Adaptec RAID 3805 compatible motherboards?

[ivam]

After reading many posts about RAID controller-MoBo incompatibility issues, I've decided to build my new system around my RAID controller card which is an Adaptec RAID 3805.

1) Does anyone know which motherboards are compatible with this controller? For example is ABIT IP35 Pro compatible?

2) I'll use Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB/750GB and Seagate Cheetah 147GB SAS 15K.5 drives. Are these drives compatible with the Adaptec 3805 controller?

3) Is it ture that most X38 boards have issues with RAID controller cards?

Thank you

 

[chookman]

If it helps i have a 3805 and it works with P5K-e Wifi from ASUS and i have WD 500gb AAKS drive attached.

http://www.adaptec.com/NR/rdonlyres...RCSASCompatibilityReport_101907_3x05_3085.pdf

Compatibility list as per Adaptec site... lists that the 750gb should be fine... cant see a listing for the Cheetah 147gb but it does list 74gb variants.

 

[ivam]

If it helps i have a 3805 and it works with P5K-e Wifi from ASUS and i have WD 500gb AAKS drive attached.

http://www.adaptec.com/NR/rdonlyres...RCSASCompatibilityReport_101907_3x05_3085.pdf

Compatibility list as per Adaptec site... lists that the 750gb should be fine... cant see a listing for the Cheetah 147gb but it does list 74gb variants.

Thank you for your reply chookman.

Your MoBo has 2 x PCI-E x16 (blue @ x16 mode, black @ x4 or x1 mode). So does the Adaptec 3805 run at full speed when it's put into the PCI-E x16 (x4 bandwidth) slot?

Are you happy with your Adaptec 3805? Any recommendations specific to this card (I'll have RAID1 using two Seagate Cheetah 15K.5 147GB drives and RAID5 using four/five Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB/750GB drives)? Do I need to disable the onboard SATA ports?

Thank you

 

[chookman]

Thank you for your reply chookman.

Your MoBo has 2 x PCI-E x16 (blue @ x16 mode, black @ x4 or x1 mode). So does the Adaptec 3805 run at full speed when it's put into the PCI-E x16 (x4 bandwidth) slot?

Are you happy with your Adaptec 3805? Any recommendations specific to this card (I'll have RAID1 using two Seagate Cheetah 15K.5 147GB drives and RAID5 using four/five Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB/750GB drives)? Do I need to disable the onboard SATA ports?

Thank you

The 3805 only has a 4 lane interface anyway... so it will run full speed of card in either slot.

Im very happy with it, i have 5x500gb in RAID5 so ~2Tb partition (i mucked up with partitioning and have to fix that) . Supports everything you could dream of...

The main issue you may run into is the cables for this, youll find there is SAS and SATA fanout cables. Each port supports 4 drives. So you may find you can only use 4 SATA drives as the other fanout cable will have to be SAS to support the Cheetahs. Checkout the cable accesories page to verify cables with hdd interfaces.

http://www.adaptec.com/en-US/products/cables/cables/sas/

 

[ivam]

The 3805 only has a 4 lane interface anyway... so it will run full speed of card in either slot.

Im very happy with it, i have 5x500gb in RAID5 so ~2Tb partition (i mucked up with partitioning and have to fix that) . Supports everything you could dream of...

The main issue you may run into is the cables for this, youll find there is SAS and SATA fanout cables. Each port supports 4 drives. So you may find you can only use 4 SATA drives as the other fanout cable will have to be SAS to support the Cheetahs. Checkout the cable accesories page to verify cables with hdd interfaces.

http://www.adaptec.com/en-US/products/cables/cables/sas/

I've recently noticed the port problem. Sad, but I'll live with it for the sake of the performance Cheetahs will bring. I think 2.7TB will be enough for the next 3-4 years.

I've contacted both Adaptec and Abit. They both told me to check their compatibility lists which do not include many devices. I guess I'll just take my chances. If it doesn't work, I'll simply return it.

But I'm still wondering if anyone else is using 3805...

Thank you

 

[patrstep]

I run this card with ASUS p5e3 deluxe and vista 64bit. The system is set up as a media server. In general it works fine. I have 2 problems with the card which may or may not worry you.

1) It does not work with vista hibernate. Which either wastes power or causes lengthy delays.

2) It has a limitation of 4 logical arrays per physical disk drive. This limits logical drive size in vista to 8 TB. Adaptec thought that this was not a real world problem. However with the drive being used to store media which is written once and therefore not needing re-organisation, and physical disks getting larger by the day, this limitation will cause sretup complications and needless expense.

Does anyone know of a controller that does not have these limitations?

 

[redxix]

this thread is a bit old, but i thought i'd add my Core i7 mobo as a compatible motherboard.

although the adaptec did require a firmware update

i have an Asus P6T Deluxe [0804 bios], 920 core i7 proc, 6GB Corsair 1600MHz, adaptec 3805 [ Build 15753 ], and eight WD 1TB Green HDDs (TLER enabled manually)

power draw for entire system 150watts... so far

note: i originally had problems getting the 3805 to working with several motherboards... X38, X48, P45, and X58. Even the P6T didn't work, with the x4 PCI-express slot, but the new firmware update works with the P6T now

 

[baius]

Question for redxix (or anyone else): What's TLER? You mentioned it in your post.

Is it the Western Digital technology referred to here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TLER
?

Thanks.

 

[baius]

BTW, just noticed you provided your power draw. Thank you - that's exceedingly helpful, as I was considering building a similar system.

One question: Are you using a discrete grapics card on your new i7 system? (Or are you just using it as a "server"/massive HTPC?)

 

[redxix]

yes, you are correct TLER as in WD terminology. from what i understand is that it allows the HDD to function a little more smoothly with RAID cards. (has to do with timing outs and dropping hard drives out of the array, even if it is still functional- it prevents this from happening. maybe?)

okay specs:

P6T deluxe
Core i7 920
Corsair Dominator 6GB 1600MHz Cas8
Sapphire HD4670 512MB
(turned off parallel, serial, onboard audio [i'm using ATI HDMI audio])
Adaptec 3805
PC Power and Cooling 850Watt Power Supply (actually i wanted the Enermax Revolution but those aren't out yet... very high efficiency at least for 110 volters)

LG external Bluray drive (BE-06LU10)
Lian-Li A77 Black case
APC 1500VA UPS (i used this to measure the power draw; sorry - not very scientific and 150watts idle included the monitor too dell 2707)

i really love the wd greens~ i have the wd10eacs type. they have wd10eads now. i'm going to add a 5805 card to the system along with the new wd10eads. once i get all the parts i'll update again

 

[baius]

yes, you are correct TLER as in WD terminology.

okay specs:
... Sapphire HD4670 512MB

I appreciate your reply redxix. You answered my questions very well.

The TLER technology, from what I read up on it, looks useful.