2 Port RAID 5?

[sorehead_5]

I've noticed a number of low end 2 port SATA RAID 5 PCI Express cards being marketed at the moment. I wondered how they would actually be cabled, given that a minimum of 3 ports is required for that RAID level?
Thanks.

 

[mindless728]

can you give a link?

 

[sorehead_5]

http://www.lindy.co.uk/shop/showProductDetail.do?orderNumber=51139&source=search
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or
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http://www.computerlinksforless.com/product.php?printable=Y&productid=16145
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(it was the first one that grabbed my attention) Thanks.

 

[rockchalk]

According to the manual from the first link, Raid5 and RAID10 are only supported if you have a port multiplier attached to one of the ports. The port multiplier would obviously let you attach more than 2 disks to the card.

 

[sorehead_5]

According to the manual from the first link, Raid5 and RAID10 are only supported if you have a port multiplier attached to one of the ports. The port multiplier would obviously let you attach more than 2 disks to the card.

Thanks for your post.
Something like this then?
http://www.addonics.com/products/host_controller/ad5sapm.asp
The original device stops looking like such a bargain then...

 

[sub mesa]

Aside from it being capable, you do not want to trust your data to bad RAID5 drivers that come with the chips incorporated in these add-on controllers. Driver RAID solutions like JMicron, Silicon Image and Promise FastTrak are not among the best RAID-implementations, and those who offer RAID5 performance, including nVidia and ATi/AMD, do so poorly. You would be wise not to use RAID5 on Windows unless you buy a good Hardware RAID5 controller, like Areca ARC-12xx and also HighPoint has low-priced controllers that can do the job. Always pick PCI-express also.

 

[sub mesa]

By the way, its horribly overpriced since these should sell for $15 and up, not 40 pounds. :/

 

[sorehead_5]

Thanks for taking the trouble to reply.
I normally use Adaptec - sticking for RAID 1 for the sake of the price - and was interested in taking advantage of what appears to be a big fall in price over the last 18 months. It looks more than a bit risky.
I'll look into your reccomendations anyway and thanks again.

 

[sub mesa]

Just to add: the controller you picked should be fine to run non-RAID disks on, just avoid using its RAID-drivers. Software RAID on these controllers is also possible, the only thing you need to know is that you should make your partitions on the disks slightly smaller, so the last sector of your disks do not get used - as they get used by the RAID-BIOS of these controllers, which sometime complain if they find its sector being overwritten with something it doesn't recognise.