Recommend a RAID5 PCI or PCI-E card?

By pes2013
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Experienced

pes2013

Posted
Posted

Can someone recommend me a RAID5 PCI or PCI-E (Im happier with this second option because it is faster and I saw a PC the other day without any PCI ports) card? Want one so if I move my RAID5 to another PC, it doesnt break.

Cheapest as possible please; This RAID5 will be only used to store data.

Thanks

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Grand Master

TPreston

Posted
Posted

You can pick up 12 port 3ware 9500 (PCI-X not express) cards for under a hundred bucks, Theyre as slow as **** for rebuild but file copy performance is decent ive hit 75-100MB/s with them

Experienced

pes2013

Posted
  • Author
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What Motherboard do you have and how many SATA ports do you need 4, 8? Budget?

I need 4 and budget as LOW as possible.

MB doesnt matter (right?). I just have PCI-E and PCI ports.

You can pick up 12 port 3ware 9500 (PCI-X not express) cards for under a hundred bucks, Theyre as slow as **** for rebuild but file copy performance is decent ive hit 75-100MB/s with them

i THINK you can convert between PCI-X and PCI-E right? And lower than 100 bucks? With RAID5? Link please because all Ive seen are pretty expensive....

Grand Master

TPreston

Posted
Posted

i

I need 4 and budget as LOW as possible.

MB doesnt matter (right?). I just have PCI-E and PCI ports.

i THINK you can convert between PCI-X and PCI-E right? And lower than 100 bucks? With RAID5? Link please because all Ive seen are pretty expensive....

I thought they were completely incompatible ?

anyway a quick search reveals

http://www.ebay.ie/itm/3WARE-AMCC-9500S-12-SATA-RAID-CONTROLLER-/380473791352?pt=US_Server_Disk_Controllers_RAID_Cards&hash=item5896015378

End of life stuff is usually dirt cheap. might be worth looking for a newer pci-x modal as they are faster (at rebuild) but for under 100$ theres not much of a chance.

Ive used the 9500's (8 & 12 port) in my home server for years and there are no driver issues with server 2012 the biggest disadvantage is the long rebuild time because its a relatively slow hardware raid card long as in 18-24 hours but when the array is rebuilt its fine.

Grand Master

+PeterUK MVC

Posted
  • MVC
Posted

I need 4 and budget as LOW as possible.

MB doesnt matter (right?). I just have PCI-E and PCI ports.

Only if you want me to guess if you can have a PCI-e x4 slot available or a x16 slot for a x4 card to go in.

HighPoint RocketRAID 640 is for $100 bad & good reviews.

Much better using the Intel RAID since Intel have good support for moving a array to another Intel supported RAID board.

i THINK you can convert between PCI-X and PCI-E right? And lower than 100 bucks? With RAID5? Link please because all Ive seen are pretty expensive....

PCI-X cards can go into PCI slots not PCI-e.

Experienced

pes2013

Posted
  • Author
Posted

anyway a quick search reveals

http://www.ebay.ie/itm/3WARE-AMCC-9500S-12-SATA-RAID-CONTROLLER-/380473791352?pt=US_Server_Disk_Controllers_RAID_Cards&hash=item5896015378

End of life stuff is usually dirt cheap. might be worth looking for a newer pci-x modal as they are faster (at rebuild) but for under 100$ theres not much of a chance.

Ive used the 9500's (8 & 12 port) in my home server for years and there are no driver issues with server 2012 the biggest disadvantage is the long rebuild time because its a relatively slow hardware raid card long as in 18-24 hours but when the array is rebuilt its fine.

I dont mind the long rebuild time.

And no, not intrested in used off (more so off eBay)

Only if you want me to guess if you can have a PCI-e x4 slot available or a x16 slot for a x4 card to go in.

I have a PCI-e x16 slot free (which accepts x4 cards as well. Anyways performance isnt the top prority; Although I would like it to support AT LEAST SATA300. Ive seen a few with SATA150 and hm...

HighPoint RocketRAID 640 is for $100 bad & good reviews.

That HighPoint RocketRAID 640 looks pretty OK.

Much better using the Intel RAID since Intel have good support for moving a array to another Intel supported RAID board.

I usually will always use Intel RAID but who knows if tommorow they are incompatible? I rather play it safe :) (Im currently on a Intel RAID)

PCI-X cards can go into PCI slots not PCI-e.

OK :)

Im looking at 109.47 euros for the HighPoint RocketRAID 640 though :( Man thats going to hurt.

Proficient

grunger106

Posted
Posted

PCI-X cards can go into PCI slots not PCI-e.

Not all PCI-X cards will fit in a PCI slot.

Some cards do, NICs and most SCSI controllers will

Raid controllers which are PCI-X often won't and are keyed not to, I have a PCI-X Adaptec 2420SA and it will definitely not fit in a PCI slot.

Grand Master

Japlabot

Posted
Posted

You are going about this all wrong. It looks like you are looking for a RAID card so that you can easily migrate the RAID to another computer in the future. If you are looking for this kind of thing, this is probably because you are using RAID instead of having a BACKUP. RAID IS NOT A BACKUP.

What if the RAID card dies? How will you be able to migrate your precious RAID dies? What if your computer is hit with a power surge and takes out everything including RAID card and drives? What if your data is wiped by a nasty 0-day worm? What if your house burns down or gets robbed?

You need to get a proper backup system so that easy RAID migration is not on concern, when it comes time to change hardware, run a backup on the old system, then restore onto the new system.

The only excuse I can think of is in a business environment where things are so critical that you need things back online as quick as possible. Even this use scenario is debatable because if you have one of these environments you should have redundant servers or at least a cold server ready to restore your latest data in case of failure.

Experienced

pes2013

Posted
  • Author
Posted

You are going about this all wrong. It looks like you are looking for a RAID card so that you can easily migrate the RAID to another computer in the future. If you are looking for this kind of thing, this is probably because you are using RAID instead of having a BACKUP. RAID IS NOT A BACKUP.

What if the RAID card dies? How will you be able to migrate your precious RAID dies? What if your computer is hit with a power surge and takes out everything including RAID card and drives? What if your data is wiped by a nasty 0-day worm? What if your house burns down or gets robbed?

You need to get a proper backup system so that easy RAID migration is not on concern, when it comes time to change hardware, run a backup on the old system, then restore onto the new system.

The only excuse I can think of is in a business environment where things are so critical that you need things back online as quick as possible. Even this use scenario is debatable because if you have one of these environments you should have redundant servers or at least a cold server ready to restore your latest data in case of failure.

? What ?

I am asking for a RAID5 4 Port SATA2 PCI-E card. Did you post in the wrong thread?

Anyways, Im reciving the 4 HDDs tommorow so if someone could help me ASAP I would really appriciate it :)

Collaborator

pupdawg21

Posted
Posted

In order to move any RAID between a different system those systems needs to have a similar RAID controllers. For example you can't move a RAID-5 created with a Highpoint Card for example to a 3WAre card later down the road without breaking/losing the raid set because their methods for creating the array is not identical and not recognized. The only way you can be sure you can move a RAID set between systems/controllers is if you are using a Software RAID created by whatever OS you are using or again by having a similar controller (same family line, not necessarily exact same controller) in both systems.

Experienced

pes2013

Posted
  • Author
Posted

In order to move any RAID between a different system those systems needs to have a similar RAID controllers. For example you can't move a RAID-5 created with a Highpoint Card for example to a 3WAre card later down the road without breaking/losing the raid set because their methods for creating the array is not identical and not recognized. The only way you can be sure you can move a RAID set between systems/controllers is if you are using a Software RAID created by whatever OS you are using or again by having a similar controller (same family line, not necessarily exact same controller) in both systems.

Thats the reason Im getting a RAID card :) To avoid this problem as much as possible :)

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