Hi guys, Firstly, please go easy, i'm new to the list. I'm in the process of building / upgrading a server and have chosen FreeBSD to run it. One requirement is the ability to support RAID 1. I am looking at adding a Serial ATA PCI card but i'm unsure which is best. The motherboard itself doesn't support Serial ATA and I don't want to change it since it's a decent P4 motherboard and at the moment it's an unncessary expense. I've looked in the archives and seen the name 3ware comes as a recommendation. Does anyone know where I can get hold of one these in the UK. The ususal e-stores don't seem to stock them. Failing that, I've been looking at Adaptec and the 1210AS has taken my eye. Anyone have any experience of this card. The system is a P4 1.8Ghz system with 512MB RAM and 2 x 80GB drives running in RAID 1. The system will be co-lo'd so something reliable is required. Many thanks. Stuart
O'Reilly, Stuart wrote:> Hi guys, > > Firstly, please go easy, i'm new to the list. > > I'm in the process of building / upgrading a server and have chosen > FreeBSD to run it. One requirement is the ability to support RAID 1. I > am looking at adding a Serial ATA PCI card but i'm unsure which is best. > The motherboard itself doesn't support Serial ATA and I don't want to > change it since it's a decent P4 motherboard and at the moment it's an > unncessary expense. > > I've looked in the archives and seen the name 3ware comes as a > recommendation. Does anyone know where I can get hold of one these in > the UK. The ususal e-stores don't seem to stock them. > > Failing that, I've been looking at Adaptec and the 1210AS has taken my > eye. Anyone have any experience of this card. > > The system is a P4 1.8Ghz system with 512MB RAM and 2 x 80GB drives > running in RAID 1. The system will be co-lo'd so something reliable is > required. > > Many thanks. >There are a number of high quality SATA RAID cards on the market. If you have the money, I'd highly suggest getting one that has a real RAID co-processor on it. The MegaRAID line from LSI is good, as are the new cards from Areca. Scott
O'Reilly, Stuart wrote:> I'm in the process of building / upgrading a server and have chosen > FreeBSD to run it. One requirement is the ability to support RAID 1. > I am looking at adding a Serial ATA PCI card but i'm unsure which is > best.This is a low-budget suggestion: I have good experiences with RocketRAID 1520 and 1640. I'm running a 1640 with three SATA drives since one year without problems; it's just a little bit slow. Highpoint offers binary FreeBSD drivers for these controllers, but I think that people don't like this kind of support because Highpoint neglects it for older models and this dependency might be dangerous in future. Keep in mind: you'll get what you pay for. Regards Bj?rn
At 10:10 AM 01/05/2005, O'Reilly, Stuart wrote:>The system is a P4 1.8Ghz system with 512MB RAM and 2 x 80GB drives >running in RAID 1. The system will be co-lo'd so something reliable is >required.I have had really good luck with the 3ware 8xxx cards for some time. A 2 port version can be had for ~$100USD. I have quite a few running 4.x and now RELENG_5 with great results. You can also pull off the SMART info from the drives via the smartmontools as well as monitor the status via CLI and httpd apps. ---Mike