Hi,

I'm looking for a SATA RAID controller to install in my machine. At present, i've got a Pentium 4 system which I have put RHEL onto, but I'm using a Promise SX4-S150M 4 port PCI SATA RAID controller and to be totally honest its crap. I'ts assisted software RAID (uses an XOR chip and has 64MB of ECC RAM onboard), but Linux doesn't like it at all, and despite have a RAID 1 or 5 Array defined just sees the HDDs as four separate disks. There aren't any useful drivers available from Promise or anywhere else for that matter.

I've setup RHEL for the moment using dm-raid software devices, but the performance is shockingly bad. I want to get a new controller that is proper hardware RAID that is well supported by RedHat, probably something from Adaptec, 3Ware or LSI Logic is going to be best from what I've read.

The problem I'm having is finding a controller from one of these manufacturers that has 4 SATA ports, is PCI-Express (most seem to be PCI-X) and doesn't cost in excess of £300.

Any ideas?

Thanks

AMCC 3ware Escalade 9650SE-4LPML bulk, low profile, PCIe x4

- 4x SATA II
- RAID 0/1/5/10/JBOD
- 256MB PC2-533 ECC DDR2
- Multi-lane 4 SATA-Ports on 1 cable
- 3 year warranty

just 265 Euros.