Are controllers worth getting anymore?

I was just wondering if controllers are worth it anymore. I saw one that had a 512mb cache. You can hook up the 15k hard disks to them. Do these controllers really take a huge load off the cpu? Or is the ICH9R Southbridge just as effective. How much cpu usage does the ICH9R really take? Would I see a noticeable difference with a controller. What about a controller that handles most of all the Southbridge functions, dvd, usb, hard disks, plus all the cache, do these controllers exists? If they do, are they worth it in terms of letting the cpu breath better?

Anyone? I'm sure they're useless nowadays, but I just want to be sure.

if all your doing is raid 0 or 1, not really, for raid 5 and such, absolutely if you want the good performance.

ich9r doesn't use alot of cpu usage i have a raid 0 and a raid one on mine and i recall seeing some reviews of it using around 3% at most.

If you're changing chipsets, it can also make a difference, e.g. Intel to Nvidia or vice versa. I still run one I bought several years back and just plug it into my next motherboard and I'm off.

The other factor is that today extra hard drives to backup your data files are cheap so that unless you make a drastic OS change (thus a significantly different format is used) then just reformat your new system drives and then copy your data files back onto a new partition. Several variations you can use regarding what I just said.

Bottom line is that in general I agree with your suggestion.