SBS2003 on PE800. Need RAID controller sugges

[jferrante]

Hello all,

I've got a new PE800 server for my own small/home office. 5 XP Pro workstations. I will be installing SBS 2003.

I bought this server fairly stripped down, just the on-board SATA controllers. I've got the RAM up to 2gigs, now I'm adding hard drives.

I intended to use 2- 250gig SATA drives with the onboard RAID controller with mirroring. This board has an adaptec RAID chipset. The motherboard chipset is the i7221.

I guess I'm asking if anyone has had experience using just the on-board SATA controllers for a simple RAID setup. Does it work well enough, etc. Should I spend the extra $300 for a PCIx RAID controller and adding a third drive for RAID 5?. I'm not concerned with the extra speed but I certainly want redundancy. Is the extra controller worth it? Do the on-board controllers have any issues? Pros and cons??? Also, Does the PE800 have any issues with any particular controller cards. I'm considering the Broadcom Raidcore 4452 if I do add one.

All opinions and comments appreciated.

Thanks,

Jeff

 

[jkupski]

I'm pretty certain that DCBennett isn't very happy with the onboard SATA RAID controller. I'm also pretty certain that what I just said was the understatement of the year.

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=945422

for more information.