Which Raid card to use?

[melted_stencil]

I'm building a file server right now in a 4u case and am stuck on deciding which raid card to use:

Promise Supertrak SX6000
or
MegaRaid i4 IDE Raid card

The promise card is a 6 channel card with support for up to 6 drives and I added 128megs of ram. Also is a 64/66mhz part

The megaraid card is a 4 channel card but supports 8 drives (2xchanel). Onboard 16 megs of ram.

Feature wise the megaraid seems a bit better, supports more Raid modes at least (1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 30, 50)

Promise is just more baddass looking and has more ram. The megaraid doesn't support anymore than the added 16.

Another question I had: I have 5 hard drives now, with the intention of buying more. Can I add drives and have the card dynamically rebuild the array to be bigger?

Thanks
Dan

 

[Ockie0107]

I would go with the Promise controller. The 128MB Ram will make a large diffrence.

Also, you dont need all that extra "rich mans" raid options anyways.


Some controllers support logical drive expansion. But I would suggest buying the 6th drive at the same time to avoid potential problems.