Dell RAID Cards

[Aynjell]

:comp:

What is the current impression on the Dell Perc 5/i?

Would you reccomend this raid controller for 4 1TB caviar blacks (in RAID 5)?

What should I pay for one?

is there a specific version of this card I should get?

I know I've seen it mentioned a lot around here, so figured I'd ask around.

[visbits]

They are the best sata raid controller available. I would say that 4x1tb Raid5 would be fine. Don't pay more than $100 for one (I've seen them go with Battery and breakout cables for $100).

There is no specific version to look out for. There extremely picky about ram, there's a thread at overclock.net about what ram is supported.

[SuperMiguel]

im selling mine if u need it...

[neonblingbling]

I don't know if I would said the PERC 5/i is the best RAID controller around, but it is the best bang-for-buck RAID controller. I got a card, battery backup, and cables for $100 shipped. Haven't regretted it.

Would this array be for storage or will you have your OS on it or something? I would consider getting the WD green line if it is for a file server, only because greens are cheaper, uses less power/doesn't get as hot, and performance will probably be bottlenecked by the network anyway. If you already have the black drives, the 5 year warranty probably wont hurt...

I think one of the biggest things that lead me to purchasing a PERC 5/i instead of using a solution like FreeNAS is because of being able to expand existing arrays. Plus, I like how I can run Windows on it without having to dual boot or something. I like know I have a backup computer, since my laptop's XP installation crapped out the night before a final while I was studying (many of my notes were electronic).

[Old Thrashbarg]

It's certainly not the best RAID controller out there, but it's the best you're gonna get for under $300 or so, and it's more than good enough for the average SATA RAID setup.

People aren't stressing the point enough, I don't think, so I will say: make sure to get one with the battery backup unit. The cache won't work without it, and the BBUs aren't very easy to find by themselves.

I don't know of any particular revisions of the 5/i to look out for, but do be careful... there are a couple similarly named cards that aren't as good. I believe they're called 5/e and 5/iR.