ATTO or Adaptec..the RAID card decision

[RamaV]

Wanna thank you all for all the prior help and debate, im so close now to making actual purchases (thank friggin gawd).
I figure in trying to make last decision, may as well see what feedback i get here.
Its down to 2 things:
Adaptec 3200s RAID card..mostly a hardware solution, with 32 megs of onboard cache. Can handle RAID0-5.
OR
ATTO ExpressPCI Dual Channel 160 kit. Mostly a software solution, can only do RAID0

Both are dual channel 160, both are 64 bit PCI backward compatible to 32 (i have 32 bit PCI bus now, will go 64 bit in the near future) both come with their own unique software progs that they say are the best.

If your wondering what my plans are, RAID0 at first, and possibly 5 in the future. Yes cost is a factor, but i want to get what i pay for, better to spend 500 on something of high quality than 350 on something that will just work.

Rama

" He who (BLEEPS) nuns, will later join the church " Joe Strummer, The Clash - "Death or Glory"

 

[Guest]

Have you read the reviews of the ATTO at <A HREF="http://www.athlonmb.com" target="_new">http://www.athlonmb.com</A> along with their mylex review which they use the ATTO in comparison under their Motherboard Review section..

It would clear up any questions I had for just a 2 disk RAID 0 array in terms of performance.

***check the jumpers 1st then check em again***

 

[Kelledin]

For RAID0, even though it's part software, the Atto card <i>whips</i> the Adaptec RAID cards bad in performance benchmarks. Not sure how it does it. The lack of RAID1/5 capability bites hard though. :frown:

A little free info--you might already have figured this out--but when you go pure RAID0, your chances of total data loss (vs. just a single drive) are multiplied by the number of drives in your RAID array.

I tell you from experience, the Adaptec Storage Manager is indeed a nice program. Like the entire Adaptec U160 RAID line, it's a re-badge of the corresponding DPT product (Adaptec bought DPT btw). If you decide on the 3200S, you'll have to do a custom install on Storage Manager to get the nice GUI; by default it isn't installed. Shame too, since it's the nicest part IMHO.

Also, the Storage Manager PRO (a revamped Storage Manager?) is still very, very beta, according to Adaptec. They will probably strongly advise you not to use it; that's the advice we got from their tech support two months ago. It begs the question, "why is it on the driver CD?", but it's no big problem if you just ignore it.

Kelledin
<A HREF="http://kelledin.tripod.com/scovsms.jpg" target="_new">http://kelledin.tripod.com/scovsms.jpg</A>