Cheap 4 port raid 5 card

Hey guys, Im wanting to run a 8tb raid 5 in my new build and found this card on feebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270580701371&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

I realize this wont be a well performing card but its just streaming over wireless network at home so it wont be an issue. Its win7 64 bit compatible which is a relief as Ive read a lot of raid cards have problems in 64bit OS. If anyone can tell me if this has any major problems it would be most helpful

 

Google/ebay harder and get a SIL3124 with 4 internal ports, such as: http://cgi.ebay.com.au/SATA-II-4-PO...149?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c10e141a5

With a bit mroe searching, you can find them on pcie1x ports aswell, which I'd suggest as that'll up bandwidth from 100MB/s of PCI to 250MB/s of PICE1x. EDIT: here: http://cgi.ebay.com.au/PCIe-PCI-exp...105?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4a9dbb5629

As for using them, I've been using a SIL3132 or 22 (forgot which) which is a PCIE1x with 2 ports, and they boot up perfectly in the bios and my drives are detected in linux. So they are perfect for hardware raid.

 

thanks mate, will look for a pci x one. always thought pci was 150mb max so I wasnt too fussed but 100mb is a bit crippling.

 

To be honest, I can't recall what the exact bandwidth ratings are, but I do know that pcie1x outdoes PCI by quite a bit. Also, take a look out for the Sil3132 as thats a proper pcie1x chipset/card, where as the ones I linked above just use a pci to pcie converter chip.

Ignoring all that, the SIL cards are well supported for just about all OSs, and the driver from the cd/SIL's website or even Windows Update should do you well.

 

thanks for the info, really helpful. Just have to check now if my wd20ears drives are compatible.

 

What's the deal with all these controller cards having a 2+2 configuration (2 eSATA, 2 internal SATA)?

Why no cards with four internal SATA ports?

 

It's basically how the chipset from SIL is/was meant to be used. Hence why if you look around more, chinese OEMs configure them differently. IE the SIL3124 was meant to be a PCI/PCI-X chip, but OEMs have bridged that onto a PCIE1x card.

I bought a bunch of cheap 2+2 cards that have jumps on them, and only support 2 at a time. for the $15ea I paid for them, they make excellent expansion cards when you just need more ports for JBOD or software raid.

 

this one seems to be 4 sata ports

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270463410050&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

and is also pcix

 

an old promise tx4 will do 266MB/sec being PCI 2.3, _most_ motherboards are 2.3 nowdays.

but fuck this shit. if youre cheap just get yourself a highpoint 2000 series card.

you wont have any issues with PCI being slow for what you seem to want to use it for though however.

DeejW do you have a pci x slot free?

 

i Do Not Recon U Should Get one Of These Cards I Have Had The Experience Of Buying One The Raid They Support is Raid 0 They Dont Have Fast Read And Write Times And The Other Raids Are Software Raids

 

Save yourself the time, energy and pain of DIY raid and just buy a cheap 8Tb NAS

T

 

no need for caps on every word buddy lol

your better off getting a PCI-E card mate, better then PCI by far

 

even the slowest software raid5 gets more than 250MB/sec without issues... faster than i heard its only the speed of one disk.

 

After doing some reading, my WD20EARS dont seem to play nice in RAID so Il have to rethink this plan.

 

I wouldn't trust a sil3124 for RAID5
Had one in a server doing 4x400GB R5, performance was about 30MB/s and after a few months it decided the drives weren't in RAID anymore

 

depends on your hardware.

 

+1

I have 8 of them running fine on a RR 2320.