Controller Comparison Table
| Manufacturer | Accusys | AMCC |
|---|---|---|
| Model | ACS-61020 | 3ware 9650SE |
| Internal connectors | na | Na |
| External connectors | 1x SFF-8088 | 1x SFF-8088 |
| Cache | 256 MB DDR2 400 ECC | 128 MB DDR2 533 ECC |
| Profile | Standard | Low Profile |
| Interface | PCI Express x4 | PCI Express x4 |
| XOR Engine | IOP333 | 3Ware StorSwitch |
| RAID Level Migration | Yes | Yes |
| Online Capacity Expansion | Yes | Yes |
| Multiple RAID Arrays | Yes | Yes |
| Hot Spare Support | Yes | Yes |
| Battery Backup Unit | Optional | Optional |
| FAN | No | No |
| Supported OS | Windows 2000 / 2003 / XP / Vista / 2008 (Miniport and Storport, WHQL certified) Linux 2.4, 2.5, 2.6 kernel Mac OS X (Mac G5 & Mac Pro) | Apple Mac G5 OS X (10.4. 6 or higher), Mac Pro OS X (version 10.4.8 or higher) Microsoft Windows 2003/XP/2000, Red Hat Linux, SuSE Linux, Fedora Linux, 2.4 Linux kernel, 2.6 Linux kernel, FreeBSD; 32/64-bit driver support for Windows, Linux and FreeBSD |
| Other Features | RAID6 supported | |
| Warranty Controller | 3 years | 3 years |
| Warranty Chassis | 3 years | 1 years |
| Price | $800 | $850 |
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How does this compare to a DIY Linux Software RAID? Price? Performance? Reliability?
Unlike a hardware solution, if the controller card dies, you can forget about getting your data back since there is no "Standard" for RAID. On Linux you could just put the drives into another PC, as the meta-data for software RAID on Linux is not going to change across different versions of Linux.
Thanks for the article - you have convinced me not to even consider either of these.
RAID 10 should be faster than any individual drive for reads and writes, and it should also be faster than RAID 5.
Something is wrong here - either with the hardware or the tests.
Actually performance isn't capped at 1 cable. There are a number of solutions that have multiple connections using iscsi, some even route between the connections dynamically on the server side and you can bond the ethernet connections on the client side to achieve performance maxing out the quantity of connections on the client machine. Of the ones that we tested (day job) there were only a few that met performance needs. All the arrays max the cable(s) out with straight read/write, but the performance on a number of array's drops drastically when you staring hitting them with more clients (20+) for read/write scenarios. Of course, these solutions are only really useful if you have, say, 100K (or more. Alot more in some cases) lying around.
It's a crying shame that storage "solution" providers (and Tom's Hardware) don't look at the needs of the laptop marketshare. This would be just what I need, but the controller cards are deal-breakers.