Best and most reliable raid controller

[armand_h]

Hi everyone! i recently bought 2 corsair performance pro 128gb and put them in raid 0 !
but as you can see my motherboard doesn't support sata 3 (6gb/s) , i decided to buy most reliable high performance controller around 400$ .

i read in many forums that LSI 9260 is the best controller around my budget! but i want to know is there any other controller that can perform better than 9260 or not!?

i think Intel RS2BL040 is rebranded 9260-4i but there must be some difference between them! i want to what is the difference between these two and i also read that RS2BL040 comes with sata II instead of sata III cable which i have to buy separate cable or it does not support
SATA III !
if anyone has experienced these two controllers i will be happy to hear your advices!

due to the fact that these SSD's have 2x256mb DDR3 chache do i need to buy raid controller with onboard cache or just go with controller without onboard cache!

sorry for my english!

 

[armand_h]

i have to say that i'm using Rampage II extreme!

 

[inzone]

If instead of spending so much money just on a controller card why don't you get the Rampage 111 Extreme and it will cost under $400 or one of the other boards for less that even have two sata3 controllers. With the Corsair SSD's you do want to get an Intel Raid controller because the Corsair SSD's do not like the Marvell Raid controller chips. I know first hand because I have two Corsiar Force GT's and tried them on the Marvell raid chip and had problems so I switched to the Intel chip.

 

[armand_h]

Rampage III Extreme and Rampage III Black Edition both comes with Marvell PCIe

9128 controller which are horrible in raid 0 because of low bandwidth {1x PCI Express 2.0 interface (5.0 Gb/s)}

and if you put 2 of these or ANY sata 6gb/s SSD's you will get EVEN lower performance than two sata II ports in raid 0 !

thats why i'm searching for raid controller!

and 400$ is my max budget! less than 400$ will be better for my pocket!😀

 

[inzone]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&Description=raid+conroller+cards&bop=And&SecondSearch=1&Order=PRICED&PageSize=20&Page=7

At one time I was looking at the adaptec 6405 but there are a lot to choose from and you ceertianly can get one for much less than $400.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816103224

 

[armand_h]

I heard that adaptec controllers are a little bit slow at boot up! i wonder if other controllers are slow at boot or just adaptec's!

And as i said LSI 9260 seems is the best option for that price but what about Intel RS2BL040 ?

 

[inzone]

It is said that the Intel raid controllers are preferred over most all controllers for raid 0 or 1. I would also read the feedbacks on the cards just to see what is said and if people are happy with the product. It is true that the LSI controllers are the best but the price is a little steep just to put raid in a home computer. SSD's are fast enough now that you can hook up a single SSD on the 6gb/s sata3 and be very happy with the performance.

 

[armand_h]

you are right but, what if a person cannot upgrade the entire system and want to use ssd's with max speed!?))
and in russia both cards cost around 350 USD!

 

[inzone]

Ouch! Well of course in the end the choice is yours to make and if you feel that a seperate raid controller will serve you best then go for it and try to maximize what you have. Not to say that I have a lot of money but when it comes to my computer if there is something that is going to make it much better than what it is now then I will find a way to make it happen (just don't tell my wife). So I can understand where you are coming from as far as wanting the controller card to utilize the SSD's to the max.

 

[armand_h]

I will go for it for sure but due to lack of experience with raid controllers i don't want to waste my money for something can't satisfy me!))
i always doing a lot of research before buying something!
and this is why i'm asking here in this forum because i could not find the right answer!

actually i want to know more about that intel controller! how does it perform!
and i heard that intel rs2bl040 comes with sata 2 cable instead of sata 3! if that is true i will go with LSI!