PCI Express Battles PCI-X
Features
By
Patrick Schmid
published
SATA II RAID Controller Comparison Table
Swipe to scroll horizontally
| Manufacturer | Highpoint | LSI Logic | Highpoint |
|---|---|---|---|
| Product | RocketRAID 2320 | MegaRAID SATA 300-8X | RocketRAID 2220 |
| Firmware | 1.0 | H430 | 1.02 |
| Driver | 1.0 | 5.49 | 1.04 |
| SATA II ports | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| Cache | none | 128 MB DDR333 ECC | none |
| Interface | PCI Express x4 | 64 Bit, 133 MHz PCI-X | 64 Bit, 133 MHz PCI-X |
| Optional versions | none | none | no |
| Multiple card support | yes | no | yes |
| Card Format | low profile | standard | low profile |
| XOR Engine | HPT601 | Intel IOP331 | HPT601 |
| RAID Level Migration | yes | yes | yes |
| Online Capacity Expansion | yes | yes | yes |
| Multiple RAID arrays | yes | yes | no |
| Staggered spin-up | yes | yes | yes |
| Hot Spare Support | yes | yes | yes |
| Online Capacity Expansion | yes | yes | yes |
| Battery Backup Unit | no | optional | no |
| OS support | Windows 2000/XP/2003, Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X 10.x | Windows 2000/XP/2003, DOS, FreeBSD, Netware, RedHat, SuSe, SCO, Unixware | Windows 2000/XP/2003, Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X 10.x |
| Other | command line interface, scheduled tasks, 64 Bit LBA | Only 48 Bit LBA (2 TB arrays max), 64 Bit Windows server support | command line interface, scheduled tasks, 64 Bit LBA |
| Estimated Price (US $) | 290 | 410 | 270 |
| Warranty | 1 year | 3 years | 1 year |
| Manufacturer | Areca | AMCC/3Ware | Broadcom/Raidcore |
| Product | ARC 1220 | 9550SX | BC4852 |
| Firmware | 1.36 | 9.3.0.1 | 2.0 |
| Driver | 1.02 | 9.3.0.1 | 1.42 |
| SATA II ports | 16 (PCI-X version has 24) | 8 | 8 |
| Cache | 128 MB DDR333 ECC | 128 MB DDR2-400 ECC | none |
| Interface | PCI Express x4 | 64 Bit, 133 MHz PCI-X | 64 Bit, 133 MHz PCI-X |
| Optional versions | 4, 8, 12 ports | 4, 8, 16 ports | 4 ports (BC4452) |
| Multiple card support | yes | yes | yes (4) |
| Card Format | low profile (connectors on the top) | low profile | low profile |
| XOR Engine | Intel IOP332 | PowerPC RISC | none |
| RAID Level Migration | yes | yes | yes |
| Online Capacity Expansion | yes | yes | yes |
| Multiple RAID arrays | yes | yes | yes |
| Staggered spin-up | yes | yes | yes |
| Hot Spare Support | yes | yes | yes |
| Online Capacity Expansion | yes | yes | yes |
| Battery Backup Unit | optional | optional | no |
| OS support | Windows 2000/XP/2003, RedHat, SuSe, FreeBSD | Windows 2000/XP/2003, RedHat, SuSe, Fedora, FreeBSD | Windows 2000/XP/2003, RedHat, SuSe, Fedora |
| Other | RAID6 support, command line interface, alarm buzzer, SNMP support, drive activity LED, 64 Bit LBA | command line interface, SNMP support, emergency flash recovery, drive activity LED, write journaling, 64 Bit LBA, variable stripe size | mirror splitting, hide arrays, scheduled consistancy check, dedicated/global/distributed spare, 64 Bit LBA |
| Estimated Price (US $) | 630 | 500 | 320 |
| Warranty | unknown | 3 years | 3 years |
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Editor-in-Chief (2005-2006)
Patrick Schmid was the editor-in-chief for Tom's Hardware from 2005 to 2006. He wrote numerous articles on a wide range of hardware topics, including storage, CPUs, and system builds.