Help Choosing A Raid Card

[chrisnathan]

Hey guys, I'm desperately looking for a RAID card for my Seagate 3TB drives (ST3000DM001). I've got 4 of these drives already and would prefer the hassle of returning them and getting some other kind. I'm planning to replace my motherboard to an Asus P8Z77-V Deluxe. I'll be using RAID 5 but am not looking for insane performance so having the card under $300 would be preferable. Can someone recommend a card or is someone using the same drives for a RAID 5 setup? 

 

This is where I would be storing my movies and music. This is also where I would be backing up my 500GB SSD where all my programs are stored.

 

[Eric1024]

Onboard RAID dude, it's not the devil that some people make it out to be. The 4xsata 3gb/s ports on the z77 chipset will allow you to run a perfectly solid raid 5 configuration. There's really no reason to burn money on a raid card just for raid 5.

 

 

And on another note, if you're worried about the integrity of your data, your money would be better invested in some drives that support TLER / ERC instead of a raid controller.

 

That all being said, if you really are dead set on getting a controller, get an lsi 9260-4i.

[looney]

Like eric said, on board is not the devil, just keep in mind that if your board dies that there is a big chanse you will need to replace it with the same chipset board to make the raid work again, witch might be a problem if it dies after 3 or 4 years. 

also, have a look at software raid like SnapRAID and FlexRAID, they run on your os and are not hardware depended. and speed should not be the issue.

[ryan9298b2]

Onboard RAID for RAID 5 is horrible.  It is slow because of all of the algorithms that use processing power and can result in higher CPU usage.  I would recommend a modest solution from someone like LSI or Intel:

 

Intel:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816117172

 

LSI:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816118130

 

Neither of these cards will disappoint!

[thedave5000]

Onboard RAID for RAID 5 is horrible.  It is slow because of all of the algorithms that use processing power and can result in higher CPU usage.  I would recommend a modest solution from someone like LSI or Intel:

 

Intel:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816117172

 

LSI:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816118130

 

Neither of these cards will disappoint!

+1 to that, no need to burn CPU power on data storage algorithms, better to spend it in fps

[Caravetta]

If you want to go with a raid 5 I would get a raid card don't use on board.

[chrisnathan]

But it's only for storing media, no programs are going to run off it, would I still need one? And also it's pretty hard finding one that is compatible with my motherboard and the drives that I've got since most of them are meant for server motherboards

[mybeat]

Dell Perc i5 or i6 sells for somewhere from 100-150$ on ebay, sometimes even with a battery.

Another option would be to go for software raid, yes it will use cpu, but it's not like it's going to max out even one core.

[chrisnathan]

The trouble with those is that they don't support 3TB+ drives. But would I really need it for watching movies or listening to music, not writing to it that much

[looney]

in that case i would pick a software raid (SnapRAID / FlexRAID). 

you can simply use the on board sata ports or you can buy something like a IBM m1015 using the "IT" firmware.