From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Sep 5 23:21:35 2007 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 34F9D16A41A for ; Wed, 5 Sep 2007 23:21:35 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mkhitrov@gmail.com) Received: from nz-out-0506.google.com (nz-out-0506.google.com [64.233.162.228]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B307313C46A for ; Wed, 5 Sep 2007 23:21:34 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mkhitrov@gmail.com) Received: by nz-out-0506.google.com with SMTP id l8so1256766nzf for ; Wed, 05 Sep 2007 16:21:13 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition; b=CKnmPRiPpVz3QwKmWKI82WgkLcCBPAHU4kCc0RTmNEnda8umas1eJXdRKrxiHYgeHWU7mTCDqi4nzT5u/lH+uA7yNZFegh9x9zgAnk+E1g2a3XmaNdblZfe6DFpy6Ddgbkb7hdcPUcZoJ2hi4qIQJjWbihvbh0IgUhR3gVvXDYk= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition; b=eVW4ONI1h8U5kI8BaQX1wVdaqdfQXWQy5OsKTUkU+oJxqz/tbktFmH/b6yjIYs6D+5trAmQl0bq65HPwBNgum+SB0rE/CP0myvGh1W7aGg+hdghh3k5gaxsFtjcJO6ZXyFx2n1zekmu7UH0JSXwUM1uOxNyztPHMaWLspaYgEZk= Received: by 10.142.101.17 with SMTP id y17mr399336wfb.1189034473008; Wed, 05 Sep 2007 16:21:13 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.143.10.17 with HTTP; Wed, 5 Sep 2007 16:21:12 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <26ddd1750709051621m439700e3v20f0e56c2a53f930@mail.gmail.com> Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2007 19:21:12 -0400 From: "Maxim Khitrov" To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Subject: RAID Controller Recommendations: ARC-1210 or 9650SE-4LPML X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 05 Sep 2007 23:21:35 -0000 Hello, I'm building a new workstation for myself, which will primarily run FreeBSD 7.0+ and possibly dual-boot with Win XP for gaming. I'd like to have at least a terabyte of redundant disk storage (probably RAID5), so I'm trying to figure out which controller would give me the best results. My two main candidates are Areca ARC-1210, and 3ware 9650SE-4LPML. Both are 4-lane SATA II controllers. Both cost about the same, and from what I gather, both should be supported by FreeBSD. I read the reviews, but would like to get some additional feedback specifically for using the two under FreeBSD (maybe one has better drivers... I don't know). I plan to get Gigabyte's GA-P35-DQ6 motherboard (btw, any compatibility issues I should know about?), which has a 4x PCIe slot. ARC-1210 uses 8x, but since the physical size of the slot is actually 16x, there shouldn't be a problem. Don't think the controller will be able to use 2GB/s of bandwidth to its limit anyway. So that's basically my setup. I'd like to know if anyone here has personal experience with either controller. Are there any stability issues? Which one would give me best performance with 4 drives in RAID5? Which one has more mature drivers? If you have some other recommendations, I'm happy to hear those as well. Thanks, Maxim Khitrov