2720SGL support question

fmydog

OK I am new to WHS 2011 and drive pool but I have a question that I can't seem to find the answer to. I put together a whs box and implemented a windows driven raid 5 array of 4 Samsung spinpoint disks. Until a week ago everything was fine until the array had failed redundancy and then upon me trying to fix it going all coocoo. Long story short I lost all my data. The disks are fine apparently there's rare occurrences with foreign disks in windows with certain raid controllers. So anyways I am now using drive pool and I paid for it but I want to add 4 more disks bringing my total to 8. I was looking at the highpoint 2720SGL and noticed there's a raid version and a non raid version. Is there a hardware diffrenece or can I buy the raid version and use JBOD. If I do use jbod when I plug mydisks with existing data will I loose it? Is anyone using this controller and if so does it work really well. Thanks.

fmydog

Just to clarify I have not implemented a new raid or card I have 4 empty drives and I need a good controller suggestion I wanted to find a cheap jbod solution I'm not sure if I should just by some dumb 4 port cards or something like that. I read somewhere on this forum a guy stated to stay away from startech and highpoint lol so anything other then the 300$ lsi cards??

fmydog

Oh and its got to be sata III

fmydog

AOC-SAS2LP-MV8 ..... will that suite my needs?

saitoh183

i dont understand what this has to do with Drivepool? DP doesnt work at a hardware level so as long as windows sees the disk, DP will also.

fmydog

Oh and on another note will sata 3 even effect drive pool performance. I know my 1Gb network pushes about 70-90 MBs with drive pool in the driver seat. My old windows raid 5 pushed 90-110 MBs never dropped below 90 tho. Just a thought I can leave with 70MBs but if sata III pushes it faster I am game. There are a lot more cheaper sata 2 options for controller cards but my hdds are all sata 3 so just a thought.

fmydog

Oh snap just saw your response. OK my main questions were. If there in jbod on the controller card is that the same to windows???

fmydog

Oh and

i dont understand what this has to do with Drivepool? DP doesnt work at a hardware level so as long as windows sees the disk, DP will also.

My question is disregard the whole hardware argument I just want to know what setups work for people using DP.

fmydog

I don't want to pay for something that's no going to work lol

Shane

Generally, just because a card has RAID capability, doesn't mean you have to use it.

AOC-SAS2LP-MV8 is a very nice card. It has no built-in RAID, only JBOD, but with DrivePool that's just fine. I actually looked at getting that card before I found out that it would cost a fortune to ship to my part of the world. So instead I'm using a pair of generic PCI Express x1 cards with two SATA2 ports each, which are working fine (won't win any awards for speed, but they work and that's what mattered most to me).

Don't get PCI cards, get PCI Express cards. Just make sure you have the slots to support the cards you're getting. That AOC is a x8 card, so you'll need at least one available x8 or x16 slot to put it in. Check your motherboard manual to make sure the slot is both physically AND electrically x8 or better, too. Some cheaper boards with two x8 or x16 slots will drop one or both to x8 or x4 electrically if either/both are in use. I don't know if the AOC card will drop-down to x4 or not in such a case.

fmydog

Oh I see thanks so much. I will order and let you know. Want me to order 2 of them. I can ship one anywhere in the world for 17$ usps first class international. Lol send me an email and yes I am serious. I am buying one for 130$ with free shipping.

fmydog

Fmydog@gmail.com

Shane

I've already got the other cards, but thankyou for offering.