Choosing a good PCI-E controller

[vectorw16]

Hi everyone,

I've been reading for a while but I'm unable to choose a controler! Short Story

I've an Adaptec (dell) Cerc 1.5/6 controler in my machine (Raid 5 3 HD WD 250Gb SATAII 16mo) my board is an ASUS A8N-SLI I use only one PCI-E port for my video card. (Personal usage only)

Of course I run my adaptec on a regular PCI (not so good), but this controler is just #$% slow. I've read some article on it.

But now PCI-E Raid are much more common and much faster. My drives are already slow down due to my 1.5 controler ...

I don't want to spend 500$ for a controler, the other one was bought on ebay for a good price.

LSI LSI00118
3ware 9650SE-4LPML 4 Port
Areca...

Advices someone ?

 

[rozar]

A RAID 5 processor based controller is gonna cost you some money. The 3ware controller you listed is a good one.

 

[vectorw16]

I know I won't get one for 50$ in fact I think I paid around 250$ for mine couple of years ago !

I know tomshardware made a good review on the 9650se but some say areca controller are faster...

What about LSI ebay item 300248445150 example ! It's not expensive but doesn't come the the special cable ... that could be a problem.

Thanks for your reply

 

[rozar]

I have not used a areca controller in a long time, so I can not speak for them. My company does not carry them. We do carry 3ware, Adaptec, LSI, and Intel. That LSI card on ebay looks like a good card for $139. I have not used that exact card though so I do not know how fast it is. Thge cablw is not hard to find, its just a 8087 (internal) and should not cost you too much.

 

[vectorw16]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Adaptec-Inc-5M-..._trksidZp1638Q2em118Q2el1247#ebayphotohosting

I only have regular sata drives are those gonna fit ? I use to scsi and sata but didn't use SAS much yet !

Thanks for your answer

 

[rozar]

That cable would fit and work but you dont have to use that one. That cable is required when using SAS drives without a backplane. You only need a simple 4 connector SATA fan out cable.

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

Then scroll down to this item
mSASx4 (SFF-8087) to SATA (4)x1