[nycbug-talk] 2x 3Ware Escalade 9500S-4LP SATA

[Charles Sprickman]

> I have 2 of these cards still, and have been mucking about just trying to get 
> *any* kind of install to happen using them with FreeBSD (their specs are 
> *soooo* much nicer than my Adaptec cards, at the same price...)

Ike,

I've been following some discussions on the Postgres-performance list 
since I'm needing to think about chaning our RAID build (currently Adaptec 
ZCR SCSI stuff).  I'm kind of seeing some serious slagging of traditional 
SCSI host-based RAID controllers there - the on-card processors don't seem 
to be keeping pace with the scsi chain, newer drives, or modern computing 
in general...  Notice how NO ONE that sells host-based RAID cards posts 
any benchmarks in their sales/tech slicks...??

That said, many there are talking about SATA RAID.  These are database 
people, mind you, who are very picky about storage.  The 9500 series cards 
are very highly recommended, but there's also a brand that I have not 
heard of before called "Areca": 
http://www.areca.com.tw/index/html/index.htm

These are getting very positive reviews, and Areca's benchmarks claim that 
they beat out 3Ware as well.  FreeBSD is mentioned throughout their site, 
and the driver author for FreeBSD is an Areca employee.

Just thought I'd share this...

Charles