which RAID setup for work PC

[Okda]

Hello all,

my work are done mostly from work and i used to use my notebook for that, till i decided lately to build a nice PC and use it for Work and some gaming during my free time

Since my budget will be mostly spent on the cpu + mobi + vga, i am going to use a bunch of HDD i already own, they are 4 x 500GB Blue WD

i am planning to use the 3 x Blue 500GB HDD in a RAID array for the OS ( windows 7 or XP 32bit ) + the work software and documents or anything else i care about, which all of them won't exceed 150GB in total by any mean
the remaining 1 x Blue 500GB i will use it for installing games and downloads folder, the kind of data that i don't care about them very much.

i was going to buy a SB based system with the Asus P67 Sabertooth mobo but after reading about the SATA issue in SB based mobo, i am not sure what to do, whether to buy a SB system or buy an AMD system, then an idea came up to my mind, why not buy a RAID card, to be able to move the HDD RAID setup to any mobo , in case something went wrong in the mobo , and also this will let me enjoy the perfromance of the SB and that cause i can't wait till Q2 for a B3 mobo, and here in Egypt we are not sure if they will accept replcaing the B2 mobos with B3 or not

So is the Area 1210 card is a good solution along with a RAID5 on the 3 HDD, or there is something better i can do, i can buy 2 more 500GB hard but the area card seems to have only 4 sata ports, or there is a better controller i the same range price of the area ( less than 300$ ) or shall i look for RAID0+1


Sorry for the long thread and thanks in advance for your help

[tiro_uspsss]

dont buy Areca 1210 - too old & over-priced imo

what RAID level are u planning on using for the 3x blues?

[Johnny87au]

I was going to recommend a 9211 which goes for $180 last time i checked but seems it uses up alot of resources and Cant raid certain raids IIRC, I'd recommend the 9240 hands down as it lets you change stripe size and performs just under the 9260.. Heres some benches..
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.ph...9536&Itemid=47

[Okda]

dont buy Areca 1210 - too old & over-priced imo

what RAID level are u planning on using for the 3x blues?

i was thinking about RAID5, since it give some performance boast and a good recovery level
i was thinking about RAID0+1 but this will mean that the extra fifth hard to be used for downloads and gaming will be using the onboard SATA port on the mobo , so i am forced to use port 0 or port 1 or the marvel chipset, is this ok ?

I was going to recommend a 9211 which goes for $180 last time i checked but seems it uses up alot of resources and Cant raid certain raids IIRC, I'd recommend the 9240 hands down as it lets you change stripe size and performs just under the 9260.. Heres some benches..
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.ph...9536&Itemid=47

the 9240-4i seems a very good product, and its price is much better than 1210 beside it support raid 10

will look more for reviews about this card and its compatibility with the new Intel P67 mobos

thanks

[Johnny87au]

i was thinking about RAID5, since it give some performance boast and a good recovery level
i was thinking about RAID0+1 but this will mean that the extra fifth hard to be used for downloads and gaming will be using the onboard SATA port on the mobo , so i am forced to use port 0 or port 1 or the marvel chipset, is this ok ?



the 9240-4i seems a very good product, and its price is much better than 1210 beside it support raid 10

will look more for reviews about this card and its compatibility with the new Intel P67 mobos

thanks

It's a awesome card.. Im pretty sure you can purchase the fastpath key also which helps latency and increases IOPS

[tiro_uspsss]

It's a awesome card.. Im pretty sure you can purchase the fastpath key also which helps latency and increases IOPS

apparently fastpath key only gives noticable performance boosts with 4+ SSDs

i was thinking about RAID5, since it give some performance boast and a good recovery level
i was thinking about RAID0+1 but this will mean that the extra fifth hard to be used for downloads and gaming will be using the onboard SATA port on the mobo , so i am forced to use port 0 or port 1 or the marvel chipset, is this ok ?



the 9240-4i seems a very good product, and its price is much better than 1210 beside it support raid 10

will look more for reviews about this card and its compatibility with the new Intel P67 mobos

thanks

yeah the 9240-4i has better XOR.. but no cache :-/

with RAID 0+1 u need a min of 4 HDDs, so with current broken chipset p67 mobos, this would force u to use the broken SATA ports - not good

if u dont do RAID5, dont get a controller - RAID 0, 1, & 0+1 are simple enough for Intel onboard (tho u'll have to wait for the fixed revision chipset mobos)

[Okda]

i just found a card named Highpoint RocketRAID 2720, which they claim it has performance higher by 95% than LSI

its price is good and it has 8 ports

and yes i am thinking about RAID5 or even Raid10 nothing else for a good performance boast while using the HDD not a SSD and still has a good recovery ability

regarding the Intel SB issue, can i use the Sta port from the Marvel chipset for the extra HDD. this won't affect the Intel one , will it ?

[WangChung]

Good to see you're on here asking questions, given your location!

I would honestly look for something NOT P67 based, and look at using maybe just onboard. Something like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131658
Supports 6Gbps ports AND has RAID support for 0/1/5/10. Granted it's a "gaming" board, but honestly it's whatever what work you decide to do with it.

[Okda]

thanks for your suggestion

But, Sandy Bridge has better performance than the previous generation beside i concluded from my readings that software Raid5 and Raid10 is not a good solution at all, also using the Card, i can change the motherboard and still use the RAID array on a new one without loosing data

[WangChung]

That board is a hardware RAID, but your other reasons are logical.

[Okda]

i didn't know that

thanks for the info

[tiro_uspsss]

That board is a hardware RAID, but your other reasons are logical.

completely utterly incorrect

i just found a card named Highpoint RocketRAID 2720, which they claim it has performance higher by 95% than LSI

its price is good and it has 8 ports

and yes i am thinking about RAID5 or even Raid10 nothing else for a good performance boast while using the HDD not a SSD and still has a good recovery ability

regarding the Intel SB issue, can i use the Sta port from the Marvel chipset for the extra HDD. this won't affect the Intel one , will it ?

I'd stay away from Highpoint

[Okda]

never thought buying a RAID card would be that hard

what is your suggestion tiro_uspsss ?
what about raidCard for SATA only ??? since there is now way i will use SAS drives in this machine , any good solution

my plans are to use RAID 5 or RAID10 if possible on a 4 HDD setup, no plans for SSD

[tiro_uspsss]

never thought buying a RAID card would be that hard

what is your suggestion tiro_uspsss ?
what about raidCard for SATA only ??? since there is now way i will use SAS drives in this machine , any good solution

my plans are to use RAID 5 or RAID10 if possible on a 4 HDD setup, no plans for SSD

stick to that LSI mentioned earlier - its good balance $/performance/capabilities

[Okda]

won't the no cache issue be a bad idea with a Raid made using HDD not SSD

[tiro_uspsss]

won't the no cache issue be a bad idea with a Raid made using HDD not SSD

the no cache may affect RAID5 performance.. dunno about 01/10.. either way, the onboard intel doesnt have cache either.. if u want cache, u'll need to spend more.. whats ur budget?

[Okda]

my budget limited to 300$

if no cache affect RAID5 then it might also do so to RAID10, u think the performance difference between the LSI card and the intel justify the extra cost paid for the LSI ?? i am looking for reviews but can't find any good ones

[tiro_uspsss]

my budget limited to 300$

if no cache affect RAID5 then it might also do so to RAID10, u think the performance difference between the LSI card and the intel justify the extra cost paid for the LSI ?? i am looking for reviews but can't find any good ones

I dont know if there will be a performance diff LSI vs Intel @ RAID 10
but RAID5, the LSI will own the intel big time

[tiro_uspsss]

here is a possible solution:

go to ebay for PERC5i or PERC6i

both cards do the RAID level(s) u want.
the PERC6i even does RAID6
both cards are a lil old, but will still be far better than onboard intel in RAID5 (in fact, the PERC5i has same XOR as the areca 1210)
both cards have cache - the 6i has 256MB, the 5i has a upgradable RAM DIMM, so u can choose between 256 or 512MB cache!
& both cards are under USD$200 on ebay

[tiro_uspsss]

here is a good thread on 5i/6i (with benchmarks):

http://www.overclock.net/raid-contro...card-tips.html

[WangChung]

completely utterly incorrect

Explain...? (Preferably w/o the snarky emoticons)

[tiro_uspsss]

Explain...? (Preferably w/o the snarky emoticons)

Intel ICH10R =! true hardware RAID

it's common it's knowledge

[Johnny87au]

No cache isnt a big loss, Still will yield way better performance over intel raid setup wether it be hardware or software raid.. You can go for the 9211 but i believe doesnt support raid 10 or raid 5, cant quite remember tbh.. 9240 would be your best bet with a FP key.. @ tiro im quite sure it increases IOPS mate, seen a thread a while back from one of the ssd gurus..

[tiro_uspsss]

No cache isnt a big loss, Still will yield way better performance over intel raid setup wether it be hardware or software raid.. You can go for the 9211 but i believe doesnt support raid 10 or raid 5, cant quite remember tbh.. 9240 would be your best bet with a FP key.. @ tiro im quite sure it increases IOPS mate, seen a thread a while back from one of the ssd gurus..

yep, agree - & one of those ssd gurus also said it's only really needed / useful with 4 or more ssds

[Johnny87au]

well if thats the case, add 1 more blue then u have 4