RAID Controller Advice

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NVP

NVP

NVP

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**NECRO UPDATE: Post 10**



Hey,

I've bought 4x 2TB Samsung SpinPoint F4 EcoGreen HDDs and I want to RAID 5 them together. They will mainly contain videos but also small amounts (in comparison) of music & photos. No OS.

The problem I have is a lack of spare SATA-II ports on my mobo, plus I read that onboard RAID Chipsets (mine has the Intel Matrix Storage) are not very competent in regards to RAID 5. I will, however, be using the onboard to RAID 0 2x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB unless this is also a bad idea.

I personally know absolute jack about RAID controllers. Would any of you guys who are informed on this subject be kind enough to spec me a RAID Controller please?

I'm not sure what further information you would need apart from I need to set-up 4 2TB HDDs into a RAID 5 array using a PCI-Express Card. Also, if the idea to RAID 0 the 2 500gb drives using the onboard is a bad one, then perhaps I need a controller where I can set-up both RAIDs.

Budget, well I've seen prices of these cards and they range a hell of a lot so if I say ~£100 if a decent one can be had for that amount (hopefully less), but if that's not possible then I'm willing to pay whatever I can to get the best possible one for my needs at the lowest price (up to £200 limit, unless this is still pointless - I'm clueless so any suggestions or advice is welcome).

Thanks guys, any help is appreciated :)
 
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Maybe not.

The card appears to be a bog standard JMicron based RAID card with a whacking margin applied to the cost by Lian Li. As such there's no proper hardware support for RAID5 parity calculations.
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You should be able to pick up a Perc 5/i on a popular auction site for less than £100. I got mine for well under that 3 years ago but they are slightly scarcer now.

Try to get one that has a PCI bracket and BBU to save yourself some hassle, you'll aso need a sas 8484 to 4x sata fan out cable, which were about £10 when I bought mine. It'll handle around 300MB/s Writes, You'll probably get close to 350MB/s reads too with four drives.

Lots more info here : http://www.overclock.net/raid-controllers-software/359025-perc-5-i-raid-card-tips.html
 
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xibinim said:
this should do the job ;).
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xibinim said:
maybe not.
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yeah i read reviews (not many about) which said it wasn't very capable

zarf said:
you should be able to pick up a perc 5/i on a popular auction site for less than £100. i got mine for well under that 3 years ago but they are slightly scarcer now.

try to get one that has a pci bracket and bbu to save yourself some hassle, you'll aso need a sas 8484 to 4x sata fan out cable, which were about £10 when i bought mine. it'll handle around 300mb/s writes, you'll probably get close to 350mb/s reads too with four drives.

lots more info here : http://www.overclock.net/raid-controllers-software/359025-perc-5-i-raid-card-tips.html
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jbloggs said:
Yes, I think the Perc 5/i would be your best bet...
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Awesome! Thanks for that, I will get to searching. I understand the BBU is a Battery Backup, some auction descriptions are quite vague but I assume I should be able to tell from the pictures such as in this one here: Link. Is it that extra black box?
 
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NVP said:
Awesome! Thanks for that, I will get to searching. I understand the BBU is a Battery Backup, some auction descriptions are quite vague but I assume I should be able to tell from the pictures such as in this one here: Link. Is it that extra black box?
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Yes, the black rectangular object is the battery backup...

Here is an excellent source of info on the Perc 5/i...
 
Cheers jbloggs, will keep my eyes open for a bargain. Zarf already posted that same link, I just haven't got around to reading through all of it yet.

Cheers for the help, much appreciated :)
 
**UPDATE**

Guys, I need some advice please:

I upgraded a while ago and removed my RAID controller, now I'm trying to add it back in but struggling to get any RAID post.

I've got the Dell Perc 5/i PCIe RAID Controller, and trying to get it to work with a MSI MAG X570S Tomahawk motherboard.


I can change from AHCI to RAID, but no RAID POST. Any advice on things to check or steps to take would be appreciated :)
 
The AHCI/RAID setting is only for the on-board controller so it's not surprising it has no effect. If you're not getting any RAID post from the card then it's not being recognised by the mobo. Can you try it in a different slot or in a different mobo?
 
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Oohhh.... OK, that makes sense :cry:

I've tried it in two slots, I have a feeling it might be dead then. I'll try having another play tonight and see.

How far along have mobo RAIDs come, could I potentially just use that if the card is borked?
 
NVP said:
Oohhh.... OK, that makes sense :cry:

I've tried it in two slots, I have a feeling it might be dead then. I'll try having another play tonight and see.

How far along have mobo RAIDs come, could I potentially just use that if the card is borked?
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Another option
Windows storage spaces
Has several advantages over hardware raid
As long as you don't need the raid bootable
 
Have you covered Pin5/6 of the PCIE connector with some tape? It likely suffers from the SMBus issue

The picture marked "Ghettofied." in the https://www.overclock.net/threads/perc-5-i-raid-card-tips-and-benchmarks.359025/ link shows which pins need to be covered.


NVP said:
How far along have mobo RAIDs come, could I potentially just use that if the card is borked?
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Motherboard RAID is fine, but still has the same limitations it always had (tied to specific brand e.g. Intel or AMD, forward compatibility not guaranteed).

Presumably you just want to access the data on your existing drives?
As otherwise I'm struggling to see a point of RAID of any sort in a normal desktop PC. (SSDs/NVMe has long since replaced RAID for speed, things like Steam can easily use multiple libraries so no need to "join" disks together for capacity anymore, and in this day and age with hard drives RAID5 is a liability anyway)

If there's a genuine need for RAID (or similar technologies) then it's usually for backup purposes, in which case a desktop PC is a terrible location for it - much better with a NAS (Synology/QNAP/Asustor etc), or a self built home server running Unraid or the like
 
Armageus said:
Have you covered Pin5/6 of the PCIE connector with some tape? It likely suffers from the SMBus issue

The picture marked "Ghettofied." in the https://www.overclock.net/threads/perc-5-i-raid-card-tips-and-benchmarks.359025/ link shows which pins need to be covered.
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Thank you, I wasn't aware. I will give that a go tonight.

Armageus said:
Motherboard RAID is fine, but still has the same limitations it always had (tied to specific brand e.g. Intel or AMD, forward compatibility not guaranteed).

Presumably you just want to access the data on your existing drives?
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Not fussed about the data, it was just a media drive for TV and movies that my HTPC's and phones used to access in my old house.

Armageus said:
As otherwise I'm struggling to see a point of RAID of any sort in a normal desktop PC. (SSDs/NVMe has long since replaced RAID for speed, things like Steam can easily use multiple libraries so no need to "join" disks together for capacity anymore, and in this day and age with hard drives RAID5 is a liability anyway)
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It's a bit of a weird one, I have a full tower lian li pc-x2000 with 6 hotswap bays at the bottom, so many moons ago I used that as my network storage with a RAID 5.

Now I want to have some network storage again so thought I'd do the same.

Eventual plan was to get another NVMe for gaming only (already have my OS on an m.2 nvme) and buy a few more 8tb drives to raid together as a media drive I can network.

Armageus said:
If there's a genuine need for RAID (or similar technologies) then it's usually for backup purposes, in which case a desktop PC is a terrible location for it - much better with a NAS (Synology/QNAP/Asustor etc), or a self built home server running Unraid or the like
Click to expand...

I admit I'm rather outdated on this subject, and it's moved on a lot, so all advice is appreciated.

I know I could buy a NAS, but then I think "well I've got the set-up for it in my box anyway".
 
NVP said:
Thank you, I will have a look :)
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Biggest advantage
Not tied to specific motherboard, cpu,raid controller
Or amd or intel
Change motherboard, cpu,etc
It still works
There's other advantages too
Can mix hdd,ssd,m2 drives
Doesn't even matter if drives are different sizes
You get the full amount of space
Whereas some forms of raid you lose space
If one drives smaller than the other
Uses REFS file system
Very resilient I have only ever once in years of using it
Managed to make it unreadable
And that's probably because I mess around with stuff
To see if I can mess it up
Then recover it
You're not limited to 1 pool/storage space
I also have hot swap bays
So can keep a second pool disconnected
So if actually do mess up one
I just copy it back from the other
 
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