From owner-freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Nov 30 02:30:34 2005 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4CE1E16A41F for ; Wed, 30 Nov 2005 02:30:34 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from gary@tbe.net) Received: from kerplunk.tbe.net (kerplunk.tbe.net [209.123.115.134]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E2BB643D70 for ; Wed, 30 Nov 2005 02:30:33 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from gary@tbe.net) Received: by kerplunk.tbe.net (Postfix, from userid 1001) id CA3CA5D09; Tue, 29 Nov 2005 21:26:58 -0500 (EST) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by kerplunk.tbe.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id C0B0F5CA3; Tue, 29 Nov 2005 21:26:58 -0500 (EST) Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2005 21:26:58 -0500 (EST) From: "Gary D. Margiotta" To: "Toll, Eric" In-Reply-To: <9BC86C67C3AF7646B9C5382020457A949DD27A@VIP10-WIN2K> Message-ID: <20051129211315.F64841@kerplunk.tbe.net> References: <9BC86C67C3AF7646B9C5382020457A949DD27A@VIP10-WIN2K> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Cc: Alessandro de Manzano , freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Subject: RE: what about highpoint 1640 SATA RAID controller ? X-BeenThere: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: General discussion of FreeBSD hardware List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 30 Nov 2005 02:30:34 -0000 On Tue, 29 Nov 2005, Toll, Eric wrote: > 3Ware is my favorite, it has a true hardware based RAID. I > thought hipoint, promise etc just leach off of the cpu to do > its job. I paid just over $100.00 for a 2 port 64bit 3Ware > card. Recommend the WD Raid edition drives. Alt+2 to setup > the RAID array in the 3Ware bios page. Group the drives.. > Boot FreeBSD and it sees the card without having to do > anything. Neeto GUI webserver to check array etc. It can > also email you if the array gets into trouble.. It depends on what Highpoint controllers you are talking about. There are "soft" versions from Promise and Highpoint, which leach off the CPU for a lot of their work. This is the case with the 1640 controller I believe. However, at least with Highpoint, they do offer a series with a dedicated processor onboard, which is their "A" series, which is meant to compete with the offerings of 3Ware. I recently purchased an 1820A series controller from Highpoint, which is an 8-port Serial ATA controller, 64-bit (32-bit PCI compatible), for just over $200 USD. I paired it up with 4 WD 320GB drives, in a RAID-5 config, and it's a screamer. The motherboard/CPU is a dual P-II 400 on an Asus board, and the speed is amazing out of an older machine such as this. I know I wouldn't have the same speed on one of the "soft" controllers from either company. I did exactly what you described, popped the card in, hooked up the drives, Ctrl-H to get into the BIOS, set up the RAID-5, popped in the 5.4-RELEASE CD, and loaded it right up without having to jump through hoops: FreeBSD 5.4-RELEASE #0: Wed Oct 12 23:29:12 EDT 2005 root@daffy.spatzie.org:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/PORKY Timecounter "i8254" frequency 1193182 Hz quality 0 CPU: Pentium II/Pentium II Xeon/Celeron (400.91-MHz 686-class CPU) Origin = "GenuineIntel" Id = 0x651 Stepping = 1 Features=0x183fbff real memory = 268435456 (256 MB) avail memory = 253050880 (241 MB) MPTable: FreeBSD/SMP: Multiprocessor System Detected: 2 CPUs cpu0 (BSP): APIC ID: 0 cpu1 (AP): APIC ID: 1 hptmv0: mem 0xd8000000-0xd807ffff irq 18 at device 18.0 on pci0 RocketRAID 182x SATA Controller driver Version 1.1 RR182x [0,0]: channel started successfully RR182x [0,1]: channel started successfully RR182x [0,2]: channel started successfully RR182x [0,3]: channel started successfully RR182x: RAID5 write-back enabled da0 at hptmv0 bus 0 target 0 lun 0 da0: Fixed Direct Access SCSI-0 device da0: 915735MB (1875425280 512 byte sectors: 255H 63S/T 116739C) I like the price point, the performance, and the ease of upgrade, I can pop this into a newer machine with a 64-bit slot and keep right on going. I never got the same warm and fuzzy from 3Ware, plus their cards are much more expensive, and I'm working on a lower budget. I can't speak about any monitoring tools or management software, as I haven't looked into it, but for the way it is, it suits my needs just fine. -Gary