I have been searching for information, but the only info I can find about the RocketRAID 2720 is that nobody has really tested it yet because there is a better option from Supermicro.

 

I am in the process of planning a system rebuild/upgrade which is currently a WHS running the following components:

• Norco RPC-4220 (20 Hot Swap bays) Case
  
• Gigabyte GA-MA790GPT-UD3H AMD motherboard (6 SATA-II)
  
• Corsair CMPSU-750TX
  
• AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz
  
• Crucial 4GB Ram (2 x 2GB)
  
• 2 x RocketRAID 2720SGL
  

 

I plan on offloading six of the drives (OS and critical files) and build a new box that still runs some sort of "Windows Server", but I want to re-purpose if possible this hardware for an unRAID setup.

 

After reading the hardware compatibility section, it looks as if I'll be setting up a usb drive to run the compatibility test for the mobo.  Is there something I could be looking for when doing this test to see if the RocketRAID cards will work or is there something else I should do with a couple spare drives I have in order to make fully sure they are ok?

If you already have the RAID cards, you can just the free version of UNRAID (limited to 3 drives).  The drives must be in JBOD mode, and make sure not to use any drives with data that you want to keep.

 

See if the drives are recognized by UNIRAD.  Then add them to the array and put them through their paces.  Add data, and run a parity check. 

Well, it took me a while, but I finally got a USB stick to bootup on this mobo.  Had to format a Voyager stick with the HP format tool instead of Win7 format to FAT32.

 

I have three drive hooked up to one of my Highpoint cards and they are recognized.  I'll be testing data and parity later tonight.

 

Is there anything that might jump out that I should be looking for performance wise that would not be good?

 

 

Dec 31 17:00:28 Tower emhttp: Device inventory:

Dec 31 17:00:28 Tower emhttp: Hitachi_HDS721010CLA330_JP2911N03U5EVV (sdb) 976762584

Dec 31 17:00:28 Tower emhttp: Hitachi_HDS721010CLA330_JP2911N03M6VBV (sdc) 976762584

Dec 31 17:00:28 Tower emhttp: ST3000DM001-1CH166_Z1F1AWJE (sdd) 2930266584

Dec 31 17:00:28 Tower kernel: mdcmd (1): import 0 8,48 2930266532 ST3000DM001-1CH166_Z1F1AWJE

Dec 31 17:00:28 Tower kernel: md: import disk0: [8,48] (sdd) ST3000DM001-1CH166_Z1F1AWJE size: 2930266532

Dec 31 17:00:28 Tower kernel: md: disk0 new disk

Dec 31 17:00:28 Tower kernel: mdcmd (2): import 1 8,16 976762552 Hitachi_HDS721010CLA330_JP2911N03U5EVV

Dec 31 17:00:28 Tower kernel: md: import disk1: [8,16] (sdb) Hitachi_HDS721010CLA330_JP2911N03U5EVV size: 976762552

Dec 31 17:00:28 Tower kernel: md: disk1 new disk

Dec 31 17:00:28 Tower emhttp: shcmd (71): /usr/local/sbin/emhttp_event driver_loaded

Dec 31 17:00:28 Tower kernel: mdcmd (3): import 2 8,32 976762552 Hitachi_HDS721010CLA330_JP2911N03M6VBV

Dec 31 17:00:28 Tower kernel: md: import disk2: [8,32] (sdc) Hitachi_HDS721010CLA330_JP2911N03M6VBV size: 976762552

Dec 31 17:00:28 Tower kernel: md: disk2 new disk

Dec 31 17:00:28 Tower emhttp_event: driver_loaded