Confused - Which Areca raid card to choose?

[minpayne]

I'm looking for a raid card for my Intel S1200KP motherboard. (The LSI 9240-8i is known to be incompatible with the motherboard.) The fileserver has 4 x 4TB Hitachi HDD, and 1 x Intel X25-E 64GB.

I'd like to run the 4 HDDs in raid 0 (no redundancy required) via a PCI-E raid card, while the X25-E 64GB is connected directly to the native SATA port on the motherboard.

OS will be Debian Linux (2.6.xx kernel) on the X25-E 64GB.

Ideally I want a raid card with some cache, and has internal ports to connect at least 4 HDDs (preferably SATA3 but I guess SATA2 would also work fine as the sequential speed of HDD is only around 160MB/s?). If the price for 8 HDDs is not significantly greater then I'd consider that too. The raid card must be reliable to sustain 24/7 heavy load!

I'm quite confused by the product lists on the official website, and I have no idea how the model numbers reflect generations.

[tived]

Hi,

I just got the Areca 1882ix-24, its a bit early days but given what Computurd is archiving here with it I would have to say its a go.

Maybe get the 12 or 16 channel one so you have some room to expand

Henrik

[mike]

The S1200KP is an Mini itx board - right? Did you want to go something small factor - or can the raid controler be bigger than the actual board?

1231ML, 1880-1882 are all brilliant controlers - do you have a budget in mind?

[minpayne]

Hi,

I just got the Areca 1882ix-24, its a bit early days but given what Computurd is archiving here with it I would have to say its a go.

Maybe get the 12 or 16 channel one so you have some room to expand

Henrik

I'm quite confused by the number of channels. Does 2 x SF8087 connectors have only 8 ports?

The S1200KP is an Mini itx board - right? Did you want to go something small factor - or can the raid controler be bigger than the actual board?

1231ML, 1880-1882 are all brilliant controlers - do you have a budget in mind?

The case is Lian-Li TU200 (VGA Card length: 300mm). I assume there shouldn't be any clearance problems for any raid controller?

Budget would be something within 1000 USD.

[tived]

2 x SF8087 connectors is 8 ports

the 1882ix24 is the same length as a 580GTX GeForce, but you also have to at, depending on what controller you get, where the cables are connected, as in my case, the 4 of the 6 SF8087 connectors are at the back, so I need more room

though I use the LIAN LI 2120v

i hope this helps

Henrik

I'm quite confused by the number of channels. Does 2 x SF8087 connectors have only 8 ports?



The case is Lian-Li TU200 (VGA Card length: 300mm). I assume there shouldn't be any clearance problems for any raid controller?

Budget would be something within 1000 USD.

[mike]

not sure what your priorities are with that configuration...but the 1231ML with max cache should be more than fine to handle those 4 drives blindingly fast...1882 is currently the cram of the crop - but might be overkill?

[minpayne]

not sure what your priorities are with that configuration...but the 1231ML with max cache should be more than fine to handle those 4 drives blindingly fast...1882 is currently the cram of the crop - but might be overkill?

I just assumed that a raid controller with PCI-E 2.0 x8 and 8 ports of SATA III interface would offer maximum bandwidth if one day I plan to play with SSDs?

[tived]

If you are looking for cheap then there is also Highpoint 27xx if you read www.thessdreview.com ...there are some very good articles there, and its dirt cheap compared to the Areca's and LSI's

Henrik

PS: there is also now PCIe 3 to contend with!!! just to add to the complexity of getting something thats future proof!!!!