RAID controller for $600 AUD

[jcool]

Ok, did a quick comparison between the 3520 and 5805 for you and came up with 3 major differences:

1. XOR. The Highpoint uses the Intel IOP 81341, an 800Mhz singlecore chip that used to be top of the line. The Adaptec 5 series, however, uses the latest Intel IOP 348 which is a 1,2Ghz Dualcore (!) chip. Apart from the Adaptec 5 series, AFAIK only the highest-end Arecas use these XORs (1680xi and the likes).
2. Cache. The 5805 has double the cache at 512MB.
3. SAS. The 5805 can handle both SAS and SATA drives, which may come in handy some time. The 3520 is SATA only.

In Germany those 2 cost the same, so unless the Highpoint is way cheaper for you, I'd go for the Adaptec any day of the week.

Here is the Intel spec sheet on the IOP348, says something about hardware raid 6 acceleration with near raid 5 speeds as well, which might be nice with 8 drives (I'd run a raid 6 with 8 drives I think, 8 standard desktop drives in raid 5 isn't that safe really )

For comparison, Raid 6 on my 5405, still with 4 WD6400AAKS:




Though obviously you need more drives for a raid 6