Depending on the number of disk drives in the drive array, the Adaptec 5445 supports RAID levels of 0, 1, 1E, 5, 5EE, 6, 10, 50 and 60. Fitting in a standard PCI Express slot, the card can be connected to either an internal or external drive array. Both SAS and SATA drives are supported.

The Ingredients: • PRODUCT: Adaptec RAID 5445 • PRICE: Ranges from $425 (4-port) to $1,595 (28-port) • DISTRIBUTORS/INTEGRATORS: Bell Microproducts Inc., Ingram Micro Inc., Tech Data Corp. • WARRANTY: 3-year warranty • COMPANY: Adaptec Inc. Milpitas, Calif. (408) 945-8600 www.adaptec.com

These serial controllers have on-board 1.2GHz dual-core processors and 512 MB of RAM, meaning the card can handle up to 256 linked drives via SAS expanders.

The cards in the Series 5 RAID unified serial controller family vary from a 4-port card, with four internal ports, to a 28-port card, with 24 internal ports and four external ports. The tested card, the Adaptec RAID 5445 with eight ports, has four internal and four external ports.

As a hardware solution, the controller works independently of the operating system. Once the system BIOS detected the card, the reviewers were able to enter the management interface without waiting for the OS to start. From the interface, reviewers created and deleted the drive array, adjusted boot settings and designated drives to be hot-swappable.