> I would'nt bother with a 3ware 8000 or a 3ware 9000 card these days, if > you really do want to get 3ware, get atleast a 9650. And anything less > than a 9550 should be considered only if you get a really good deal off > ebay. And remember that battery backup unit. I'm just really looking for a RAID card that will do RAID 1, with four drive capacity, i.e., a master drive with the OS and applications installed and mirrored, and a slave drive for data and photos, graphic design, video, etc also mirrored. What would battery built into a RAID card do for me? >>> For me, in SATA RAID cards it's 3ware or nothing. Been using them for >>> more than 8 years now. > > I used to think the same for a long time, till I started using Areca > raid cards. Now, I rate 3ware well behind Areca on performance, > reliability and ease of use. If you are doing raid-5 or raid-6 the > performance difference is quite noticeable ( I've just recently switched > my desktop from a 3ware 9650 to Areca 1220, and got a near 8% > improvement in write performance, and 12% on read - raid5 5 spindles ). So you reccomend Areca, good thanks I'll check them out too. How are they for RAID 1? >> So these cards are just plug n play? Just plug them in, no software or drivers required, >> all mirroring is managed by firmware built into the card RAID card itself? > > Drivers for both 3ware and Areca are included in the CentOS-5.1 kernels. > > Btw, you might want to keep an eye on some of the not-that-expensive > highpoint rocketraid, hey have some fairly decent stuff coming out these > days. The issues with them however, the drivers have only recently gone > into the mainline upstream kernel - and their userland tools are not > quite there yet. But if you need something for 2 to 5 drivers, they are > an option worth considering ( they do have drivers for centos-4 and > centos-5 on their website ). Will check them out too Thanks Karanbir _________________________________________________________________ Need to know the score, the latest news, or you need your Hotmail®-get your "fix". http://www.msnmobilefix.com/Default.aspx