Dedicated RAID Card Needed

[JamesThresher]

So i'm in the middle of my new build and i'm running 3 x 3Tb WD Red's in RAID 5 on a Maximus VI Formula, however the RAID 5 performance is terrible, read speed is reasonably good but write speed is very slow, something I understand is a known problem with onboard RAID.

 

Can anyone recommend a good dedicated RAID card, budget isn't an issue although i don't want to go past the point where the cost increases a lot for only a small additional performance gain. Also does anyone know if i can just switch the disks over to a dedicated RAID card and have it recognise the array? i don't want to have to completely rebuild it.

[helping]

Please be sure you have sufficient cooling to support one.

[Excon]

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816116042

LSI is a good company as far as I understand, my raid setup went smoothly and I haven't looked into cards.

 

Edit: I changed the card a couple of times.

[JamesThresher]

Please be sure you have sufficient cooling to support one.

 

I've got plenty of cooling

[JamesThresher]

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816116042

LSI is a good company as far as I understand, my raid setup went smoothly and I haven't looked into cards.

 

Edit: I changed the card a couple of times.

 

I was looking at either the LSI or Adaptec cards, the problem i have is i'm not entirely sure what benefit i'm getting from the higher cost cards, I can spend anything between about £150 ($230US) to £650 ($1000 US) and they all seem to offer similar features, I'm just not sure what benefit the higher cost cards provide.

[Excon]

I was looking at either the LSI or Adaptec cards, the problem i have is i'm not entirely sure what benefit i'm getting from the higher cost cards, I can spend anything between about £150 ($230US) to £650 ($1000 US) and they all seem to offer similar features, I'm just not sure what benefit the higher cost cards provide.

TBH, I couldn't tell you the difference either. From reviews ive seen the one I linked seemed be pretty solid though. Its at a fair price and its made by LSI so you cant go wrong. I think the difference in price would be a more expensive card would have higher bandwidth like 8/16x compared to 4/8x and allow for more drives and be more stable?

[JamesThresher]

TBH, I couldn't tell you the difference either. From reviews ive seen the one I linked seemed be pretty solid though. Its at a fair price and its made by LSI so you cant go wrong. I think the difference in price would be a more expensive card would have higher bandwidth like 8/16x compared to 4/8x and allow for more drives and be more stable?

 

I think i've decided on the LSI MegaRAID SAS 9271-4i, it should suit for my purposes.

[IdeaStormer]

I think i've decided on the LSI MegaRAID SAS 9271-4i, it should suit for my purposes.

 

That's a nice card, supports PCIe v3, SATA III and 1 GB of RAM. Good choice, even if you ever stop using it you could still sell it for a good price.

[Eric1024]

Be aware that the raid card will NOT recognize your current raid array. You will need to back it up before you hook up your drives to the card.