SUMMARY: In our latest article we compare the Serial ATA RAID performance of controllers from Promise, Silicon Image, Highpoint and nVidia. We compare both 32-bit PCI based solutions as well as nVidia's new native nForce 3 250 solution on two revision 2.0 Western Digital Raptor hard drives in RAID 0.
Like the other controllers, there really isnt much difference in the package from Adaptec. We receive the controller along with a driver CD and a manual. The box gives you all the information you need, as you can see down the bottom it states that it is PCI and a Serial ATA controller.
As you can see to the right of the box this particular controller is only a two port, like the Western Digital.
- The Controller of Choice
Adaptec are using the Silicon Image controller which is extremely similar to the other controllers here. The 1210SA offers support for RAID 0, 1 and JBOD, all the modes that take advantage of two hard drives. This controller, like the Western Digital, also has 2 ports but Adaptec do have a 4 port model which also supports RAID 0+1 known as the 2410SA.
There really isnt too much to the card that stands out from the others. One extra thing that did come with the Adaptec controller though was a Low Profile bracket for users of MicroATX cases. This is good news for people with older smaller systems who want to upgrade their drives to Serial ATA. The price difference these days is so minimal that you may as well take advantage of them.
- BIOS Setup Photos
Lets see if the Adaptec controller is as easy to setup as the Western Digital.
This is the first menu you are greeted with; we want to go into the Array Configuration Utility.
We then continue to click create array.
Using the INS key you add the drives you want to the RAID and press enter to move on.
Again we selected RAID 0 for Performance and press enter; your RAID is setup within a second. You then have to give your computer a quick reboot for it to take effect. Another easy setup yet slightly longer then the Western Digital by a step or two.
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