RAID controller selection help

[tucansam]

Hello all,

I would like to purchase a RAID controller that is Win7 compatible, has external SAS or eSATA connections to support 8 drives in an external enclosure, and allows for online dynamic expansion. I was looking at the new SATA-III cards from Adaptec, and they look great, except the ones I saw lack external support.

Any suggestions or advice?

Thanks.

 

[Gatorbait]

Try LSI.com. you will find any type of SAS/SATA controller available. Note that any SAS External Port will be x4 Lanes and will support 4 drives directly or goes to an expander on the drive enclosure to allows for many, many drives as well as cascading drive boxes.

 

[RealBeast]

The Adaptec 6445 has an internal and external SAS port also; it is pretty much comparable to the LSI MegaRAID SAS 9280-4i4e.

 

[inzone]

With the prices of the controller cards being either very expensive or pretty reasonable it is going to depend on what your budget amount is. The more money you have to spend the more features that are included. For what you want this card would work;

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816151040

Also this one;

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816103212

 

[RealBeast]

One other suggestion, make sure that your motherboard has an adequate pci-e slot, all of the cards mentioned require a pci-e x8 slot and will not work in an x16 slot that runs at x4.

Oh, and also consider getting your cables at the same time as the card, you can often save money by getting them in a package rather than buying them later.