Areca 1212 VS Adaptec 5405

[Alcedema]

We're building a web server which will just handle files/mail, the databases are on a dedicated machine, we're going to go with Raid 5 and we've got 4 x WD6400AAKS to use.

Does anyone have any experience with either of the above cards, or areca/adaptec's support?

Thanks.

[arthurleung]

If you're only using 640GB disks perhaps its better (and far cheaper) you buy 6 disks and run RAID10, faster write, easier to recover as well as higher redunduncy.

If server space is limited, RAID10 with 4x1TB disks will give you the same space and still cost less than the price of RAID card.

Perhaps you can look at 3Ware's offers? I've used 3Ware cards in several servers and they're extremely reliable.

[Alcedema]

Hi, are you suggesting using MD raid instead of hardware? This is something we did look into but decided that as the bottleneck would definitely be in the IO throughput, we would take the overhead away from the main processors.

But then we didn't consider raid 10 with linux raid..

We do currently have a machine with an adaptec card (2120S) and one with a 3ware card (7006-2) and whilst they both seem to do well for what we use them, we've seen many people in our industry (over at webhostingtalk) complain about the 3ware card's throughput in more demanding environments.

[Papipap]

Although I have no experience with either Areca or Adaptec, I have consistently read that the Areca cards are the best in terms of performance - not just out of Areca and Adaptec, but better than anyone.

[Alcedema]

Thanks, I've heard dreadful stories about adaptec cards getting hot, at least the areca cards seem to have active cooling.

[shaithis]

I upgraded a while ago from a 3Ware 8506 to an Areca 1210

While the comparison is very slanted (66MHz PCI vs 8x PCI-E), the Areca card makes the 3Ware look like a sloth.

On the flip-side I did find 3wares support and build quality to be noticeably better.