ATA RAID and CPU utilization

Simple question. Are there any 32 bit PCI ATA RAID cards that do their own onboard processing?

Highpoint, Promise, Mylex, all the ones I've looked at send their work to the host CPU to do. This slows down the array considerably. Especially when the CPU is busy. I know Highpoint chips don't do this. Pretty sure Promise doesn't either. Cost isn't an issue here. I know I'll be paying more. What should I look for?

For what your looking for, Nope!

There used to be a RAID controller made by Intel back 2 years ago that did all hardware RAID on the fly within the controller card it self. You could have added up to 128MB of SD-Ram on those cards but they lacked any support behond 64GB or ATA-66.

With todays CPUs, the little 10-15% CPU Utilization that is used isnt worth it to justify you going out and splurging $350 on a Controller card. For $350, you could get one powerful CPU that would bring that CPU utilization down in half!


OC-Master

64bit for the dual. Come on spend the $$$$. If you run it in a 33mhz 32bit slot its pointless.

My dual has a 64 bit 3ware card in it already. This will be going in my KX7-333. Looks like I'll be getting the Mylex card since it offers the highest performance out of any, regardless of the fact that it uses the host CPU to do its work.

LSI Logic I4 has it's own onboard processor and embedded memory.

Supports ATA100 and has 4 channels for up to 8 devices. I've seen them go for under $100 on eBay several times. Hard to come by though.