Controller card for 4 SSD's (2x Sata II 2x Sata III)

snedie

snedie

snedie

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Looking for a raid controller that can handle at least 4 ssd's, two of which are Sata II (Corsair F40's) and two of which are Sata III (OCZ Vertex 3 60GB). I'll be putting them into RAID 0 (yes, for pure speed), can I use a SAS controller?

The 4 port sata raid controllers are rediculously expensive, where as the SAS controllers and more sensibly priced. If anyone can recommend an exact model for under £90 (or close to) I would very much appreciate it.

Thanks :D
 
Mr.V said:
you should be able to use a SSD controller for the 2 corsairs F40s as most raid cards are sata2(3Gb) id be looking at the Dell Perc 6i(approx £90-£100) or even the older dell perc5i(£50-£60) both have 2 x SFP ports allowing 8 sata hard drives. HP does a nice card its called HP Smart Array P400(£80-£150) again allowing 8 sata hard drives via 2 x SFP ports. all of them can be found on ebay keep an eye out for them.

with the OCZ they are sata3(6Gb) you will need a sata 3 raid card to get the most of them or they will be bottlenecked by the sata2 card

when considering the Dell Perc cards bear in mind they do need forced cooling to keep them running at low temps, most people position a 80mm fan to cool them as they get very hot! the HP doesnt seem to suffer than much from the heat issue.
hope that helps
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Found the HP Smart Array P400 for a nice £26 on codemicro. Just debating if buying a couple Sata2 drives instead would be a better idea given the expense needed to upgrade to sata 3. What you think?

I can't find anywhere selling more F40's, any drives you would recommend around the 40-60GB size?

[edit] Just noticed that OcUk have the 50GB Vertex 2's on TWO with a nice discount: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-040-OC&groupid=1657&catid=1660&subcat=1668 Worth the money? Or would it be better to shell the extra £14/drive for the 60GB Vertex 3's and run them on sata 2?
 
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Mr.V said:
WOW! thats supercheap!! make sure its not the SCSI version as they go very cheap! do you have a link?

your better off with the vertex 2's if your motherboard has sata2 ports only. unless you where tihnking of upgrading anytime soon buy the vertex 3s and then u will get full use of them :)
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Dang I didn't realise that codemicro was international, shipping to UK is $79. Link anyway: https://www.codemicro.com/store/product/Hp-504022001-Refurbished.php

My board does have 8 Sata 2 ports (Two of which do some funky raid shnizzel, so 6 in effect). However, I'm already hammering 7 drives (5x HDD's and 2x SSD's - Soon to be replaced) so I don't have any available ports. I'll take a look around at the other controllers you mentioned, see what prices I can drag up.

[edit] £106 good for the P400?
 
Mr.V said:
thats a damn shame, i was thinking of buying one lol.

£106 is a good price. i think i saw one earlier for £80 a 256MB version, let me see if i can find it

*edit* ebay item no.120776184819 the one u saw does it com with the SFP to Sata cables and the battery backup unit?
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No the one I saw was just the card alone. I think I'll buy that ebay auction, does it use standard SAS cables (I'm guessing they are all the same)?

If I'm looking at that picture right, the SAS ports are on the rear of the card? If so this will be a big problem as I have dual 5970's and this card will be right below one of them.
 
Mr.V said:
that correct when the cards in the connectors are on top of the card which is unusual, how much gap would you have? the cables you'll be needing are item no. 110589668346

also worth nothing its a PCI -Express x 8 not sure what motherboard you have you will need a spare PCI - Express 16 x slot
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I was just looking at my board specs and I don't think I can use the last PCI-E slot - P55-GD80 specs page says that the PCI-E x1 lanes are disabled, and I have my sound card in one of them.

Man this is getting complex haha. Instead of a RAID controller I could buy a single 3TB drive and get shut of all the other drives, and then just put the SSD's on the now spare ports. Suppose this saves on power and heat too.

I'll still think on that SAS controller though as I'm building a NAS and that card will suit me just nicely. Thanks for your help mate. :)
 
Mr.V said:
lol, your not having much luck with this. the 3TB idea sounds great.

no worries mate, glad i could help
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Just remembered that I have two 2TB drives in my Netgear Stora NAS/Media Server in RAID 1. I was going to put two of the 1TB's from my rig in it but simply couldn't be bothered to dismantle things to get them, and I wasn't that pushed on space. Long story short I'm transferring all my data to them now and will use them instead of the stupid amount of drives currently hoarded into my machine. This will leave me with two nice spare Sata II ports to play with: I think I'll go with the Vertex 2 drives seen as they have a chunky discount on them....just need to find a way to hide the bill from the misses :D
 
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