the intel 750 but that requires snagging a new MB if I bought this PC....at that point is it worth just getting a custom build? that's a lot of money.

You do agree that 650-700 for that build is a good deal vs buying brand new right? When using my math I am getting ~1k for that system.
 
Last edited:
The system that you're looking to buy is a pretty good deal, but you can usually find such things here in the same range and build what you want with used parts. I actually have something that I am going to list soon that may honestly be a better fit for you, I'll shoot you a PM about that. Anyway, a few observations/questions about the configuration and your general situation:

-If you're going to do the RAID thing, I'd just get the 9211-8i and be done with it. They're readily available for under $100, and I don't see any of the more hardcore cards offering anything that you need (or any meaningful additional performance for what you're doing). The cables are quite cheap if you look around. And again, it's theoretically just temporary until you spring for a PCIe solution, so whatever.
-It sounds like the Photoshop/content creation part of your workload is the heaviest, in terms of I/O. What are you working on, giant RAW files? You've probably done this already on your current system, but make sure that Photoshop is using your SSD as your scratch disk. You may be able to apply some tweaks to speed up Adobe Camera RAW as well- http://blogs.adobe.com/jkost/2012/08/increase-the-camera-raw-cache-in-photoshop-and-lightroom.html
-Having the GTX 770 will be nice for accelerating Photoshop
-You should probably get 32gb of RAM. You'll miss not having it, if only so you can stop using a page file
 
Chris_Lonardo said:
The system that you're looking to buy is a pretty good deal, but you can usually find such things here in the same range and build what you want with used parts. I actually have something that I am going to list soon that may honestly be a better fit for you, I'll shoot you a PM about that. Anyway, a few observations/questions about the configuration and your general situation:

-If you're going to do the RAID thing, I'd just get the 9211-8i and be done with it. They're readily available for under $100, and I don't see any of the more hardcore cards offering anything that you need (or any meaningful additional performance for what you're doing). The cables are quite cheap if you look around. And again, it's theoretically just temporary until you spring for a PCIe solution, so whatever.
-It sounds like the Photoshop/content creation part of your workload is the heaviest, in terms of I/O. What are you working on, giant RAW files? You've probably done this already on your current system, but make sure that Photoshop is using your SSD as your scratch disk. You may be able to apply some tweaks to speed up Adobe Camera RAW as well- http://blogs.adobe.com/jkost/2012/08/increase-the-camera-raw-cache-in-photoshop-and-lightroom.html
-Having the GTX 770 will be nice for accelerating Photoshop
-You should probably get 32gb of RAM. You'll miss not having it, if only so you can stop using a page file
Click to expand...

I have 28 GB in my laptop and I would upgrade that desktop to 32GB right away. (It comes with 2x 8GB which is a god send because 2 slots are free and I don't have to replace all the ram) I throw all my work in RAM with DIMM Drive for PS and use SSD for cache...If its small work I throw cache into RAM as well. With PS what kills me the most is the CPU to be honest. Bridge freeze for like 15 mins while it loads and caches a folder of pics because I have Bridge create 4K samples for preview instead of whatever that low res default is. It is so so so easy to tell if a photo is marginally blurry or not with 4K previews. I no longer have to fully open to tell if they is a hint of a blur. Seriously if you use bridge get a 4K screen and do 4K previews....its epic.

I use mostly 20-24M pixel RAW files but sometimes I do DOF images with multiple files. Those can get quiet large. I rarely do multiple shots merged...like might have done that once or twice.

I already use my 7970m for PS and I dont think a better GPU for that would make a difference from what I recall in GPU-Z

AV/MBAM murder me when it comes to scans and that probably hurts me on a daily basis the most. I don't sleep normal hours so scheduling a night scan can happen a lot when I am a wake. I sleep inconsistently...like tonight for example. I got a migraine and went to bed at like 2pm and woke at 10pm so I'll be up all night. I have chronic migraines from injury so I have an inconsistent cycle due to them.

Returning to back ups is critical in my eyes and a good system for that is a must.

I really want to get also outlook and daily windows to operate a bit faster as well. I do a lot of open and closing of programs and even cutting 3s open to 2s saves time when you do that 200 times a day. Plus as i said when these back ground things run....windows just eats a pill of...well you know.

A lot of this is also my pure patience and sanity as well. Lets just say I have gotten the modern age irritation for delays. Well I can't find the chart online but I remember it form one of my IT classes for my OMIS degree. It showed how response times affect a persons productivity. It was an interesting chart and would help you understand my position on how important even a second off can pay off over a long period of time.

EDIT: also no one has yet explain this issue i am having with those cables and bandwidth. Also i am still uncertain on this whole HBA/RAID difference. It appears to me that RAID maybe a better option then HBA but I really don't known.
 
Yeah, I guess the GPU wouldn't help for typical photo editing.. more for filters/effects. 4K preview sounds amazing. Wish I had a 4K display.. anyway, it sounds like you're definitely not the only one with this problem, which is unfortunate. It sounds like Adobe is addressing the performance issues with Lightroom 6, so maybe that will trickle into Bridge.

Good summary of HBA vs. RAID controllers- http://serverfault.com/questions/616831/what-is-the-difference-between-a-hba-card-and-a-raid-card

For your purposes, you probably don't need a full-on RAID controller (unless you want features like battery-backed cache or esoteric RAID modes). RAID 0 on an HBA card that supports it is just fine.

On the breakout cable/bandwidth thing- note that it's a 36 pin connector to 4x7 pin connectors. Each end of the 4 connected drives has the full rated bandwidth (6 or 12gb/s).
 
So that cable is really 4 cables in one? See they call it a 12 Gbps cable and don't say anything else like it being 4 in 1.

***So to make sure I get this right. The cable that goes to the raid card is 4x12Gbps right?***

That link you sent at severfault is one i read earlier and is confusing as hell. It basically stats that there is no clear definition of RAID or HBA anymore -_-

Whats the life span on these HBA/RAID cards? If I wanted to re-purpose this card down the road for a ZFS homemade NAS does the LSI support that?

Also I don't want to spend the time trying to figure out how to set up one of these cards if its overly complicated. If one card is a bit more money and is really user friendly that would be a better option.

I feel as if i am getting just over half the picture and i don't want to miss something and be screwed so sorry for this dragging out.

So with everything i have stated so far what are your recommendations? Still an HBA or a RAID card?

Break down of Requirements
1.) PCI 2.0x8 min bandwidth
2.) Min 4x 6Gbps drives. 8 works too if not a lot more. That would allow it to be more likely re-purposed down the road.
3.) RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 and optionally ZFS support (that might not be dependent on a card for all i know so forgive my naiveness) Is RAID 6 something I should care about? I think that's better then 5 but requires a higher minimum of drives so might not be irrelevant in this case)
4.) Fairly user friendly set up. This is my first RAID/HBA card so I can't be troubled with something crazy complex.
5.) What cache level is relevant?
6.) Performance is key to me. Obviously I am limited to 2 GBps due to DMI but I can't have some silly design flaw in it like cheaper cards have.
7.) It needs to be reliable. I am using this for my OS and most precious files so I can't afford taking risks. I'll have backup but down time or lost data is a no go.
8.) Whats this battery back up thing? I will have this on a UPS so is the internal battery crucial?
9.) To make sure this was conveyed. This has to function as a boot drive without issues.
10.) small K performance is crucial to me since i believe that affects me the most. I know this RAID set up isn't best for low queue depths but its a decent middle ground at the moment.

Does this make everything as clear as possible? Please ask for any clarification. I appreciate your guy's/gals? help. I want to make this as easy as possible for everyone.

Done editing

EDIT: As a side question. Anyone try to see how a VeraCrypt encrypted system works? How badly does that tank small IOs? If no one has tested it i can try that and report results for information purposes.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top