Looking for a sata Raid controller

Ripsnort · Post by **Ripsnort** » Tue Dec 30, 2003 1:59 pm

I’m going to start building a small file server for here at home.
And I’m thinking of using Raid 5 for the setup, with 4 SATA drives.
I’ve been looking at the different serial ATA Raid controllers, but kind of lost on what would be a good choice.
Right now I’m leaning toward the Adaptec SATA Raid 2410SA, what are your thoughts about this?
Know any others that might be a good choice?

Thanks

b-man1 · Post by **b-man1** » Tue Dec 30, 2003 3:58 pm

you probably can't go wrong with adaptec. i'm looking at picking up a SATA or IDE raid controller myself and was eyeing the adaptec.

DocSilly · Post by **DocSilly** » Tue Dec 30, 2003 5:37 pm

You should check/search the forums at http://www.storagereview.com/ , there are some recent threads regarding SATA Raid controllers. You certainly want one with onboard cache when you want to venture into Raid-5.

VidmanII · Post by **VidmanII** » Tue Dec 30, 2003 10:41 pm

This is a VERY nice card.
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... WSE&depa=1

RubberDuckie · Post by **RubberDuckie** » Tue Jan 06, 2004 10:37 pm

If you are still looking. I just purchased the card that VidmanII mentioned. However I purchased the retail version. It should arrive this thursday. If you look back as to why I am purchasing it, I had a HDD on a Raid controler on my last motherboard. My new mobo does not have raid and I was forced to purchase a Promise Raid controler in order to get the data off my HDD. I will be selling the PROMISE FT S150 TX2+RAID CONTROLLER after I can backup my data.

I only need the Controller for one weekend. So it will still be like new and I will be selling it if your interested in saving a few bucks. I purchsed the retail version for $69 from NewEgg. let me know if your interested.

One catch tho. This controller is an IDE and SATA mix. so you can RAID up to 2 SATA HDD and 2 IDE HDD. Supports up to 2 Serial ATA/150 hard drives and 2 Ultra ATA/133 hard drives in RAID 0,1 & 0+1 configurations. Therefore if your stuck on 4 SATA HDD... this will not work.

Ripsnort · Post by **Ripsnort** » Wed Jan 07, 2004 4:00 pm

I looked at the FastTrak S150 TX2+ controller, but the problem was that it does not support Raid 5 and only handles 2 SATA.

After DocSilly suggestion of checking out the forms at storagereview.com, I gave up on the Adaptec SATA Raid 2410SA because of the slot type. PCI 64bit.
I would of had to buy a server motherboard to use that card, and I didn’t feel like paying all that cash for one.

So I went with the Promise Serial ATA Raid Controller Card, Model "FastTrak S150 SX4" That way I can just pop it into my old gaming computer I have in the back collecting dust and plug my 4 200 gb drives in and I’m all set.

Only problem now is finding the space in the case.

Thanks all.

MK888 · Post by **MK888** » Fri Jan 09, 2004 3:17 pm

I have several promise boards, and am very happy with all of them.

BTW you dont need a 64bit slot to run a 64bit card. I have run 64bit cards in 32bit slots. You just dont get the added performance of 64bit. It worked with a Promise Fastrak TX2000, and an ATTO PCI3D SCSI raid controller.

You could also go RAID 1+0 and get redundancy as well.