Cheap PCI SATA controller for Dell Dimension 2350, which one? - Hardware & Software

Title says it all, I've narrowed my choice (which is unfortunately limited due to where I'm purchasing) to these two: [url]http://delock.com/produkte/gruppen/IO+Karten/DelockController_card_2x_SATA_1x_IDE_70146.html[/url] [url]http://www.lycom.com.tw/ST102.htm[/url] The first one is about 15% cheaper than the second, which is a plus. Which one should I get and why? Also I have two 250gb samsung drives I would like to run in RAID1 and run linux of them, how would I go about this?

I actually own the first one. Same manufacturer and all that jizz. Don't expect it's onboard RAID features to work well, otherwise it's good.

Are you planning to boot from them?

[QUOTE=B!N4RY;28315874]Are you planning to boot from them?[/QUOTE] You can boot from the first one too. Tried that with a Intel D510MO motherboard.

[QUOTE=B!N4RY;28315874]Are you planning to boot from them?[/QUOTE] Yes. [editline]27th February 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=Van-man;28315657]I actually own the first one. Same manufacturer and all that jizz. Don't expect it's onboard RAID features to work well, otherwise it's good.[/QUOTE] Well I kinda want to RAID 1 some drives, should I go for #2 then?

[QUOTE=chipset;28319890]Well I kinda want to RAID 1 some drives, should I go for #2 then?[/QUOTE] Unless you want to put the OS drive in Raid1, then just do a software based Raid1. Depending on your OS you can also do a software based Raid1 on your OS drive, newer Linux Distros and Windows 7 (for example) is capable of that.

I wanna RAID1 two 250gb hard drives and boot Linux off of them, not sure which distro yet. Which card should I get? You where a bit unclear.

[QUOTE=chipset;28320074]I wanna RAID1 two 250gb hard drives and boot Linux off of them, not sure which distro yet. Which card should I get? You where a bit unclear.[/QUOTE] I have personal experience with the top one. But I've never trusted it's RAID capabilities, but that's mostly because I'm spoiled by Professional RAID cards with DDR cache, and backup battery for said cache.

[QUOTE=Van-man;28320221]I have personal experience with the top one. But I've never trusted it's RAID capabilities, but that's mostly because I'm spoiled by Professional RAID cards with DDR cache, and backup battery for said cache.[/QUOTE] But it DOES support hardware raid, right?

[QUOTE=chipset;28320259]But it DOES support hardware raid, right?[/QUOTE] Doubt that, decent Hardware RAID cards are usually really expensive. Those are most likely "BIOS" RAID cards.

[QUOTE=Van-man;28320760]Doubt that, decent Hardware RAID cards are usually really expensive. Those are most likely "BIOS" RAID cards.[/QUOTE] Mkay. However the question still stands, which one? I know you have experience with the first but the place I'm buying form has twice the ammount of comments on the second one, indicating it's more popular.

[QUOTE=chipset;28321499]Mkay. However the question still stands, which one? I know you have experience with the first but the place I'm buying form has twice the ammount of comments on the second one, indicating it's more popular.[/QUOTE] The second one has a Silicon Image chipset, and they USED to have some problem with Linux (and still have with some *BSD derived distro's) while the first one (that I also own) uses a VIA chipset that seems to work with more platforms.

First one it is, thanks for the help.

[QUOTE=Van-man;28320760]Doubt that, decent Hardware RAID cards are usually really expensive. Those are most likely "BIOS" RAID cards.[/QUOTE] Cheap RAID cards use the host's CPU for data setup/transfer, so it slows the system down as a whole.

[QUOTE=bohb;28353684]Cheap RAID cards use the host's CPU for data setup/transfer, so it slows the system down as a whole.[/QUOTE] That too, knew I forgot something.