3ware 9650SE-4LPML 4-Port Serial ATA HardWare Raid Controller Retail

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got my raid card up and runnin, thanks to the patience and excellent 3ware help, larry and sam, no thanks to msi's assistance, but i wound up updating my bios for the 1st time thru it all, now i'm a pro, lol, soon after understanding the wrong way with msi's agree to or tell you something support? but their great forums are most beneficial, tech assistance not useful? don't know why not a rocket science point, not ones to hold your hand i guess, told me my MB wouldn't help my 3ware? easier than helping the newbie? anyway after i learned how to set up my bios, along with updating them aswell, (more of msi's assistance to my so known as issue) and a nicely required firmware update, which 3ware did an great job helping me with, (part of why i got this card, great critiques on their thech assistance) which fixed the hangup on the reboot of installing the OS, which i now have the product important memorized, lol, program, k9a2 platinum, vista 64, two raptors, 2 velociraptors, each in raid o, just a gamer, systems running wonderful, newegg rocks, i got mine as an open box invest in! not a problem, and i saved over a 100 bucks, awesome!

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Yes operates with WD 2TB WD2002FYPS RAID drives! Do your homework on RAID drives and totally comprehend Time-Restricted Error Recovery (TLER) before you buy drives and setup RAID. need to update firmware and driver and firmware and driver need to match! Enclosed documentation and computer software are useless as the firmware need to match the software and ideal practice is to udpate firmware to existing version... initially worked with a 9690SA with the intention of attaching 2 WD 2TB drives with endless matters... endless dropping of the drives, endless rebuilds, and lastly endless loss of data! One would assume the drives would perform or the drives would not work -- the intermittent issues were really regarding. The compatibility list really should be renamed "only functions with these drives". Challenging to think about how WD 2TB RAID drives would perform with the 9650SE and NOT with the 9690SA... Regardless remain clear of the 9690SA.

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Has a battery backup... I've tried just about every configuration, tried multiple tough disks, and nevertheless have but to this day, a lot more than a year following buying this card get it to function right. It operates good for a though, then just slows to a crawl. I even purchased the battery backup unit. And then the bbu started complaining about overheating! So I removed the battery and let it hang on the power provide cooling fan, and the overheating challenge went away. I'm operating windows 7 rtm. The drivers load right up, and all appears fairly quickly for the duration of installing windows. It's practically like if you have any sort of power savings settings applied to the challenging drives, it takes about five minutes for the program to get started responding once again, and doesn't completely get back up to speed until you do a complete reboot. Possibly I got a negative unit, I don't know. All I know is that this assume has been much more trouble than it's worth.I've got to contemplate that a LOT of people love this card, so I'll continue to attempt other settings and consult with the 3ware tech help to figure out what's going on.

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This is my initially HARDWARE RAID controller. In prior builds it has usually been Computer software-driven. What a distinction! Functions both in Linux and Vista 64-bit, thanks to an excellent tech help who gave me step by step instructions on an engineering workaround so it could make close friends with MS Vista 64. Value - it is the most expensive component in my most current build. The ideal stuff doesn't come low cost, such as Operating Systems.

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See other See other Just wanted to respond to the last assessment and say that these cards DO function with Tyan servers. Perhaps there are compatiblity troubles with their Intel motherboards, but I have five of these cards in five Tyan servers (AMD based) and it operates fine. The Tyan servers I'm employing are model B2925G20V4H (search for it here), these are great servers!

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Super straightforward setup (my initially add-on card RAID), MB BIOS recognized it even though ASUS M3A32-MVP Deluxe/WiFi is not on 3Ware's supported list. I had my OS backed up on an old 80 gig Seagate that I used to boot into Windows XP. When there, I installed the drivers for the 3Ware card and utilized Acronis disk migration software to copy all of my technique files, etc... to the new array. Then I rebooted, changed the startup disk to the 3Ware array and went to town! Basic and easy, even for a novice.Straightforward configuration through web interface in Windows XP or by means of controller BIOS. I set mine up for RAID ten to retain high efficiency coupled with safety. The performance numbers are terrific and it is noticeable when I open a program or boot into Windows. When I was going by means of the MB RAID, my transfer rates for RAID were about 189 Mbs. Going via the card in RAID 10 they are 318 Mbs. Monitoring the CPU usage, it hovers about 1-3%, which implies that the controller is performing all the disk I/O. none. Be confident to check the net application that comes with the card as soon as it's installed and see how a lot of lanes you're making use of. There are supposed to be 4, but initially I was showing only 1 lane getting utilized...and my performance was only around 168 Mbs in HD Tach. Then I switched PCI-E slots and the numbers shot up significantly. I ran the web-based utility and it showed all four lanes becoming applied. Essentially, I doubled the throughput by placing the card in the correct slot (on the M3A32 it is a single of the blue ones). This tends to make sense. Had I been running RAID , my throughput would likely be nicely more than 600 Mbs. When I get a sufficientt backup device, I just may possibly run RAID , but I'm too chicken for that!ASUS M3A32-MVP Deluxe/WiFi, four Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB, AMD 5000+ BE

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Quickly. Once I got my system up and running I tested a three-drive RAID- array (using WD 1TB drives) using ATTO: 600+ MB/sec read, 300+ MB/sec write. I'm running it in a method with an Asus Rampage Extreme II, Core i7 965EE, 64-bit Vista. Makes the boot course of action take a bit longer (while the card initializes). I don't boot from the array on this card (yet); due to the fact I'm running RAID-, I decided to boot from an SATA drive attached to the motherboard. This card has been superb so far, so I may start out booting from it. My only gripe is I wish I'd known how fantastic it was going to be: I'd have ordered the eight port model.

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Worked out of the box on Linux (still require to install the loopback "web" service computer software nevertheless) Doesn't come with a blow out cable.Purchased this much less than a week ago...priced dropped ฮ because then...how wonderful is that?! Card worked proper out of the box on my Linux box. Raid five - three 2TB WDs, striped at 64 for optimal I/O efficiency. Kept Write Cache enabled even though at present don't have a BBU at the moment but will soon adequate.My mobo has 1 PCI-E 16x slot, 1 PCI-e 1x and 3 PCIs.. This card is a 4x slot. I was fortunate that my MSI board's 16x was not set cheaply to be a devoted video card slot but backwards compatible. In other words, I effectively have this RAID card in my 16x slot and working beautifully. I copied the "packages" folder from the CD to my Linux Desktop so I could copy the tw_cli to my /usr/sbin folder to perform with my RAID setup in the command line (this is stated in the user manual but just reiterating). There are settings specific for setting your RAID if you are RAIDing for a database storage...if you don't, your performance will suffer. Start by setting stripe to 256k...lol

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Quite Robust. Works in numerous RAID configurations. I have utilized this card with Windows Server 2003 and also Ubuntu 9.10 Server. Each applications went very smooth. 3ware does supply a copy of Ubuntu 9.ten Server with the driver compiled. Supposedly a newer Linux Kernel support the card too. A tiny pricey. I under no circumstances realized how critical a very good controller card until I had to adjust out a failed Mainboard with a socket 771 Xeon. It didn't make sense to obtain old tecnology so I replaced the board, set my boot (C: was on RAID5), and lone behold, Server 2000 detected the drivers for the new Mainboard and I was up and operating inside an hour.

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Right after a small far more than half a year with this card, it has worked flawlessly. A user mentioned not operating with windows 7. I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate x64 and it works wonderful. Not positive where the issue is. Drivers loaded proper up from a usb thumb drive. Cables could be a bit longer. My case is rather large. Otherwise, none.

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256 mb on board ram. Integrated 8087 sas to sata cable. threeǚ of the drives listed as compatible by the manufacturer are not supported. Had I ordered this from tiger direct I would have been stuck with it.

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Complete-featured with RAID10 support, fast, Linux and Windows support, effective CLI None actually I've installed these on about ten Linux servers, and about 30 of its little sister, the 9650SE-2LP, all perform fantastic. 3ware/AMCC/LSI does a excellent job of submitting driver updates directly to the Linux developers, so upstream Linux virtually usually has 3ware assistance when a new item is released. As of this writing, Debian, Ubuntu and RHEL all have assistance out of the box. For in-OS maintenance, I'd suggest the CLI, rather than dealing with installing the 3DM2.

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Fantastic capabilities for such a "cheap" accurate hardware RAID controller. Straightforward installation, straightforward sofware and firmware upgrades. Standard updates from LSI.Officially supports Western Digital RE4-GP 2 TB drives (with firmware update), which is a rare function. No SAS expander support, but that wasn't a genuinely well-liked function when this card was released. I've been running numerous challenging drives and configurations on this same controller for about a year and a half with absolutely NO troubles at all. Within a week of Windows 7 becoming released, LSI had updates offered that made the card totally compatible with both 32 and 64-bit flavors, so I don't understand exactly where some of the previous reviewers got their suggestions.I originally started off operating Vista 32-bit with Seagate 1TB drives, then went to Seagate 1.5 TB drives (unsupported, but nevertheless worked), and I'm at the moment running Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit with 4 WD RE4-GP two TB drives. Overall, 1 of the greatest Computer purchases in fairly a even though.

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Good Utilities and speed. It was uncomplicated to set up and has worked great. Even functions well in linux. Value and doesn't consist of the battery backup. I read the poor evaluations of less expensive raid cards and even though an entry level enterprise card is more than I want im glad I went with this card. I have a raid five array of wd enterprise drives. make certain you use drives with tler or equivalent.

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Under Linux this is the finest hardware solution, when the array is degraded it automatically rebuilds itself although the server is operational. Expensive.

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I've been operating this card for much more than a year now with very couple of issues. Assistance is great in BIOS and drivers support most operating systems including some that are generally overlooked. Smart monitoring has not be very detailed. I know one of my drives in the array is a little flakey but all I get is a generic caution message. But this is a minor fault in my book, Intelligent is usually a small mystical. Purchase the battery module! The card also functions (though unsupported officially) under Mac OS X by use of their "Sidecar" product drivers. All features work absolutely. I mention this for informational purposes, YMMV but it was a total bonus for me. Also works well under Windows 7.

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TBD - ought to be a excellent HW raid remedy. TBD This is only a continuing comment on the increasingly lousy packing jobs we're receiving. The product box was placed directly on the bottom floor of the shipping carton and then filled with nuts. Hello, anybody household? The complete face of the product box received NO protection whatsoever. Next time, just slap a stamp on the raw board and drop it in he mailbox to save me shipping. At least this wasn't an HDD, so perhaps it will work. Receiving tired of mis-packed DOAs.

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Very excellent performance and reliability so far. Passive cooling (but make positive it is in the case airflow or at least skip adjacent slot. Responsive and responible technical support. Functions excellent in a Dell Precision 380 desktop i had lying about. I checked the cabacity of the energy provide and realized it could deal with four a lot more drives so I got four WD Green Energy RAID Edition 1TB drives and turned it into a extremely low cost high-efficiency RAID5 two.7 TB backup station. It took a bit of creativity to fit almost everything in but the performance is outstanding. The card administrative net page interface is clean and basic to use. Pricey for casual use but a bargain as a terrific entry level enterprise remedy. The battery backup unit really should really be included due to the fact the efficiency is markedly improved with writeback cache enabled. With no the BBI cache is diabled even if you turn it on. I had the unfortunate experinece of having the card and the subsequently the BBU I later bought both be DOA. Both times the cross shipped replacement from 3ware arrived just before I even had a chance to get rid of the RMAed item. Excellent web page (never even had to call and speak to anybody). Anybody who has skilled the standard techsupport of most companies these days will be delighted at the program set up there if ever required.My motherbord wasn't even on the compatibility list but it functions perfectly. Make sure you have a dedicated x4 PCIe slot and a chipset that a supported board has. Make certain you get TLEC enabled drives for RAID use.

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This factor is pretty fast!.... but.... (read below) 1. It doesn't come with a battery backup unit! GET THIS if you don't want to reinstall your OS every time you have a power outage or a bsod!two. Take a great appear at the motherboard and difficult drive compatibility list Ahead of you buy this unit. They can be identified here:http://www.3ware.com/products/sys_compatibility.aspthree. You'll notice that this factor is only "OFFICIALLY" compatible with a whopping 9 motherboards! And they are all server motherboards. Now, I'm not saying that it won't perform with your workstation, simply because I've had this card for more than a year, thoughts you that though it's been nothing but troubles for me, it might operate for you.four. ONLY SUPPORTS OLDER HARDWARE AND SERVER MOBOS?!That's correct, only SERVER motherboards & a few older challenging disks sold at newegg as of the day that I'm writing this review are officially compatible with this unit.... Goes to show how dedicated 3ware is to keeping it's firmware updated! Maybe the recent buyout by LSI will fix that?? Who When working appropriately, and not freezing up all the time, my technique does run a LOT more quickly with 4 drives in raid-five mode.... I just wish 3ware (recently aquired by LSI) would up the supported motherboard list, and difficult drive list to some much more recently released hardware! I don't see how this factor can't be supported by a newer workstation holding an X58 chipset. As for hard disk support, be cautious when purchasing drives for this unit.

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Not positive yet. I did not realize the differences in PCI-express slots initially, they are x1, x2, x4, x8, x16, x32. The motherboard " ECS BLACK SERIES GF8200A (V1.) AM2+/AM3 NVIDIA GeForce 8200 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail Item #: N82E16813135085 " has x1 slots and an x16 slot (for graphics). The board begins and hangs on the commence-up screen following the bios (it is in the x16 slot). I an trying to resolve this.

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It supposed to work with numerous OS's with decent number of RAID levels.Accurate hardware RAID. Documentation is horrible for linux users. The layout goes like this. For linux install go to page x. Page x-If you have OS A with B installed go to page C, Then on that page it says if C was installed prior to blank go to page Z and so on,and so on!! Would it not make far more sense to employ people that now how to write tech docs?KB on 3ware.com is just as poor. Support form wants a serial number, properly I can't pull a box offline just to get a serial number. Form won't submit without having it.Looks like this item would be breeze to setup for Windows users. (you get screenshots) I still haven't gotten 3DM or CLI installed. I hope nothing breaks. The installer is telling me that I don't have enought space in the partition for 35 MB when I have over a 1GB in that partition.

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four connectors and only uses pci-e x4 slot. didn't work. I had purchased this with the intent of operating four 1TB drives in RAID five but when I installed it, nothing happened. Should be DOA.

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Consumer service is absolutely OUTSTANDING (see other thoughts below). Rock solid RAID card; incredible driver support on all sorts of OS's, extremely very quickly, uncomplicated setup, battery backup option, firm with long history developing RAID solutions, good alternative to the industry leading RAID vendor. A little pricey but you get what you pay for. May not be worth it for other people. I've had this card for 11 months and following a reboot, it gave out. I thought my RAID 10 was gone. Went on-line to 3ware's site, began an advanced replacement RMA, and got a new card is two DAYS FEDEX!! Dropped in the card and my personal computer is up and running without having missing a beat. What else is there to say? Top notch service 3ware -- I'm getting from you guys once again.

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Simple Setup and works perfectly with linux You truly ought to enable Write Cacheing, it makes a massive difference in the write speed (for RAID5 anyways), and if you need that you want the battery backup unit 鲤 bucks added) or you will risk losing data when you loose energy