Best Budget - Mid Raid Cards

[mapexlegend]

Hi, I'm planning on building a nas using four 2tb wd red drives, I want a raid card to run all this but I'm having trouble choosing so I was wanting some suggestions please. I don't wanna spend much, so suggest more budget friendly cards but keep in mind I still want a good card. Thanks Ethan  

[looney]

Are you sure you need a RAID card?

Software RAID like FlexRAID is a very nice solution for normal media storage and you wont need a RAID card.

so what will you be using your storage for?

[mapexlegend]

Media mainly, photos, videos and general files

[mapexlegend]

also what raid would be best for this situation?

[looney]

I would personally go with windows running FlexRAID in RAID 5.

You wont need a RAID card just the motherboard SATA ports.

And you can share just like any other windows drive.

 

PS: im working on a FlexRAID tutorial (hoping to finish it this weekend)

[mapexlegend]

Thanks for all the help, cant wait to see the tutorial :)

[mapexlegend]

what kind of cpu power would i need?

[Eric1024]

what kind of cpu power would i need?

If you're just using it for media backup and streaming for a few people, then you'd be more than okay with an APU or an i3/pentium chip

[looney]

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/33510-how-to-install-and-setup-flexraid-on-your-windows-storage-system/

not finished yet but 75% is there.

[mapexlegend]

Had a quick skim over your tutorial (looks awesome! I'll read it fully later) and saw that there was an option for either snap shot or real time, if its not to much trouble could you explain the difference between the two? Thanks :)

[wpirobotbuilder]

Had a quick skim over your tutorial (looks awesome! I'll read it fully later) and saw that there was an option for either snap shot or real time, if its not to much trouble could you explain the difference between the two? Thanks :)

Snapshot RAID is just RAID that isn't done on a real-time basis. For instance, files that change a lot (like databases, an OS and certain applications) need to always have the necessary RAID calculations being done to make sure that they are fully protected. For data that doesn't change often, it is far more efficient to do the RAID calculation on a scheduled basis (e.g. every few hours or even days) to save processing power.

[looney]

Snapshot RAID is just RAID that isn't done on a real-time basis. For instance, files that change a lot (like databases, an OS and certain applications) need to always have the necessary RAID calculations being done to make sure that they are fully protected. For data that doesn't change often, it is far more efficient to do the RAID calculation on a scheduled basis (e.g. every few hours or even days) to save processing power.

Yep, thx wpirobotbuilder.

 

For FlexRAID ans simple media storage just use snapshot, if you need real-time then FlexRAID is not for you.

[mapexlegend]

Snapshot sounds perfect for what I want, just wanted to know the difference :) Thanks everyone for all your help!