PCI Raid 3 Controller - Worth the move?

[GingerNinja.net]

Have a small question that I hope someone can answer.

My current set-up is as follows

I have an ASUS A8V Delux mobo with the following drives attached:
38GB Raptor (Windows - 12GB used)
80GB HDST 7K250 SATA (Data - 50GB used)
2 x 160GB HDST 7K250 SATA in RAID 0 (Applications - 53GB used)

Backup: 1 x 250GB Maxtor One-Touch drive, which I hardly ever remember to use!

I am thinking about selling all of these and changing to:

XFX REVO 64 SPU 3 Port Sata Raid Card (GAMER) PCI Raid Controller
with either
3 x 250GB Samsung Spinpoint P120S SATA II in RAID 3
(This drive is faster than a 74GB Raptor in this set-up.)
or
3 x 160GB HDST 7K250 SATA in RAID 3
(Probably slower than my current set-up, but this would mean I only need to buy 1 more drive and on my existing RAID 0 set-up I have 292GB free which is plenty!)

My reasons for thinking about doing this are:

1. I never remember to back-up my data and I know that I am tempting fate by doing this, even though I have yet to experience a failure (tempting x2 now that I have said that!). RAID 3 should allow me to stop making external back-ups and rely on RAID for protection.

2. An external RAID controller should mean that I can upgrade my motherboard whenever I want as my RAID set-up is tied to the controller card and NOT the motherboard.

3. One less drive to generate heat.

What do you think?

[GingerNinja.net]

I hate to beg, but SOMEONE must have an opinion on this? Please?

[sawyen]

makes pretty good sense.. Its a good idea..

[GingerNinja.net]

Thank you for answering.

Looking at the scan website (and forgetting about E-Bay for a sec) to move to 3x160GB drives will only cost be an additional £60. To move to 3x250GB SpinPoint drives will cost a staggering £270.

That makes quite a difference!

[sawyen]

Do make sure your 480 Tagan can handle 5 drives running load on RAID.. Me previous Tagan 430W choked with 4 drives with 2 running on RAID and 2 IDEs (with 7 case fans, one super hungry 6800GT, and one overclocked 3500+.. Which is why I'm using a 530W Tagan now.

[arthurleung]

The REVO is a pretty old product already. You can search syncraid in Tomshardware.
The STR is as good as RAID0. If you are not planning to multi-tasking heavily the card would be good enough. (Its running PCI anyway). It won't be anywhere as fast as those onboard chipset SATA controllers. May be wait until a PCIe version comes out.

[GingerNinja.net]

Do make sure your 480 Tagan can handle 5 drives running load on RAID.. Me previous Tagan 430W choked with 4 drives with 2 running on RAID and 2 IDEs (with 7 case fans, one super hungry 6800GT, and one overclocked 3500+.. Which is why I'm using a 530W Tagan now.

So far it appears to cope OK with 2 x 120mm fans, 2 Optical drive, 6800 GT and 4 drives. I would actually be taking the load down to 3 SATA drives from 4, but adding the Creative X-fi to the mix.

It gets quite toasty at the back, but that is probably due to the fact that I have it all squeezed into a Super LANboy with my opticals only 2" from the intake fan on the PSU - CANNOT be good for airflow, that!

Worse case scenario? It blows and I will get something beefier, but sincere thanks for your input.

[GingerNinja.net]

The REVO is a pretty old product already. You can search syncraid in Tomshardware.
The STR is as good as RAID0. If you are not planning to multi-tasking heavily the card would be good enough. (Its running PCI anyway). It won't be anywhere as fast as those onboard chipset SATA controllers. May be wait until a PCIe version comes out.

Hmmmm. I did think about waiting for the PCIe version, but my motherboard is still AGP/PCI and this would involve me replacing not only my mobo, but my graphics card as well which I £400-500 I cannot afford right now.

[DavidM]

This is rather a good look at the Revo in action....

[GingerNinja.net]

This is rather a good look at the Revo in action....

Thanks, Mort. Actually read that twice before thinking about this in-depth.

Well.....I've gone for it.

Ordered the card from Scan and ordered the 3 x Samsung drives from Komplett as they were £7 cheaper per drive than Scan (sorry Mort & Wildmonkey - feel really guilty!).

*gulp*

Hope I don't regret this and can actually sell my old drives on e-Bay! I only got them from Scan (the #1 place to buy kit from!) at Christmas when EVERYONE wanted the Hitachi "Deathstar" 7K250 in their PC......