Hardware RAID SATA 32-bit PCI card exists?

eger · 12-16-2006, 09:25 AM

So I have been reading and searching a lot about RAID cards for SATA. I cannot find a true hardware RAID raid card with 2 SATA ports that works in normal 32-bit PCI bus.

Does anyone know if such a thing exists? Every true hardware SATA RAID I can find is PCI-X 32 or 64 bit. Hopefully someone can give me at least a yes or no. Thanks!

musicman_ace · 12-16-2006, 01:28 PM

Assuming that copying this URL works, There are 8 of them

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...k=&srchInDesc=

My guess is that this adaptec one would be the easiest.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16816103020

eger · 12-16-2006, 02:59 PM

Thanks for the suggestions. However I was under the impression that these sub-$50 cards were all Software raid solutions which required drivers and possibly other special linux tools to get them setup properly. I have in the past used a $200 3ware hardware RAID card which required no driver at all. CentOS simply recognized the logical drive as one.

Do you know if any of the cards on newegg are actually hardware? I read a couple of the comments and some comments even mention that they are software cards

musicman_ace · 12-17-2006, 12:42 PM

If the person doesn't really know any better, any controller can be used to create a software raid. Check the manufacturers website for more details, but I belive the adaptec one is h/w raid. The software mgmt tools are just a way to access & monitor raid within Windows. Drivers should already be in the kernel, but again double check the current kernel to see if it has that driver available or if you need to use a vendor supplied driver.