Recommened RAID controller?

Toms88

Toms88

Toms88

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21 May 2011
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Addlestone, Surrey
Hi All

I want to build a nice RAID array as a storage server for my homenetwork. I've got 4 x 2TB and 2 x 1TB HDD's on the way next week and i have an old desktop (Core2Duo) which im going to use for parts.

Can someone recommend a good RAID card that doesnt cost the earth (ie no more than £300-400). Obviously it needs to support 6 drives but im pretty sure il need to expand that in the next 6months (probably upgrading the 1TB to 2TB drives first but also additional drives down the line)

Its going to be used to backup my own data, vidoe music etc but also host my VM's for ESXi
 
A lot of people recommend the Dell Perc 6. I bought one for about $60 but unfortunately if you have an Intel board you have to cover 2 of the PCI pins. It's quite hard as I still havent managed to do it yet.
 
If that's your budget then look at more modern cards, the PERC 6 has a 2Tb disk size limit. The H700 is ok with 3Tb and possibly higher, but you could also look at proper LSI cards too.
 
I've got a perc 5 and 6 in dell servers, and an lsi megaraid 8308elp, while the lsi is older and only sata 1.5gbps, it still performs well.

The perc 6 card is good, but really benefits from having a battery connected. I had an adaptec card at work and just couldn't get the same performance out of it, but that could have been down to a number of issues.
 
GodAtum said:
A lot of people recommend the Dell Perc 6. I bought one for about $60 but unfortunately if you have an Intel board you have to cover 2 of the PCI pins.
Click to expand...

Not strictly speaking true. My Intel P67 board works fine with my PERC 6/i without having to cover the SMBUS pins.
 
mejinks said:
Im pretty sure you can force flash the perc controllers to megaraid too.
Click to expand...

You can. Not tried it personally as I didn't really see the point in fiddling when mine just works. I might get more speed from it, but is it's a storage array I don't need masses of speed.
 
If you don't mind a slightly risky firmware flash procedure the Dell H200 can be flashed to LSI firmware. It's totally useless with the Dell firmware.
 
Hmm, I would stear clear of anything using the LSI 1068 chipset as it is around 3 generations old and can have problems in PCIe 2.0 slots.

Take a look at anything in the 92xx range or above which use the next gen of LSI chipset (LSI 2008).

Taking a quick look at EBay, the 9260-8i is [probably just in your range although if you are looking at using raid 5 or 6 you would be well advised to factor in for a BBU as well. If you are feeling up for a challange then take a look at the IBM M5014/5015 as they are rebadged LSi 9280s, the 5014 with 256MB cache and the 5015 with 512MB.

The 9220/9240 is popular for zfs setups but this card uses soft raid and so is really not so good for anything above raid 0/1/10. The IBM M1015 is a rebranded version and can usually be found on EBay as people buy server and replace the cards for something better or just break down old servers for spares.

Intel also use LSI cards and rebrand them so have a look around for a few Intel raid cards and check the specs to get the LSI models. IBM cards tend to be cheaper on EBay though.

The Intel range can be found here (pdf).

I did a quick writeup on controllers in the WHS 2011 thread here.

RB
 
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Thanks for the advice guys! I only really have one supplier i can get from so a little limited there. The IBM M5015 they have for just over £300 seems to do all i need i think?

Product Description - IBM ServeRAID M5015 - storage controller (RAID) - SATA-300 / SAS 2.0 - PCI Express 2.0 x8
Device Type - Storage controller (RAID) - plug-in card - low profile
Interface Type - PCI Express 2.0 x8
Dimensions (WxDxH) - 1.3 cm x 16.8 cm x 6.9 cm
Weight - 270 g
Controller Interface Type - Serial ATA-300 / SAS 2.0
Data Transfer Rate - 600 MBps
Buffer Size - 512 MB
Supported Devices - Disk array (RAID)
Max Storage Devices Qty - 32
RAID Level - RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10, RAID 50
System Requirements - Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4, SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 11, Microsoft Windows 2003, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
Microsoft Certification - Compatible with Windows 7
Manufacturer Warranty - 1 year warranty
Designed For - P/N: 7328K9G, 7376K5G, 7379K4G, 7379KDG, 7379KEG, 7379KFG, 7379KGG, 7379KHG, 7379KKG, 7944K3G, 7944KAG, 7944KBG, 7945K2G, 7945K3G, 7945K4G, 7945KDG, 7945KEG
 
As stated, the M5015 is a rebadged LSI 9260-8i. Gett a BBU if you intend to us raid 5 / 6 / 50 / 60.

It is a nice card and should do you well but will probably need to be cross flashed with the LSI firmware. Have a google as there are lots of tutorials around on how to do it.

RB
 
Well im having second thoughts on which RAID level to use. I didnt want to lose so much space by using RAID 10 but im thinking that maybe the best way to go.

Which RAID level would you recommend for a setup like mine?
 
That's what i was thinking. Use the 2x 1TB drives to backup my VM's and then the RAID 5 for storage. Can that be done off the single RAID controller?
 
I would get a Dell Perc 6/i for the same price if you are interested in RAID 6.

Supports arrays over 2Tb (only new controllers have this!)
Click to expand...

I'm dubious about this as the 6i only supports up to 2TB. Can anyone confirm this?
 
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Toms88 said:
Just saw this on ebay, way under my budget which would allow me to spend elsewhere. Any thoughts?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-PERC-5-e-SAS-RAID-Controller-Card-8-Port-256MB-BBWC-Module-XM768-/290818275772?pt=UK_Computing_ComputerComponents_InterfaceCards&hash=item43b61eb9bc
Click to expand...
That card is for connecting to external disk arrays, most likely not what you want.

GodAtum said:
I would get a Dell Perc 6/i for the same price if you are interested in RAID 6.

I'm dubious about this as the 6i only supports up to 2TB. Can anyone confirm this?
Click to expand...
It supports disks up to 2Tb. There are no problems with using these disks to create arrays far larger than 2Tb.
 
The Perc 6i is a PCIe 1.0 card with SATA II support. Fine for hdd but not so good if you look to add any SSD in the future. PCIe 1.0 is also fairly old now and you may come across issues with some boards.

Dell cards are listed here.

LSI cards and fearures listed here.

There is a 9260-8i on EBayUK for around 200 at the moment.

Personally I am happy with my M1015 (flashed to a LSI 9211-8i) and my HP P813 although the P813 was a little troublesome getting to work as the motherboard / controller were a little picky about the slot it was in.

RB
 
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