From: Lee W <centos-list at unassemble.co.uk> > Has anyone had any experience of using the Promise FastTrak SX4000 or > SuperTrak SX6000 IDE RAID Controllers under Centos (if it matters I'm > using version 4). I've seen it listed on linuxcompatible.org as working > but would prefer to find out any first-hand experince before I buy. Avoid the FastTraks. Most are FRAID (Fake/Free RAID), 100% software with 0% GPL drivers. The SuperTraks are a "true hardware" microcontroller+DRAM solution with GPL drivers. Unfortunately, they use mega-yesteryear i960 microcontrollers not able to keep up with today's drives. When you want ATA and RAID-5, I recommend the LSI Logic with "x" in the product model to indicate XScale (superscalar StrongARM) microcontrollers. > If not, can anyone suggest another make of RAID Controller that will > support upto 4 IDE RAIDS (preferably with support for RAID 5). And is > also available in the UK. Is there any consideration driving RAID-5? For a majority of applications, RAID-0+1 tends to be better. I prefer 3Ware Escalade 7506/8506 series cards for RAID-0+1. They use a 64-bit ASIC and SRAM (static RAM). The 9500S series is still maturing, although they should eventually show outstanding performance. They add a large amount of DRAM to the existing ASIC+SRAM approach of the earlier Escalades. -- Bryan J. Smith mailto:b.j.smith at ieee.org