Hello! I would recommend to take both and tell us about your experience ;-) IMHO: 3ware is _hardware_ raid Promise is pseudo-hardware (i.e. parity calc is done in the pc cpu)Promise(tx4000 based?) offers a (GPL) 2.4x kernel driver, but not as kernel patch but as separate module, i.e. you have to to initrd to boot from that md-device (I prefer ide and md driver statically linked to the kernel). 2.6.x has a driver built in. I dont know whats the current status of serial ATA in the kernel (There are (generic?) patches out I heard) With this pseudo-hardware raid I would use linux software raid on it instead of promise raid drivers drivers. This gives you the possibility to mount the disks on any ide port :-)
Promise and Highpoint is pseudo-hardware (i.e. parity calc is done in the pc cpu/driver) If you go for a pseudo-raid solution you should also have a look at the highpoint based solutions, i.e. RocketRAID (1520 two channel ... 1820 8 channel). My experience with Highpoint is gerenally better than with Promise, but I ordered my first RR 1520 Controller 2 Days ago. It's not here yet ;-)
Rgds, j. -- Andreas John net-lab GmbH Luisenstrasse 30b 63067 Offenbach Tel: +49 69 85700331 http://www.net-lab.net Franz Georg Köhler wrote:
On Di, Mär 23, 2004 at 06:10:23 +0100, Marcin Owsiany <porridge@debian.org> wrote:Hi! I need to choose between: - 3Ware Escalade 8006-2LP - Promise Fast Track S150 TX4 The Fast Track is a little cheaper, and has 4 interfaces (3Ware only 2). Is there any good reason to choose 3Ware?If I was spoilt for choice between the two above I wouldn't choose the Promise controller. If you are in need for 4 channels you might want to check out ICP-Vortex controllers: http://www.vortex.de/english/product/pci/rz_sata/8546rz_e.htm