Areca ARC-1231ML SATA RAID 6 Controller

Final Thoughts

When you're considering an add-in RAID controller, you have to know exactly what you're after otherwise you may end up disappointed. The Areca controller card has the best of both worlds; supporting enterprise class storage, backup and monitoring, as well as providing a huge array of ports for the enthusiast file server who wants Terabytes to store their movies on and keep them safe.

With 12 drives total, it's hard to even consider maxing this card out. The only downside is that you need to use a x8 or x16 PCI-E slot, or a universal slot to run this card on, as it needs a real lot of bandwidth with 12 drives running.

Overall, the Areca card gave us no problems with installs; the drivers worked straight out of the box, and the array setup was as simple as any motherboard based RAID setup, so it's not rocket science getting this thing to work.