ESXi 4.1 Raid Controller - Budget $ - SOHO Server

[ChaseD]

Hello!

I am building my first production ESXi box while following the HCL. I've found that the Intel S1200BTL has an embedded raid controller which is not compatible with ESXi 4.1 (as most embeds aren't). I am trying to find a budget raid controller that is capable of Raid 10 (probably 4 SATA drives) that supports at least 300Mbps. I found the PERC H200 for around $200

(PERC H200) http://www.dell.com/content/topics/topic.aspx/global/products/pvaul/topics/en/us/raid_controller?c=u...

However, I should make the smarter decision and get a controller with a cache and battery. Do you know of any value range RAID Controllers?

Thanks,

Chase Dafnis

[idle-jam]

How about this http://h30094.www3.hp.com/searchresults.asp?mfg_partno=507925-B21,508226-B21&rank_on=price&rank_dir=... ?

[ChaseD]

Thanks for your quick response.

Looks promising. It looks like it can only take advantage of SATA drives up to 1.5gbs. I'll be using 4x3gbs SATA II Drives. Is it safe to assume that this controller wouldn't be able to provide a pipe large enough for the drives?

-Chase

Page 5 for your controller:

http://bizsupport1.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01270623/c01270623.pdf

[idle-jam]

check this out, it should fit your needs: http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/proliantstorage/arraycontrollers/smartarrayp410/index.htm...