I have a Dell 1950 config as per this service tag 1PLMP2J
i.e. its only got the built in SAS controller, which I want to use in a RAID 1 config for the 2x SAS 146 HDD (and to add addional drives in Raid 1)
It seems there are (at least) two possible RAID controllers I could fit
Dell PowerEdge 1950 2950 2970 PERC 5/i SAS/SATA RAID Controller WX072 U8735,
or
Dell PowerEdge 1950 R610 PERC 6/Ir RAID 0/1 Controller CR679
I can get refurbished items both at the same price but which is the best option, how to select the most appropriate?
I phoned Dell, and am now more confused than ever. The spec via the service tag says only "SAS 5I INTEGRATED CARD" but Dell phone support told me that this would support RAID. What I had read from looking back to old web pages when the server was current was that there was an optional 5/i SAS RAID controller, so I don't get why people would specify an optional extr if the integrated SAS controller does it already? Its a shame that part numbers are not used/listed in the build spec. From what I read it looks like I could do software RAID for the two SAS drives through the OS (Windows Web Server 2008 R2), but the notes on system updates and restores etc look more complex than I was hoping for. Am I right in thinking that hardware RAID gives better performance/ease of management?