Hi,
I am buying Dell T5500 workstation from Dell with 500 GB HDD.
They want extra $250.00 if I select Raid-1 which requires only one extra 500 GB HDD because that motherboard has built in Raid Controller if I am correct.
In the quote they sent me it says following :
“ Integrated Intel® SATA 3.0Gb/s controller with support for RAID “
In the specs of the motherboard it says following :
Drive Controllers :
The T5500 uses an integrated SATA 3.0Gb/s host controller (part of the Intel chipset) and the optional PCI-e SAS 6/ir controller supports SAS drives with host based RAID 0 or 1.
The optional PERC 6/i PCI-e SAS/SATA hardware RAID card supports RAID 0, 1, 5 (RAID 5 in mini-tower orientation only). Single RAID 0 GPT DATA volumes greater than 2TB are available as factory installed option with the integrated controller and optional PERC 6/i RAID adapter under Windows XP64, Windows Vista 32Bit/ 64Bit operating systems.
Network Controller
Integrated Broadcom® 5754 Gigabit Ethernet controller
2nd Gigabit port is available with the optional PCI-e Broadcom Gigabit controller card
Questions :
(1) Is there a built in Raid Controller OR it requires something else besides second 500 GB HDD to setup Raid-1 ?
(2) Are they asking too much for Raid- 1 & should I pay extra $ 250.00 for Raid-1 ?
(3)I am not a techy at all so how hard would it be to setup Raid-1 on my own or with the help of you guys & what else would I need besides an extra 500 GB HDD ?
(4) This motherboard has 4 PCIe x16 slots. If I go with Raid-1, would it take up one of those 4 slots ? I need all those 4 slots for Video Cards.
(5) Do I need 10/100/1000 Ethernet card for connecting to Internet or home network OR Integrated 5754 Gigabit Ethernet controller does the job ?
(6) I have never used Raid-1 so Is it possible to disable Raid-1 if for some reason I don't like it ib future ?
Thank You