If you're running Linux then it's probably worth steering clear of cheap RAID cards (if you're using them for RAID). Linux's software RAID performance is ridic

If you're running Linux then it's probably worth steering clear of cheap RAID cards (if you're using them for RAID). Linux's software RAID performance is ridiculously fast these days, it left all the cheap cards we had standing and even gives mid-range cards a good run for their money. Another added bonus is there's no crazy proprietary on-disk format, you can rebuild the array on any Linux machine and in most configurations, pull out a disk, drop it in any other Linux machine and read it. http://www.chemistry.wustl.edu/~gelb/castle_raid.html http://www.chemistry.wustl.edu/~gelb/castle_raid.html has some benchmarks those guys did a little while back but Google's filled with stuff on Linux's software RAID performance.