Farkas Levente wrote: > what happends if the 3ware card get wrong? do you always have a backup > raid controller (with the same type)? with software raid you can plug it > to any kind of controller and save your data! Can't answer for Bryan, but: How often you get raid controller card go wrong (or any other PCI card for that matter)? Sure, if you are careless when handling it and static electricity that accumulated in your body fries it. Those installed in production servers, very darn close to never. Even with that, if you keep a number of servers running, you usually standardize on the cards you use (for example, you go with 3ware and stick with them, or you go with Adaptec and stick with them). Having a spare card or two in a drawer is a good idea anyhow, if you unexpectedly need to build the server overnight. And usually, you don't need to have exact same model of the card. In most cases, cards produced by one manufacturer can read RAID metadata information written by different card models (of the same manufacturer). So you can access your data as long as the replacement card has enough ports to connect all disks from failed card.