need help choosing a SCSI controller

[Scott Long]

Mikhail Teterin wrote:
> Hello!
> 
> I'm constructing a new system which will have 3 or 4
> SCSI drives (U320 or U160). I don't plan to use RAID-5 --
> maybe just striping (hardware or ccd).
> 
> I'm looking for a controller with battery backup so
> that it can safely cache writes. It must fit into PCI-X
> motherboard and be offered on EBay for low price.
> 
> My current choices are:
> 
> 	. HP Compaq Smart Array 642	- U320
> 	(128Mb battery module optional, but available)
> 
> 	. AMI 493 - U160  (128Mb and battery included)
> 
> 	. Mylex DAC960PL (4Mb cache and battery included)
> 
> HP looks best, but will be twice more expensive than AMI. Will things
> be at least 30% faster? The Mylex is dirt cheap, but is a PCI, and my
> motherboard will only have 1 "legacy" PCI slot.
> 
> The quality of the FreeBSD driver is also of concern, especially since
> this will be an amd64 system (running 5.x).
> 
> Thanks in advance for any comments, suggestions, experiences. Yours,
> 
> 	-mi

The mlx driver is pretty old and crusty, and it hasn't seen a lot of
attention.  I might SMP lock it one of these days, but it's not a high
priority.  Both the ciss (Compaq) and the amr (AMI/LSI) drivers are
fairly well maintained, and the hardware that you're quoting is pretty
respectable.  LSI is also talking about releasing FreeBSD-native
management apps for their RAID controllers, though it's not clear to
me whether they will support the older models.  So, it's up to you.
The Mylex probably isn't a good choice, but the other two are fine.

Scott