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Raid card or software raid?

Erfurt
By Erfurt
in Storage Devices
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Posted

Hey guys

So I was wondering whether I should get a raid card for my storage server, or if I should just go with software raid? I'm using Linux os at the moment and I was planning on going with 8 drives in either two raid 5 or one raid 50, haven't decided yet. I just want some input on what you guys would do. And if you could recommend a raid card in the 200-300$ range that would be awesome :D

My setup: i5 3570K  - Corsair H100i - MSI Z77 GD65 - 256 GB Samsung 840 pro SSD - Corsair AX760i - Gigabyte GTX 670 Windforce 2GB - 4x4 GB Crucial Ballistix Tactical Tracer RAM - Corsair Carbide 500R (modded side window)

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RAID card. You best option is a SAS card with at least 2 ports and adapters to what I am assuming are SATA drives. Software raid can be a little unreliable and getting 8 drives attached to one motherboard with room for a boot drive is not possible on most motherboards. There is also lots of horror stories about software RAID although newer software is better.


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Agreed. RAID card is the best.

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RAID card. You best option is a SAS card with at least 2 ports and adapters to what I am assuming are SATA drives. Software raid can be a little unreliable and getting 8 drives attached to one motherboard with room for a boot drive is not possible on most motherboards. There is also lots of horror stories about software RAID although newer software is better.

 

Agreed. RAID card is the best.

 

Cool, thanks guys. Are there any cards you can recommend? I have heard that LSI should make some good raid cards?

My setup: i5 3570K  - Corsair H100i - MSI Z77 GD65 - 256 GB Samsung 840 pro SSD - Corsair AX760i - Gigabyte GTX 670 Windforce 2GB - 4x4 GB Crucial Ballistix Tactical Tracer RAM - Corsair Carbide 500R (modded side window)

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Cool, thanks guys. Are there any cards you can recommend? I have heard that LSI should make some good raid cards?

 

Ah, if you're running Linux, couldn't you use ZFS or BTRFS instead of hardware RAID? It would be cheaper in your case. Especially with array of just 8 drives, hardware RAID wouldn't be worth it (unless you plan on having a lot more...and if you go ZFS or BTRFS, you'd want a HBA card).

 

And, a decent RAID card will run you about $500-700 with the battery backup. Buying the cheaper entry level RAID cards will run you in trouble in the future...or when the power goes out.

 

LSI makes good RAID cards. Check out the LSI MegaRAID 9361-8i. It also needs the Cachvault accessory to go with it (on card battery backup).

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