recommend a raid card

**evil-98** · 08-28-2009, 11:35 AM

i want to run 4 1tb drives in a raid 6, what is a recommended card? there are so many chooses.

thanks in advanced for educating a noob.

**Spoiler** · 08-28-2009, 11:36 AM

What is your budget?

**evil-98** · 08-28-2009, 11:37 AM

i would say something like $400+/-

edit:

i was looking @ this card http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16816131004

**lowfat** · 08-28-2009, 12:19 PM

The Areca is a good card, but that is too much money for it since it is getting rather old. And you do not want to run RAID6 w/ only 4 drives. RAID 1+0 would be a better choice. RAID6 is very slow. You would really need to be using at least 5 disks to take advantage of it.

**Jor3lBR** · 08-28-2009, 12:23 PM

These seams to perform very well and with new technology:

$308 - LSI 9260-i4

$316 - LSI 9260-i4

**evil-98** · 08-28-2009, 12:58 PM

Originally Posted by lowfat

The Areca is a good card, but that is too much money for it since it is getting rather old. And you do not want to run RAID6 w/ only 4 drives. RAID 1+0 would be a better choice. RAID6 is very slow. You would really need to be using at least 5 disks to take advantage of it.

oh thats right didnt even thin of 1+0, so what would you recommend for a 1+0. i might be able to get that areca card for $300 will that card preform well?

@Jor3lBR: thank you for your suggestions. i will looking into the two you linked

**Jor3lBR** · 08-28-2009, 01:02 PM

Originally Posted by evil-98

oh thats right didnt even thin of 1+0, so what would you recommend for a 1+0. i might be able to get that areca card for $300 will that card preform well?

@Jor3lBR: thank you for your suggestions. i will looking into the two you linked

NP but they are the same I just linked from different store. They are the new 6GB/s ones.

Recently broke the WR: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...l#xtor=RSS-182

**lowfat** · 08-28-2009, 01:04 PM

if for $300 it may be an alright deal. The card tops out around 400-450MB/s for both read/writes. If you don't plan on upgrading to more drives in the near future I would definitely go w/ the LSI card mentioned above though.

**evil-98** · 08-28-2009, 01:16 PM

that does look like a nice card. ah to bad newegg doesnt carry that one. was hoping to get everything @ the same time.

are the 2 links you posted Jor3lBR reputable places?

**Jor3lBR** · 08-28-2009, 01:19 PM

Originally Posted by evil-98

that does look like a nice card. ah to bad newegg doesnt carry that one. was hoping to get everything @ the same time.

are the 2 links you posted Jor3lBR reputable places?

I would go with BUY.COM (first link) they are $308 there and I've bought many things from them and no problems whatsoever:

Seller Ratings: Buy.com : Accepts Google Checkout

4 stars - 4 stars - 4 stars - 4 stars - 4 stars
* 44,825 seller ratings

**evil-98** · 08-28-2009, 01:28 PM

damn you sold me on it, yea im going with that card.

THANKS ALOT!

**Biker** · 08-28-2009, 01:30 PM

You can also get the 8 port version for about $380...

Edit. Never mind - sold out...

**Serra** · 08-28-2009, 02:19 PM

Dell Perc 6/i's can be had for $175 ("used" but never used) in a few places. They're just rebranded LSI's that are thrown into hundreds of pre-packed Dell servers everyday that not all admins keep.

I have a few posts in a thread out there with some comparative testing on 640GB drives versus an Areca iirc to prove the quality. An excellent buy for mechanical drives. RAID-6 performance was very good, 8 ports... 512MB cache (may or may not be a factor).

I know you already seem happy with the idea of the other card, I just wanted to throw this out there in case you were interested and wanted to save some coin.

**evil-98** · 08-28-2009, 02:52 PM

thanks for you opinion, ill take that information for a personal build

**WangChung** · 08-28-2009, 03:53 PM

Look up some of my posts, that Areca card you linked from Newegg is the exact one I have. I can't rave about it enough! It's not noob friendly though (the instruction manual is like 160 pages), but every feature you could imagine is packed in it. It costs, but I think it's worth the quality.

If you wanted to just toss something together and have a 1+0 just to have it, go with the Dell card. Better than onboard by far and good price.

**Serra** · 08-28-2009, 04:52 PM

Originally Posted by WangChung

If you wanted to just toss something together and have a 1+0 just to have it, go with the Dell card. Better than onboard by far and good price.

The "Dell" card does RAID-6 on par with Areca. It's not just a RAID 1 or 0 solution. In this thread you will see it beat out a 5405 in RAID 6 performance, without any particular optimization. Tested with 4x WD6400AAKS drives.

Best bang for the buck for any non-SSD solution IMHO.

**evil-98** · 09-02-2009, 08:43 AM

soooo.... my LSI 9260 8i... and... it didnt come with cables lol
will any sas cable work? im not sure which i need. is this the right cable?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16816133033

thanks again

**Serra** · 09-02-2009, 10:19 AM

Unless my eyes are deceiving me those are SATA ends and the connector is an SFF8087, so that should work.

Just make sure to run some benches for us

**Biker** · 09-02-2009, 10:25 AM

That is the perfect cable for the 9260-8i (mini SAS to 4 SATA)

I would consider getting the 600mm version though, depending upon the size of your case...

**evil-98** · 09-02-2009, 10:56 AM

sweeet.. ok ill order those. my case is pretty small since UPS screwed up and lost my lian li PC-K7B... so im using a antec NSK4480 so everything is packed in there
hopefully i can get the cables by tomorrow.

**Agrophel** · 09-02-2009, 11:41 AM

do RAID 10 on areca, you do RAID level migration when buy more drives.

You can even do RAID capacity expansion and RAID level migration at same time :>

http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/4650/arc1680.png 10x 1tb WD black on Areca 1680-16

**evil-98** · 09-03-2009, 08:38 AM

@Agrophel; thanks for the info

would i need the battery back up or am i safe with just a ups for the LSI card?

**Biker** · 09-03-2009, 08:48 AM

You are pretty safe with a UPS but might lose data in a crash situation.

I do not have a BBU and have had many overclocking related crashes with no data loss so far...

**evil-98** · 09-03-2009, 08:52 AM

hum might get the battery back up in the future then just in case.

thanks again! hopefully the cable comes today!

**evil-98** · 09-04-2009, 08:32 AM

ok all set up! the configuration was kinda dumb.. but once i understood that the raid controller needs boot priority it was cake.

now, its set up in a 1+0 right now and i dont remember the stripe size but hd tune said the average was something like 198mb/sec

does that sound right? what should be the optimal stripe size?

these are 1tb WB black caviar btw.

thanks again

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