I'm looking to add a few HDD's and SSD's to my system but I'm not to sure what raid card to get. I've been looking at Adaptec cards and the 7805 and 8805 look the best to suit my needs and price range. Hoping to have a 6 HDD array possibly with 2 SSD's as cache (Side note: I've yet to find somewhere that stocks an 8805 card).
If anyone has any suggestions for other cards it is greatly appreciated.
Link to extensive system profile: http://www.overclock.net/lists/display/view/id/5366977
The PCI-e 3.0 x8 LSI controllers are hard to beat but they are pretty pricey if you want something that can control 16+ drives. Their lower end MegaRAID series though is pretty reasonable and of good quality.
You say the two cards you've listed, are what "suit my needs". What are your needs exactly? What is your planned setup?
I'm planning on having a super high capacity gaming/recording computer. About 6 HDD's and 2 SSD's, maybe more or less.
In 2 separate arrays? or do you want a card that can use the SSDs as cache for the HDDs?
I was planning on using them as HDD cache.
Do you have a budget, as RAID cards that support SSD caching are quite pricey.
My pockets stretch pretty deep for now, but I don't think I'll be able to afford anything over about £300. I might have to do with pure storage.
Hmmmm. well the cheapest RAID card I know that supports SSD caching capabilities, is the LSI MegaRAID SAS 9270-8i. Which is around the £500 price point.
However if you are going to be using 6 HDDs in RAID 5 you shall still see around 500 MB/s.
(100MB/s seems to be the average these days for 7200RPM HDDs,)
I would highly recommend LSI cards, its just the features you want come at a bit of a premium.
Thank you! I've looked at the 9204-8i and it looks to be a great card for a few drives. Maybe i'll be able to upgrade in a few years to a card with lots of lovely features. Again, thanks for your advice :D