recommended RAID controllers

[Charles Sprickman]

Hi,

I've been generally using Adaptec RAID controllers under FreeBSD, 
specifically the ZCR card if the mainboard supports it or the low-end 
2110S.  I'm mostly happy with these, but it's been a long time since I've 
gone shopping, so I'm in the dark as to what else is out there.

Currently I'm putting together a shell/userweb server with about 3000 
accounts on it.  Disk activity will be fairly random and I expect very 
little to be cachable.  The 2110S is OK, but not really a great performer, 
and I'm not very thrilled with the cli "raidutil" tool.  Money is tight, 
I'd like to keep the card under $500.

Any suggestions?  What's new out there?  What consensus is there on which 
drivers are most mature/stable?

Should I even think about 3Ware IDE or SATA RAID cards? (yeah, this is 
-scsi, but if I recall the 3Ware stuff is treated more like a scsi device)

Any input is appreciated.

Thanks,

Charles