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Dell PowerEdge R710 - SAS 6/IR RAID Controller

Hi,

I am considering a purchase of Dell PowerEdge R710 with following Specs:
1. Processor: Sing Xeon E5620 2.4 GHz CPU
2. Memory: 24GB of RAM, 1333 MHz DDR3 SDRAM Registered, dual rank
3. Hard Drive: 2 x 146 GB SAS 15K 6gbps, 4 x 600GB SAS 15K 6gbps Hot-Swappable
for the purpose of Three RAID 1 Raids
3. Storage Controller: Built-in RAID Controller - Dell SAS 6/IR
4.

My questions are:

1. Is Dell SAS 6/IR as good as True Raid Controller like LSI / 3 Ware SAS9260-8I SGL 6GB 512MB SAS/SATA PCIE 2.0?
2. This particular model comes with Two 147GB SAS HDs. Can I buy SATA HDs and plug them into additional HotSwappable slots?
3. Is SAS 6/IR a separate Controller Card or Embedded/Intergrated on to the Motherboard?
4. How is overall quality of the Server?
5. How was your experience with Tech Support during 3 Year Warranty peroid?

charlestasse

Although the SAS 6/iR is a good card, Get the Perc 6i or H700, they are FAR FAR better. They are both PCI cards that are NOT embedded on the system board.

You can buy 3rd party hard drives, SATA is slow, SAS is fast, consider this when you make your purchase.

I would highly recommend that you get ProSupport warranty as it provide software support, but if you are stellar with the OS and Applications, basic will do, but when you get into a pinch that software support is worth every penny.

As well, ProSupport also gets you the ProActive Systems Management, for free
http://content.dell.com/us/en/corp/d/services/support-services-proactive-systems-management.aspx

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PowerEdgeTech

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sglee

ASKER

PowerEdgeTech:,

Thanks for the information. If I am getting 600GB SAS 15K 6Gbps, then I want to go with PERC H700 to take advantage of 6 Gbps rather than PERC 6/I (3Gbps)?

PowerEdgeTech

Absolutely ... that and the amount of onboard cache are the primary differences between the two cards.

charlestasse

Yes, 6GB is the best way to go for fasssssssssssssssst