Raid Controller

[Mixmaster5]

Hi there

 

I'm going to built a RAID 5 Setup witn 5 x 3TB 7200 RPM HDDs.

Its for video editing so I need a fast data stream.

 

What RAID Card could you suggest? (I'm also considering a used one!)

 

Thanks of the tips.

 

Cheers

[DirkW]

@Mixmaster5

 

LSI has some pretty good stuff.

[NumLock21]

Adaptec

http://adaptec.pmcs.com/en-us/

Some boards support RAID 5. If your board has, use that and save up.

[Mixmaster5]

It does, but experts tell that it is to be avoided to use the motherboard as a RAID 5 controller...

[Mixmaster5]

Any specific model you could recoomend around the 200$ mark? (As said, I'm considering to buy a used one)

[DirkW]

It does, but experts tell that it is to be avoided to use the motherboard as a RAID 5 controller...

 

Actually, write speeds can be very, very slow on RAID5 arrays that are not run off a good RAID controller card, so using them is recommended, while not strictly necessary.

[ChineseChef]

I would suggest buying used off of eBay; you can get cards that were $1-2k brand new for $100.  They won't have fancy new features that enterprises want, but for your 5 disk array, they will be insane.  Just do your homework on any brand and model incompatibilities with consumer level stuff.

 

Also, you don't need 5+ sata ports.  Just get a card that supports 8 drives or more, with 2 mini sas 8087 ports.  The mini sas ports use a cable that breaks out into 4 sas/sata ports (they are interchangeable for your needs).

 

Here is an example of what kind of card I am talking about.  I am not reccomending for or against this card (just grabed first thing I could find as an example).

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Adaptec-ASR-5805-512MB-8-Port-PCI-e-SAS-RAID-Controller-2244100-R-/161335765857?pt=US_Computer_Disk_Controllers_RAID_Cards&hash=item25905c6b61