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2006-07-10 07:08:35
EvilMonkeySlayer
Member
+82|6951
I've decided it's time to get a new better SATA RAID Controller, the nvidia raid controller chipset on my motherboard has always been flaky. (DFI Lanparty nF4 SLI-D)

I'm not looking for something which offloads a part of the RAID controller to the CPU (like the nvidia one), i'm looking for something where it's all done oncard. When I originally installed Windows with the nvidia raid chipset I had to create a custom windows cd using nlite so the damn thing would install to the raid.

I've been looking at 3ware and Adaptec cards and I admit I do have a preference for them.

A few notes:

* It MUST be able to work full speed with SATA 2 drives.
* It MUST be fully hardware RAID, no offloading the RAID to the CPU in the drivers.
* It ideally must be able to use the RAID without the installation of drivers like all modern SCSI RAID cards. (I admit to being spoiled with SmartArray cards on servers here)
* RAID 1 is the preferred option, while RAID 5 is beneficial it's not a requirement. My previous setup was RAID 1 which for the moment I have disabled and i'm currently using one of the 160GB sATA 2 drives.
* The ability to boot from the RAID card is a MUST.

Can anyone recommend something?

The only stuff i've looked at thus far are the 3ware 9550SX-4LP and the Adaptec 1420SA/2420SA. I'm not so sure whether the Adaptec one is true hardware RAID.
2006-07-10 08:12:13
Agent_Dung_Bomb
Member
+302|7035|Salt Lake City

Given that such SATA RAID controllers are relatively new in comparison to Windows XP, it is highly unlikely that you will find one that works directly from the drivers XP has available when booting to the CD.  You will either have to F6 and use a floppy during install, or take the time to slipstream the drivers into your XP CD.
2006-07-10 08:28:56
FathomsDown
Member
+19|6950|England

EvilMonkeySlayer wrote:

* It MUST be fully hardware RAID, no offloading the RAID to the CPU in the drivers.
This sounds chronically over spec'd for what you want to do. What do you think this will give you? Hardware raid controllers are primarily designed for multi-user environments where multiple sector requests can bog down CPUs but if you're running a PC you wimply won't be running that kind of load. I'd buy a better quality one for about £30-£50 and spend the rest on better/more drives (stripe and mirror would be good) or down the pub.
2006-07-10 10:12:32
slo5oh
Member
+28|6960
Evil,
I can tell you from past experience that Adaptec is the bomb.  That said I've not used an adaptec controller since before SATA came out.  So, if you want to spend the $, adaptec is the way to go.

Now that I have told you that...
Don't bother if this is for a home/gaming system.  The extra money you'll spend will not gain you enough performance to offset the huge cost.  I'm still loading into new maps before anyone else (since 1.4 patch) with only a little seagate 7200rpm drive.  No raid, no raptor, and no adaptec.  It's all about the processor. 

I was ALWAYS #1 when I ran a opteron 146 OCed to 2.9Ghz
I was ALWAYS #1 when I ran my opteron 165 OCed to 2.79Ghz (dual core)
I was never #1 after patch 1.3 made me disable my 2nd processor for BF2 on the same Opteron 165
Now after patch 1.4, even with my 2nd processor disabled (COME ON EA!!! I SHOULDN'T HAVE TO DISABLE!!) for BF2 I'm again #1 all the time... but I've only got about 4 or 5 hours in since the beta patch.

 

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