Cheap Raid Cards?

[Alcandor]

I've been thinking about getting a raid card a lot lately, upon browsing newegg a raid card to fit in a pciex1 lane and came across this guy (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA0ZX2C38896&cm_re=raid_card-_-16-124-027-_-Product) and was wondering what everyone's though was on it. This is shallow but the colors fit my build and it's not that expensive, so it seems like a viable option given the price. Thoughts?

[Pugs501]

I thought Linus was talking about how RAID isn't needed anymore or something along those terms

[ShadowCaptain]

I've been thinking about getting a raid card a lot lately, upon browsing newegg a raid card to fit in a pciex1 lane and came across this guy (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA0ZX2C38896&cm_re=raid_card-_-16-124-027-_-Product) and was wondering what everyone's though was on it. This is shallow but the colors fit my build and it's not that expensive, so it seems like a viable option given the price. Thoughts?

 

Why not just use software RAID? its actually generally safer and better performance over hardware raid cards - if the raid card fails it can be a serious issue, 

 

EDIT - that card is just a software RAID card anyway unless you need the extra SATA ports, there is no advantage to this over just doing raid in BIOS

[Alcandor]

 

Why not just use software RAID? its actually generally safer and better performance over hardware raid cards - if the raid card fails it can be a serious issue, 

 

EDIT - that card is just a software RAID card anyway unless you need the extra SATA ports, there is no advantage to this over just doing raid in BIOS

Unfortunately I need more SATA ports, as tempting as buying a new mobo is...

I figured I'd just use my mobo SATA for my ssds and the card for a few more hdds. Honestly I'm investing in larger capacity drives next time.

[scottyseng]

 

 

 

Unfortunately I need more SATA ports, as tempting as buying a new mobo is...

I figured I'd just use my mobo SATA for my ssds and the card for a few more hdds. Honestly I'm investing in larger capacity drives next time.

 

 

You could get a PCI Express to SATA port or SAS card. They're usually pretty cheap. They don't do RAID, but you can use the ports with software RAID.

 

Cheap hardware RAID cards aren't a great idea, they're usually just software RAID on a card. The decent ones (With their own onboard memory) start around $500+ with the battery back up unit.

 

In my experience, hardware RAID is faster and more reliable than software RAID, but the con of having to deal with the controller dying and getting a replacement is real. These cards are meant to be run 24/7 in servers at breakneck speeds, I doubt they would die in a consumer setting easily. Anyway, for bang for the buck, use software RAID. I'm guessing you're running Windows so you can't use ZFS or BTRFS as RAID.