Good SAS Raid Controller, 8 ports?

[Serra]

Yeah but that is a Perc 6... which is a single core XOR at 500 or 800Mhz.
Any raidcon equipped with the Intel IOP348 (Dualcore 1,2Ghz) such as the Adaptec 5 series is an entirely different story, these things ACTUALLY give off loads of heat. Even with a 4000rpm 40mm fan added to the stock cooler, my 5405 still hit close to 80C which I was not comfortable with, hence the water cooler.

It's also not based on any form of Intel architecture, so it's comparing apples and oranges in that way too (ditto with clocks, though I'd be surprised if 500MHz found a way to equal 2x 1.2GHz - still, should sit at least somewhere between the later IOP333's and current 348's... no idea where in between tho). But if anyone decides to go with an LSI-based card, that's hopefully some info for them, I didn't intend it to sound like I was generalizing for all cards and I'm sorry if it did.

The Percs do have a great price/performance ratio if you get them off ebay, but with a Perc it is still kind of a gambling game, because you are betting on the card to run in your mobo, which is not a given for all mobos. There are lots and lots out there that just don't work with a Perc 5/6 simply because these cards were never designed to properly run anywhere except in Dell servers, hence don't give a damn about general compatibility.

The compatibility issue is extremely well documented in DIY circles, both cause and fix. All boards should work with them now. It wasn't that the cards were only designed to work in Dell mobos - that's hogwash - the issue was with bad programming on the part of motherboard manufacturers.

I think you'll like the setup, I am running 4x WD6400AAKS on my 5405 in Raid 5 since early 2008, no problems whatsoever even though they are not rated for 24/7 operation

You can compare your benchies to mine then (I did Raid 0/1/5/6/10 when I first set it up), even though the firmware of the 5405 has been optimized for even better speed by now.

Hopefully I'll be able to go snag some drives today if my local store will price-match Newegg, otherwise it'll have to wait a bit. Either way I'd love to see your benches to compare against once they arrive. PM me with them if possible.