Adaptec RAID Is Faster, Better

System builders now have a better alternative to USB and FireWire, and it's called eSATA. External RAID controller cards provide one of the most cost-effective storage solutions for SMBs. External RAID is also faster and more stable than USB 2.0 and 1394.

Adaptec offers one of the easiest-to-install and most stable family of eSATA controllers on the market. One of its newest, the Adaptec RAID 1225SA card, can deliver speeds of 3 Gbps, even when using a 2-meter-long cable. The long cable is another perk with RAID because it's ideal in small office spaces.

The card arrives with two ports for two SATA drives. Engineers only tested the card with one active port. The Western Digital drive also supports USB, so engineers compared large file transfers between the two technologies. The 1225SA RAID with one eSATA connection on the Western Digital drive performed almost three times faster than the USB transfer with the same drive. Since eSATA does not have any delays associated with protocol communication, the transfer was far superior.

The test PC was running Adaptec's Storage Manager and had an internal Adaptec card. Engineers didn't remove the card but just activated the 1225SA inside Storage Manager. Having the previous card made installation easy. The driver for the 1225SA didn't have to be registered with Windows' bootable RAID installation process. The card arrives with a BIOS configuration utility, which eliminates the need to boot the OS.

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