RAID question

[omega-x]

I just bought
3 500GB SEAGATE ST3500320NS ES.2 drives

Wondering if anyone has any input on if i should use my motherboards 2 RAID ports for raid 1, or buy a decent 3 or 4 port card and go raid 5 with a hot spare.

So the question is, are there any good, AND cheap, 4 port RAID cards?

 

[Lazn_Work]

well you'd need 4 drives to have a hot spare.. as 3 would be used for RAID 5..

As for what to do, what are you trying to accomplish?

 

[omega-x]

Simple redundancy. im replacing 5 160gb drives that arent in a raid
90% of the data is HD movies and tv shows and 10% is photos i've taken.

The simple solution would be to simply mirror the 160's to the new drives and then secure storage them as backups of whats already on each one.

Looking at 4 port PCI raid cards on newegg, it looks like unless i spend over 200 dollars on one, it doesnt have its own processor.

If i did raid 5 i'd add a hot spare later.

 

[Dangman]

Looking at 4 port PCI raid cards on newegg, it looks like unless i spend over 200 dollars on one, it doesnt have its own processor.

Pretty much yeah.

You could go the used route. Do you have a PCI-E port? if so, you can get a true hardware RAID Dell Perc 5 for around $120 off ebay. Add another $30 for the SAS to SATA cables and you now have an 8 SATA port hardware RAID card for around $150.