[gentoo-user] OT SATA card recommendations

[Mike Williams <mike@gaima.co.uk>]

Hey,

In the next month or so I wish/need to make some storage modifications, I'm 
running out of space, quickly.
Currently it's a horrible hodge podge of 2 RAID5s in one VG, and 1 RAID10 in 
another VG. 1 of 3 is PATA other 2 SATA (RAID5), 5 of 5 SATA (RAID5), and 4 
of 4 PATA (RAID10), 1 of 1 PATA (boot and OS). Spread over the on-board PATA 
controller, a PCI 2 port PATA (for the 4 drives in RAID10), and an 8 port 
marvell SATA card (which doesn't have a usable driver I can find after 
2.6.13).
That lot in a very old globalwin 302 (??) midi tower.
Yes, it's *hot*.

I already know I'm going for a Antec P180, so I'm limited to a maximum of 10 
drives, one boot disk, and a CD (something I'm missing now).
320GB drives are the best £/GB at the moment, even if they only give 298GB 
usable space.
10 x 298GB / RAID6 == just under twice what I've got already, and more 
redundancy.

So, the point in my post. I need a 12 port SATA card that works properly with 
open-source drivers (preferable in kernel).
Cost isn't the primary concern, even if this is only for home use.
I don't need, or in fact want, on-board RAID, software RAID is better in my 
opinion.
3x 4 ports is an option, at a push. I'd rather not lose the gigabit nic 
though.
I see that 3ware do a 12 port card, but it's over 500 quid! Cost may not be 
the primary concern, but 500 quid is still 500 quid!

Anyone with any experience?

Ta

-- 
Mike Williams

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