IDE raid 5 question

swatbat

swatbat

[H]F Junkie
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Apr 25, 2001
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I'm in the process of throwing together a cheap filebackup server to replace an old alpha machine. I'm thinking of using this p3 600 board I have laying around with 256 ram(may add more) running FreeBSD(maybe linux if it comes down to it) I have 3 40 gig maxtor drives to throw in it and will prob get another few before I set it up. My question is what is a good raid 5 card for this. This will be used by less the 10 users most of the time so I figure that the system should be more then fast enough. If possible I'd like to speed less then 200 bucks on the card. Any good ideas on new or used cards for this. I need something better then like a rocketriad 454 because that would kill the speed on this machine. Reason for raid 5 is it is going to be the best way to make sure the files are safe(and I got a bunch of these nice 40 gig drives that are new). I was thinking about a FastTrak SX4000 if anyone has experience with this.
 
3ware makes good RAID cards if you have a 64bit PCI slot on the MB. The 7506-4 (I'm assuming PATA drives) looks like a good card (never used it) and the Egg has it for ~270ish. Linkage
 
Yea this board doesn't have 64bit pci. If I end up upgrading the board it will prob be to a amd xp or a p4 celeron. Both would still be running only 32 bit. O yea the drives will be pata. I got like 3 brand new 40 gig maxtors on my desk and will be getting a few more(for free) so pata is the way to go. :)
 
The SX4000 is not a bad card, and it actually has working Linux drivers (unlike it's older brother the SX6000)

And it is cheap (comparitively)

==>Lazn
 
3Ware user here, i'd recommend them in a heartbeat over a FastTrak.
Between machines at home and at work i run 3 x 7506-4 and 3 x 7506-8's hosting RAID1 and RAID5 arrays.

3Ware has linux and BSD drivers on their site, though i have never used them.
 
well, if you dont have a 64 bit pci slot, and since its going into a p3 600 machine, i dont think he needs a giant card. just something to hold files.
 
Yea I mean that board is just hanging around doing nothing. As I said it will prob be hosting at max 10 users so I figure it should be able to handle it with some ok speed. I don't have a problem with getting a p4 celeron/amd athlon board and some new ram but I don't realy think it will be needed. I mean the sx4000 shouldn't tax that system that bad right?
 
3ware is the way to go. If you are tying to save money, hit ebay and just do a search for 3ware.

i personally got a new 7500-8 new for 250 (got it over a year ago) then i got a 7810 for 200 (half a year ago) on fleabay =P. quite a deal i say.
 
I think most of the people here are failing to realize that the SX4000 unlike most fastrack cards is actually a real hardware raid card.

It has a XOR engine.. Performance wise it is very close to the 3ware cards (esp when in a 66mhz PCI slot)

Yes the 3ware cards are better, but they cost twice as much.. and the SX4000 can use up to 256MB of sdram as cache, and reading out of cache is faster than from HD any day.

http://www.hardwarereview.net/Reviews/Promise FastTrak SX4000/FastTrakSX4000.htm

==>Lazn
 
FWIW - I have the SX6000(w/128mb dimm) with six WD 250GB drives, and it has never given me a problem. I ran it with six WD 120's also for a quite a while before without a problem also. Configuration isn't exactly streamlined, but it works. Oh, and from my limited testing 16k is fine for block size.
 
Yea any one have any idea how the sx4000 does with freebsd support. Would like to run 5.x but will prob run 4.10 because it is the stable branch. If not what about redhat support. 9x or fredora. Yea this is something I figure I'll do prob in 2 weeks. School just started and that is taking up most of my time. I figure by then it will calm down some and be a good time to set it up. Wondering how much ram I should add to it though. Figure 128 will prob be fine(pc100/133 ram is kinda pricy) but I may drop a 64 meg in cause I have a bunch of them lying around.
 
evilmicah said:
FWIW - I have the SX6000(w/128mb dimm) with six WD 250GB drives, and it has never given me a problem. I ran it with six WD 120's also for a quite a while before without a problem also. Configuration isn't exactly streamlined, but it works. Oh, and from my limited testing 16k is fine for block size.
Click to expand...


should have knocked on wood

I had event logging disabled. Lesson learned - array lost. I am now running with one of the drives configued as a spare - and the event logging is on - thank god for my backups on the old 120GB drives in my closet.
 
PATA, right? On a 600mhz machine right?

Get something that runs off software in windows like hte rocket-raid 454 card from highpoint. it's like $80....

then, if you need to spend any more cash it should be on the RAM, and that alone.

These guys don't seem to understand that what you're doing does not require the [H]ardest hardware. All you wanna do is hold a ~160gbs right?

for all that i'd get one ~160gb drive and JBOD the thing....
 
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