Re: Hardware Raid controller?

On 10/21/25 10:56 PM, Paul wrote:
> On Tue, 10/21/2025 9:45 PM, T wrote:
>> On 10/21/25 6:44 PM, T wrote:
>>> Hi All,
>>>
>>> Any of you guys have a recommendation for a hardware
>>> based RAID controller that takes NVMe drives?
>>>
>>> Many thanks,
>>> -T
>>>
>>
>> That is Windows server friendly
> 
> I thought we'd addressed that in a previous discussion.
> 
> It was a RAID controller for NVMe, that did not rely
> on an NVMe module being in the computer BIOS package.
> 
> For example, my ten year old 4930K machine, the BIOS
> has no NVMe module support, it cannot enumerate an NVMe
> if one was placed on a $10 PCIe card blank.
> 
> The solution to that, was a couple models of RAID controllers
> made by a particular company, where the ROM on the RAID
> controller, contained a BIOS-interval module for scanning
> the NVMe for boot-able materials (UEFI boot, let's say).
> 
> There are two kinds of RAID modules:
> 
> 1) Simple and cheap card where the computer software
>     does RAID0 or RAID1 between two NVMe module, and it is
>     all possible because it is a kind of "soft RAID" and
>     simple PCIe wiring and BIOS level modules (like maybe an
>     Intel thing), enable a solution to be made for pennies
>     for the infrastructure (the two NVMe still costs hundreds each).
> 
> 2) The fancy card, with the support on board. There, you are
>     at least paying for the loadable module in ROM. On the more
>     expensive of the cards, maybe an XOR unit is available for RAID5
>     or the like.
> 
> The most effective card, is capable of 56GB/sec or so,
> but it might not boot the computer and it might be a "data-only"
> array capable of assisting an AI to load a complete model in only
> a second. That would be eight modules at 7GB/sec, rather than
> four modules at 14GB/sec (because the PCIe5 modules, they're
> still playing with them and trying to improve the numbers).
> 
> Summary: There are boot drives and data drives, when it comes to
>           plugin/addon PCIe sled NVMe devices. You should state clearly
>           what your priorities are for the product:
> 
>           1) absolute bandwidth (RAID0), boot not an issue, data only card
>           2) a reliable boot card for OS (not likely to be more than 2TB of protected-capacity)
>           3) a reliable (RAID5/RAID6) with XOR assist and wire speed
>              There may be more than just a PCIe switch chip on it. Heatsink likely.
>              Maybe 48TB of storage.
> 
>           Few consumer machines have sufficient slots to build a battleship.
>           But some of the servers with $1000+ mobo, have seven PCIe5 x16 slots,
>           and are suited to high speed adventure. The CPU costs $10K, so why not.
> 
> https://www.techpowerup.com/248873/highpoint-releases-bootable-quad-m-2-nvme-raid-card-the-ssd7102
> 
> RAID0,1,10 PCIe3 sleds (slow)
> https://www.amazon.ca/HighPoint-SSD7104-Controller-Windows-Systems/dp/B08M11TGDV
> 
> Not seeing a lot of RAID5/RAID6/XOR-accelerated ones.
> https://www.servethehome.com/highpoint-ssd7540-8x-m-2-nvme-ssd-card-review-sabrent/
> 
> Driverless is nice (avoids a DKMS issue on Linux), but I still don't think much
> of the RAIDing options.
> 
> https://www.highpoint-tech.com/product-page/ssd6202a
> 
>     Paul


Thank you!