RAID 5 card - software or hardware?

I've run a RAID 5 SATA card before that was a mix of hardware & software based (the old RocketRaid 1640) but was very un-impressed with the write speeds, presumably due to the XOR calcs being done by the CPU (it's in a fairly low powered server).

I've borrowed a Fasttrak SX4000 card that is fully hardware based and the performance is *much* better but it is a PATA card with a maximum hard drive size of 250Gb so I'm starting to run out of space.

Anyone got any recomendations on a *fully* hardware based SATA card to go for. Most likely 4 ports (as I'm not rich!) but with the capability to put some fairly big drives in (500-750Gb). I've looked at the Highpoint RocketRaid RR1820A but I'm not sure if it's partially software based again ...?

All thoughts appreciated!

don't buy highpoint or promise if you expect full hardware raid.

look at areca or lsi, or higher-end adaptec (their lower end models are software)

and if you're on a budget, just go to ebay - you can get oem cards from the states for less than half the UK retail price

Areca seems to be king of the hill for proper hardware raid cards. XFX does a 5 port hardware one for £35, but I wouldn't use it ;)

the xfx is RAID3, not RAID5

I use an Areca 1210 4 port...PCI-E 8x

It is very nice to use and quite fast....I would heartily recomend them :)

http://www.shaithis.me.uk/files/ShaiRAID.png