Hello, I'm new to this forum and also to Linux.

I'd like to install a PCI RAID adapter for a pair of IDE disks. So far, I'm having difficulty finding one that supports SuSE Linux. Since it will be a simple RAID 1 (mirror), I assume that a cheap card would suffice (<50 maybe?).

Is anyone out there using a cheap RAID card?

Thanks a bunch for your replies!

As a general rule, cheap raid cards and motherboard-based raid controllers are fake-raid, meaning that your cpu does all the work, just like controllerless win modems.

Most fake-raid controllers do not have good linux support and should be avoided. If the manufacturer’s support site doesn’t supply a linux driver for your distro/revision, then it’s a good idea to stay away from the card.

Good examples of hardware raid cards with good linux support would be almost any card made by 3ware.

Are you trying to support windows on the same raid?

If not, then you could use a simple IDE controller card and set up software raid1 using mdadm.

Hi -- thanks for reply!

Yes, I know. However, the CPU overhead doesn't bother me in this case because only read performance is important. It's for an old socket 370 P3 server anyway -- if the price is right, then I'll take whatever I can get provided it's reliable :-/

I agree.

I'd like to switch to Linux, but would feel most comfortable with a dual-boot Linux/Win2K Server for now. OS software-RAID obviously won't work. That's why I need a RAID card to make it possible.

I can't seem to find any reasonably priced 3Ware cards for my old machine. I keep finding multi-hundred dollar ones. Am I looking in the wrong place?

Thanks for your input!

What about the 3ware 7006-2? It’s a true hardware raid card.

It sells for $113 new at newegg.com and they’ve gone for between $35-$102 on eBay recently.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16816116036

There’s a driver source package on the 3ware site for it, but the drivers for a card of it’s age are probably already part of any modern linux distro you might pick.

I'm using an ITE821X chip (on my M/B) for RAID 1 support. I was patching the kernel to get it recognized, but it is now (as of 2.6.15) in the kernel. I need to use hdparm to set up DMA on it, but it works well. I use it to back up all the partitions on my main drive, & can boot off of it if I wish. Seems like there are (were?) inexpensive cards with this chip on it around.
Regards,
Bill

I've been looking for a 3ware 7006-2 over the past couple weeks and can't find anything under $100. Too much for my old board. Looks like I might have to stick with Win2K for now :^(

Sorry for taking so long to post, but I kept thinking I'd find something eventually and then be able to tell about it. No luck. But thanks anyway for the suggestions!

How about $104.63 for a 7006-2 at provantage.com?

http://www.provantage.com/3ware-7006-2~73WAR018.htm

Ground shipping to me comes to about $6 and they don’t collect sales tax on shipments to most states.

It’s really hard to get yourself to spring for the first hardware raid card. Buying the second, third, fourth, ... one is a lot easier.

PS. Most of my "new" IT-related purchases come from either Newegg or Provantage.