RAID Card Recommendation

[JimW 1]

I have an HP prodesk 400 G1 laying around and have decided to build a NAS. My co-worker recommended this operating system and I've created a flash drive boot loader. It looks like it will work, so the next step is to populate it with disks and a RAID controller. The HP prodesk has three mini PCIe interfaces on the motherboard. I think I can fit 4 or 5 HDD's in the case. 

 

Can someone recommend the best mini PCIe RAID card for something like this?

 

Thanks in advance.

Edited September 28, 2018 by JimW

[flyride 451]

You are on the XPenology forum.  The point of DSM (the operating system enabled by the XPenology loaders) is to implement RAID in software, not at the hardware/ASIC level.  So what you really want for the best functionality and performance is drive port density to match your desired number of drives.

 

So you should look at the hardware compatibility threads for the SATA controller chips that are supported by DSM and see if any of those are implemented in mini-PCI.  I don't know of RAID controllers on mini-PCI, but again, that should not be what you are looking for.

 

FWIW, most modern RAID controllers can be reflashed to perform as multi-channel SATA controllers, which would maximize their usability for DSM/XPenology.

[JimW 1]

Hey Flyride, 

 

Thanks for setting me straight on this subject. I thought DSM needed a RAID controller. Having never seen or worked with DSM, I had no idea that it implemented RAID in software. Your advice is great and I will do exactly what you said. Search for the SATA controller chips that are compatible, have the port density I need, and are implemented with mini PCIe for this motherboard.

 

Cheers!