RAID controller with Cache

[CCW]

Hi,
Just spend 20 mins looking for a RAID controller that costs less than £100 and has cache, does any one have any ideas?

Thanks,
Craig

Dual-Channel, etc nothing fancy, just cache

[felix88]

ide raid?

i think you can get a Promise Fasttrak SX4000 for $165 USD, and thats a little over £100.

[CCW]

Thanks, I was loking at the Promise controllers and didnt see that one. I will check to see how much cache it has.

Thanks,
Craig

[CCW]

Hi,
From Komplett.co.uk its £147!

Is this the one:
4-channel ATA RAID 5 Card with hardware XOR engine

Promise Technology does it again! Promise reshapes the ATA RAID playing field with the FastTrak SX4000, the first low-cost, high-performance RAID 5 host adapter with all the RAID features you want, at a price you won't believe.

FastTrak SX4000 satisfies the increasing demands of users and system builders seeking fast, dependable and affordable storage. This 4-channel host adapter uses your choice of Ultra ATA drives for performance, capacity, and value. 66 MHz PCI bus support, up to 256 MB cache memory, and rapid RAID 5 parity calculations assure maximum data transfers.


This is the one that was recently on the main page of xtremesystems.org?

That is a fab price if it has an on-board processor, takes 256MB cache etc.

Thanks,
Craig

[CCW]

Sorry, to post again.....supprts hardware RAID 5 (excellent) but it looks a bit long, will it fit in my Chieftec Full Tower case do you know, spose if it does it will have to go in one of the botton PCI slots so its out of the way of my hard drive cages

CRaig

[felix88]

this is the one that was on the front page not that long ago. it shouldn't be £147, thats pretty expensive.

it's a bit long, but it should fit. it requires at least 64MB. if you have any extra PC100 SDRAM modules laying around, you'll be set.

what exactly are you using this for? a raid0 specific card may be faster, this one is optimized for raid5.

[CCW]

Hi,
I have plenty of 64MB PC100 sticks lying around, yeah, iwas plannig to putm my RAID0 array on something with cache just to speed it up a bit. Do you know of any RAID0 optimised RAID cards?

Thanks
Craig

[felix88]

yeah, but i don't know of any that can use cache.

i'm sure you can get a REALLY GOOD raid 0 card for £100. i just don't know which brands or models.

i kind of like the SATA Highpoint RocketRAID cards. the only difference is 2 and 4 channel. they come with 2 or 4 PATA > SATA converters.

http://www.highpoint-tech.com/rr1520.htm

http://www.highpoint-tech.com/rr1540.htm

[CCW]

Cool, thanks again Felix,

Craig

[ricksimm]

Interesting review here (http://www.tech-report.com/reviews/2002q4/ideraid/index.x?pg=1) .

[felix88]

hmm, those are pretty nice cards.

CCW, you'd probably be fine with the Highpoint controller in that review, you are really just doing raid 0 which it seems to do fine.