SATA Controller or just use the mobo for new drives in RAID1?

[daveyj66]

An SATA III RAID question.

I have an ASUS P6t SE mobo, core i7 920 overclocked, 12gb RAM with a 60gb SSD running Windows 7 and programmes and 2 x 1Tb HDD's for data and non critical programs. These drives are in RAID1 and one of them has failed.

I have purchased 2 x 2Tb Seagate Barracuda Green SATA III drives as I need more space and have to replace the failed drive.

My mobo has 6 x SATA II ports all are full.

My question is this;

Is it worth buying an SATA III RAID PCI Controller card to install the new drives on in RAID1?

Whilst this would free up 2 x SATA mobo ports and that would allow me to use one for the functioning 1tb drive that could be used as an additional backup drive, that is not a good enough reason to bother buying a card unless I am likely to see a performance advantage in doing so.

So, will buying the card and theoretically having something that can utilise the SATA III 6GBps trasfer rates that the new drives are capable of be of any value or should I stick to the mobo SATA II ports?

Help greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Jonathan

 

[WyomingKnott]

No rotating-platter drive can transfer faster than the 3 GB/sec of SATA II, so having an SATA III controller won't give you any speed advantage. You will not see a performance advantage from using this card.

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That said, assorted unasked-for advice. If I read the product description correctly, you have a legitimate eSATA port via the JMicron controller. For backups, consider using an eSATA dock into which you can plug any SATA hard drive. Just keep a few spare drives around, very carefully stored. Like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817392022 . I personally have free SATA ports and use a 5.25 inch bay for my removable drives, with this: http://kingwin.com/products/cate/mobile/racks/kf_1000_bk.asp . But that requires an SATA port, not an eSATA one; I firmly believe that the one should not be connected to the other (many people disagree).

If your ports are full of 1-TB or smaller drives, get some larger drives and consolidate your data. Presto, more free ports.

RAID1 is not an alternative to backups. Back up the data on the RAID1 set to external media, if you want to be able to recover it in a case where the computer is destroyed by a power surge, rain, children or pets, malware, or anything else that would take out both drives.

 

[daveyj66]

Thanks for the reply, sorry my post was duplicated due to a dodgy mobile internet connection!