SATA/RAID Controller Cards - Multiple Ones Used Together?

Heofz · 11 Oct 2007 at 18:48

Hi all, to all of you who knows their stuff regarding SATA/RAID controller cards, I have a few questions:

I have 10 SATA drives that I want to use on one system, and I don't want to use on-board disk controllers, because: a) they suck, and b) it would be a problem if I wanted to change motherboard.

So I was wondering if any of you guys knew much about which controller cards out there can interface with each other, making it possible to create a single disk array that spans across multiple drives, on multiple controller cards.

Exactly how compatible with each other are these controller cards? Can they universally talk to each other so long as they are on the same PCI bus, or do they all have to be the same brand/model? (Or something else I haven't thought of?)

So the ultimate question is which controller cards should I purchase? They can't be too expensive, as remember I need to buy 3 of them (assuming 4-ports is maximum). Also if these had RAID 5 capability, that would be ideal, but only if it didn't have a significant extra cost, while at the same time I don't want to buy cheap&nasty unreliable cards either.

themistry · 11 Oct 2007 at 19:44

I have 2 Adaptec 2410SA's in my server. These were fairly high end when bought about 8 months ago.

I think its unlikely you could get an adapter to see drives from a different adapter. I'm fairly certain mine cant. Even through the windows management interface.

TM

mdjmcnally · 11 Oct 2007 at 19:51

High Point cards can be linked together. I have a 2320 * port card and it has a connector for connecting other 2320's to it. Take a look at them and see what you think.

rpstewart · 11 Oct 2007 at 20:54

You can go all the way up to 24 ports on a single SATA RAID card if you're willing to spend the cash. If cost is an issue then the Highpoints might be a better option, they're not the quickest controllers the world has ever seen but they're good enough.

Can I ask why you want all the drives in a single array? If it's just storage fair enough but if you have any simultaneous I/O then your performance is going to suffer.

Heofz · 12 Oct 2007 at 00:12

Well, it is for my mediapc/router/server project (other thread here). The purpose of the drives is to store vast quantities of 720p movies, as well as other media.

My main concern is that I don't want to be limited to something crappy like 4 drives if I wanted to create an array of 5 or more disks, so I thought it would be ideal to make sure that my controller cards can talk to each other.

The problem is, I have several factors to take into account. Firstly, if I need to use more than one controller card (i.e. if I decide to buy 8-port or 4-port cards, rather than 12-port), I then need to make sure that I have enough PCI/PCIex slots for them, as I also need to make sure there's a slot available for a modern'ish graphics card that can render HD films. Hotswap capability is a must aswell.

RobinGopher · 13 Oct 2007 at 16:38

madness

threads like this make me think you guys are mad. 10 drives in once machine to watch films? Why do you need them hardware RAID'ed? If you used software RAID then the raid would survive a change of mobo or raid controller. If you used say LinuxMCE (worth a look, altho' hardware support is an issue as usual) then you can address a load of drives as one device using LVM (or just mount them cunningly). Even @ 720p streaming media is hardly backbreaking work for a pc so it not like you need superfast access or anything.

That case is genius tho', never seen it before