> > I'm currently using an LSI MegaRAID 150-6 and it has served me well > but has a max volume size of 2TB, is PCI-X (and I'm using a mobo > without one of those), and has limited cache. So I'm looking to > upgrade. Requirements are PCI Express, on the fly capacity expansion, > and SATA-II with at least 6 ports. Right now I am leaning towards the > Areca 1220 which uses the Intel IOP333 engine: > > http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16816131004
I love the Areca cards. I have one model higher than that, the ARC-1230, with 12x 500GB WD drives in RAID6. I get about 350MB/s reads, and about 270MB/s writes. The 1230 has an expandable cache, too, which I upgraded to 1GB. I would NEVER, EVER run with write-back cache enabled on ANY controller without a BBU though--which I bought. Otherwise, up to the cache size could be lost should you lose power, have a PSU failure, etc. A battery backed cache keeps the data in the cache refreshed--most for up to 3 days. Some Areca models have the IOP34x series processor. In contrast to the IOP33x series, they use DDR2 memory and can go up to 2GB of cache, and are good for several hundred MB/s more of i/o--if your drives support it. > > I agree about the 3 platter thing which is one of the reasons why I > was looking at the WD Black (along with the cache) but also share your > suspicions about its polish. I'm going with 3 1 TB drives in a RAID 5 > array to start, and will be adding additional drives over the rest of > the year as capacity is needed. I do have one WD GP drive that I will > be using to hold my data while I build the new array and it will > probably serve as a hot spare afterwards. > The Black series also has a 5-year warranty--something else that might be worth considering, though warranty has never been a make-or-break decision for me. The Samsung is a nice drive to be sure, but I've had such good luck with WD that they are my manufacturer of choice, at least until I get burned. It'll happen eventually, but until then... Greg
