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Storage Looking to buy a RAID card...

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by M2k3, 10 Nov 2008.

  1. M2k3

    M2k3 Wired to the Core

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    Hey, well it's that time of the year. My birthday is coming up and I'm going to get some extra cash for a RAID card since I've been wanting one for a while now. Lately I've been wanting more hard disks and the integrated RAID on my 680i board just isn't giving me the performance I want.

    Anyway I'm looking around online and I have no idea what I should get. What I need is a card that will support at least 8 SATA II disks, supports RAID5 and of course good performance is a must. It also MUST come with all the cables needed to connected 8 SATA drives out of the box, I don't want to be arsed to have order more stuff. It also must be PCI-e, PCI-X will not do. I'm willing to spend up to $500 CAD but it can probably be pushed a little bit.

    I don't want this to be one of those "omg choose for me!!1" threads, so far I've been researching RAID cards all day and this is quite a bit of cash I'm dropping on one component. From what I've found brands like Adaptec, 3Ware and Areca are some of the higher end stuff and then Highpoint, Promise and LSI are a little more mid range and I'm not even interested in the low end stuff.

    Now I've been eyeing stuff like this Adaptec 3805 (http://www.adaptec.com/en-US/products/Controllers/Hardware/sas/value/SAS-3805/) which is a little pricey then there's stuff like this Highpoint RocketRAID 2320 (http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA/rr2320.htm) which is considerably cheaper but like all computer stuff I know you get what you pay for.

    The Highpoint 3520 (http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=017686&cid=IO.898.149) is in my price range but I don't know if I should just shell out the $$ for a real high end card instead.

    So basically I'm asking for suggestions and input, stuff like brands I should go with what I can get that will give me good performance and what I should be looking for when buying a RAID card. Should I go cheap or get something more high end? What is kind of experience does anyone have with these kinds of things? Any suggestions on a card that meets my needs?
     
    Last edited: 10 Nov 2008
  2. jbloggs

    jbloggs What's a Dremel?

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  3. M2k3

    M2k3 Wired to the Core

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    That is exactly what I don't want. What I want is to see why I should buy that card over any other card? What should I look for when buying this kind of stuff?
     
  4. a1h

    a1h Xeon Gamer

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    I am Running an Adaptec card, Its very nice and very fast, i am getting 200MB/S transfer rate across my small raid, which i plan on expanding when i have more money for hard drives.

    I haven't had any problems with their cards, they are easy to configure.

    Umm not sure what to say about it really.

    After taking a look at the 3805 it looks like an updated version of my controller, and they are guty enough to say has an MTBF of about 95 years.
     
  5. LordLuciendar

    LordLuciendar meh.

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    Have you tried reading the hundred other threads that you can find searching "RAID" in your quest for answers? I don't mean to be cruel, but it gets a bit annoying typing the same thing over and over and over again.

    This Thread: Looking for a RAID 6 Controller outlines varying degrees of RAID quite well.

    This Thread: Exceptionally Funky RAID Questions outlines what benefit RAID will give to gaming and how to make a decision for cache and size.

    Since those threads, my personal favorite choice Highpoint Technologies has released a new SAS line (4300 series) that features the Intel IOP348 1.2GHz, which has the most speed of any I/O Processor. Their SATA only 3500 series top out at 800MHz, but still feature Intel IOP and are still rumored to be the fastest SATA only RAID solutions available. The 3300 Series are limited to 500MHz and from there it gets smaller and cheaper.

    What you failed to let us know is why you need this card. Massive storage with lots of SATA ports, an "edge" in your games (that you likely won't get), a high speed single array for crunching data like rendering and video editing, or fancy multiple arrays for the same thing. This would help us recommend a solution.

    Simplest answer: More IOP Megahertz means a quicker response time and higher bandwidth, more cache means more simultaneous sessions and threads can be run, but a single workstation will almost never need more than 128MB, 256MB tops with current technology, the 512MB-2GB cards are designed for servers where there are dozens of clients all accessing the data at once. Driver support and technical support are both important as well, as is build quality. Most RAID vendors supply the enterprise market primarily, therefore their driver support is usually very good and their build quality and technical support teams are a very important part of their business, though for some, like Intel, this is limited to registered program partners. I can vouch for HighPoint Technologies build quality, its that quality that makes me support them so much, and their ability to produce cutting edge cards and also niche products like IDE RAID and support drivers for all of them at once. Intel has the best technical support of them all, IF you're a partner, so it most likely will mean nothing to you, they use LSI IOP. Areca is a board favorite, and they are very much like HPT (HighPoint Technologies) in their cutting edge hardware and solid driver support, they had an IOP348 card 4-6 months before HPT. LSI, 3Ware and a dozen others I can't think of are all very solid enterprise companies, but in all honestly, they probably aren't worth the extra money.

    Hope this helped.
     
  6. M2k3

    M2k3 Wired to the Core

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    Thanks a tonne LordLuciendar, it looks like I probably will go with a Highpoint card. As for what I am needing a RAID card for, one of the big things is I want more disks than what my motherboard supports. It is currently maxed out with 6 SATAII drives and I want a couple more. I also do video editing so the speed and redundancy of RAID5 is a real benefit. Not to mention the onboard RAID is unreliable (the array gets degraded every now and then and it's a huge inconvenience to have to sync it again) and 6 disks is strenuous on the CPU.

    After doing some reading I think I'll probably go with the Highpoint 2320 (http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=011051&cid=IO.898.149)
    I don't think I'll benefit from the more expensive cards.
     
    Last edited: 16 Nov 2008
  7. LordLuciendar

    LordLuciendar meh.

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    You mean the 2320... but I do agree, good choice for what you are doing with it. When doing video editing you could probably use the extra jolt of the RocketRAID 3520 (Intel IOP341 800MHz vs Marvel Controllers) that would make a big difference when you have lots of random I/O (Rendering/ Editing)... though both are good solutions for their prices, and both are better than onboard by far.
     

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