I’m attempting to build myself an external RAID1 system to both increase my storage capacity and have backups of everything in case a hard drive goes kaput. It’s happened before and it’s painful. I’ve used externals for a while but I’m tired of buying new externals and I’ve run out of USB ports. I’m using Windows 7 Pro x64.
I’m probably more knowledgeable than the very average user, but am far from knowing exactly what I’m doing.
This is all a personal project, so money is of course a huge issue. I don’t want to sacrifice quality though, so any suggestions for better/cheaper hardware will be much appreciated.
So far I have this:
4-bay Enclosure: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5592688&CatId=2780
4 3TB HDDs: TigerDirect Sunset
and a RAID controller card: ??
I’ve read often that a good RAID controller card is integral, but I don’t know what I should look for. My motherboard might have one built-in, but I don’t know if it does, if it’s good quality, etc.
- Would you guys be willing to suggest some good RAID controller cards that aren’t costlier than the Ferrari in my garage (lies!) but still get the job done well?
- Would you guys please look at the hardware I’m about to buy and maybe approve/suggest changes depending on price and/or quality?
- Any decent RAID management software suggestions?