a lot of the higherend highpoint cards are pretty good if you ask me, but as stated in reviews, the tech support doesn't just suck, its non-existant. 3ware is overpriced for a home media server if you ask me, i would shop around for a highpoint and go for that, see if it works out for you. So far I have an older card, an 1820 with 8 sata ports running a raid 5 with all channels with 500 gig drives, so far its been running fine (for the most part) for over a year. So it all depends.
<br><br>Or, if your media server is strictly to just place media, why not take a look at <a href="http://www.freenas.org">www.freenas.org</a>. ? Its BSD based actually, but works really well and the software raid built in has a lot of support behind it and proven stability (and read/write speeds of 400MB/sec even, on the right hardware). This might be off tracking, but could lead to a possibly cheaper solution?
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Jan 19, 2008 11:59 AM, Michael Proctor-Smith <<a href="mailto:mproctor13@gmail.com">mproctor13@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
I have had good luck with 3ware cards, there drivers are in the kernel<br>and they are real raid not hardware assisted software raid. But you<br>get what you pay for they are much more expensive. On the other hand<br>if the highpoint card is support in core 1-7 then the drivers are in
<br>the kernel. But again for $118 you are most certainly getting software<br>raid with a bios utility to set it up.<br><div><div></div><div class="Wj3C7c"><br>On Jan 19, 2008 10:29 AM, Matt Campbell <<a href="mailto:dvdmatt@gmail.com">
dvdmatt@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>><br>><br>><br>><br>> Good morning all,<br>><br>><br>><br>> I unfortunately ran out of space on my media server last week and need to<br>> add 4 more 1T drives, but am out of SATA ports.
<br>><br>><br>><br>> I looked online and found a 4 port SATA II PCIe x1 card which would take<br>> advantage of the three unused x1 ports on my motherboard.<br>><br>> <a href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16816115029&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=100&SelectedRating=-1&PurchaseMark=&VideoOnlyMark=False&Page=" target="_blank">
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16816115029&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=100&SelectedRating=-1&PurchaseMark=&VideoOnlyMark=False&Page=</a><br>><br>><br>>
<br>> The reviews of the card state that the manufacturer (in Milipitas) is<br>> *horrible* for technical support with people getting a response only after<br>> multiple calls and emails.<br>><br>><br>><br>
> The manufacturer's site lists drivers for Fedora Code 1-6 and Fedora core 7.<br>><br>><br>><br>> Does anyone have experience with these cards (Highpoint) or can you<br>> recommend a good 4 port SATA2 PCI or PCIe1 card?
<br>><br>><br>><br>> I have tried contacting the manufacturer to see if they support F8 yet, but<br>> am not holding my breath.<br>><br>><br>><br>> Thanks in advance for any experience you have had with SATA cards under
<br>> Linux,<br>><br>><br>><br>> Matt<br>><br>><br>><br>><br></div></div></blockquote></div><br>