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RAID Controller Recomendations (Home NAS/Media Server)

I

izusaga

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 4, 2005
Messages
475
Hello! I'd like to upgrade my Z77-based, i5-quad running home NAS to a PCI-E (preferably 4x+) RAID controller to handle 6 3TB Western Digital AV-GP drives in Raid5. The Z77 raid chipset is simply mind-bogglingly slow and experiences unpredictably low consistent read/write. It worked fine for what I initially needed, but it's time to move to an appropriate controller - preferably SAS with SATA breakout cables, able to support 6 drives minimum, potentially up to 8.

Primary objective is to avoid spending half the cost of the media server on just the controller. What would be a good suggestion to jump on? (PLEASE no HighPoint, I need something with actual functions such as e-mail notifications, and technical support and documentation that doesn't suck).

Thanks!
Izu
 
I recommend LSI SAS or Areca SAS controllers other than that use software raid and a non windows OS. Although one thing to consider is that some of the LSI controllers (and rebrands) you can get very cheaply (under $100 US) on eBay used.
 
To answer your question in a basic manner, I'd recommend any LSI based card, perhaps a LSI-9260-8i.

To go more in depth, Western Digital Drives often have issues with RAID, which may explain your speed issues. Since you already have the drives you might look into drive pooling software like flexraid or drive bender. Alternatively a dedicated box with linux software RAID would be a good fit for these drives.

I tried to use my 1.5TB EARX drives in a ZFS raid array and the performance was just lacking, but using the drives in either of the aforementioned setups I had better luck with speed, while still getting the benefit of having a big "pool" and maybe some parity.

You can get a simple motherboard (Like this ASUS E35M1-I) with six SATA ports. then setup a NAS with the existing drives and maybe a thumb drive.

Just to reiterate, its a bit of advice that using western digital green drives for RAID arrays, either on the motherboard or a dedicated card, you're going to have a bad time.
 
To go more in depth, Western Digital Drives often have issues with RAID, which may explain your speed issues. Since you already have the drives you might look into drive pooling software like flexraid or drive bender. Alternatively a dedicated box with linux software RAID would be a good fit for these drives.
Click to expand...

Very good advice. Read up on TLER for the explanation of the drive issues with hardware raid.
 
in my search for hard drives i remember reading WD green drives have a horrible time with RAID.
 
No LSI for home server until they update their firmware to allow drives to spin down.......
Confirm with LSI before you buy.
 
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