Luminous Landscape Forum

Equipment & Techniques => Computers & Peripherals => Topic started by: new_haven on August 08, 2010, 03:35:20 pm

Title: raid controller card for windows
Post by: new_haven on August 08, 2010, 03:35:20 pm
Would someone recommend a raid controller card for windows that would offer better performance than typically available from on board solutions. I am interested in raid 0 and 10.

TIA -R
Title: raid controller card for windows
Post by: Christopher on August 08, 2010, 05:42:45 pm
Quote from: new_haven
Would someone recommend a raid controller card for windows that would offer better performance than typically available from on board solutions. I am interested in raid 0 and 10.

TIA -R

I would go with either Adaptec oder LSI. I have a controller from both and I am very happy. (Personally I prefer the LSI, ecause I think in general they have the better cooling solutions.)
Title: raid controller card for windows
Post by: PeterAit on August 08, 2010, 07:06:44 pm
Quote from: new_haven
Would someone recommend a raid controller card for windows that would offer better performance than typically available from on board solutions. I am interested in raid 0 and 10.

TIA -R

Get in touch with MacGurus.com. Despite the name they do PC hardware too, they really know their stuff and offer great support.
Title: raid controller card for windows
Post by: John.Murray on August 08, 2010, 08:42:09 pm
Ditto on LSI, if your board uses EFI for boot, you might want to check out Intel's, they are basically re-badged LSI with EFI firmware at a lower price.  Look for SAS/Sata support. Be wary - most "raid" controllers out there offer additional SATA ports, but are really software based.
Title: raid controller card for windows
Post by: semillerimages on August 09, 2010, 04:12:10 pm
Avoid Highpoint, I've had nothing but troubles with mine and their tech support is absolutely horrible.

*steve
Title: raid controller card for windows
Post by: degrub on August 09, 2010, 05:03:23 pm
Areca makes some very good hardware from what i have been told by some software developer friends.

The faster cards generally have a dedicated processor to manage the disks and calculate the checksums. Some cards have a battery backup unit on the board to reduce the chance of data loss. Either way, make sure you have a UPS and use the auto shutdown features.

i've been using 3ware controllers for years on PCI-X bus. They are not the fastest, but seem to be reliable and are an intermediate to the business class equipment. If you can afford it, get raid chassis that will support hot swap and disk monitoring.

Make sure the drives you select are acceptable to the raid controller and won't cause problems by dropping out of the raid array during error recovery or recalibration.
Title: raid controller card for windows
Post by: Steve Weldon on August 10, 2010, 01:45:04 am
Quote from: new_haven
Would someone recommend a raid controller card for windows that would offer better performance than typically available from on board solutions. I am interested in raid 0 and 10.

TIA -R
I've had good luck with Promise Technologies.  Value is high, performance is high, and customer service is pretty good.
Title: Re: raid controller card for windows
Post by: Ecolodger on September 15, 2010, 09:19:38 pm
Adaptec cards are very well built :)
My other suggestion to you is just to replace the SATA interface with some SAS or fiber

In my case I use a RAID-0 of two SSDs, whick make up a very responsive system....not very spacious though...
Title: Re: raid controller card for windows
Post by: tived on September 16, 2010, 03:06:22 am
Areca,
3ware
LSI
Adaptec
High Point
Promise

the last two are more low cost controllers  - you are getting a cache controllers, then a battery backup would be very useful :-)

Henrik