Well, I can get the 16 port adaptecs for the same price ($100) from a local shop disposing of servers from failed companies. So the price isn't an issue. It's density. I'd like to be able to hang 24+ drives off one system, so I can't get there by using 4 port PCI-E cards. Not enough slots, and the 4 port cards cost almost as much as the 16 port port adaptecs I can get. What I am asking about is the comparative performance of 8 and 16 port SATA controllers being used in software raid. It makes no sense to do this if you are paying retail prices for them I know... So, back to the question at hand - what is the best performing 8 or 16 port SATA controller (hardware raid on board or not) available? Thx Mike ----- Original Message ---- From: Wolfgang Denk <wd@xxxxxxx> To: Justin Piszcz <jpiszcz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Cc: Mike Myers <mikesm559@xxxxxxxxx>; linux-raid@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Friday, October 31, 2008 5:19:46 AM Subject: Re: Adaptec raid congtrollers for SATA disks under software raid Dear Justin Piszcz, In message <alpine.DEB.1.10.0810310813240.468@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> you wrote: > > > We made really good experience with the Supermicro AOC-SAT2-MV8 cards. ... > Lets be frank- almost all(?) RAID controllers you must export the disks > via JBOD and they cost hundreds to thousands of dollars. Doing SW RAID > via JBOD IMO is not a great idea-- I'd use individual 2 or 4 port SATA > controllers on PCI-e. Right. The AOC-SAT2-MV8 is a 8 port PCI-X controller without any RAID support - and costs just around $ 100. That's why I like it. Best regards, Wolfgang Denk -- DENX Software Engineering GmbH, MD: Wolfgang Denk & Detlev Zundel HRB 165235 Munich, Office: Kirchenstr.5, D-82194 Groebenzell, Germany Phone: (+49)-8142-66989-10 Fax: (+49)-8142-66989-80 Email: wd@xxxxxxx The optimum committee has no members. - Norman Augustine -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-raid" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html