I'm creating a media server and need a Hardware Raid 5 controller to go with my 4x1TB HDD's. My budget is around $100-200 Canadian. (approx. $80-160 US currency) The problem I'm having is finding a hardware raid card that do most of the following - Support Raid 5 - Work in a Linux OS's - Support for a variety of Windows OS's platforms i.e (Windows Server 2003/2008 (x86/x64) - Support for Windows XP (32/64bit) Anyone know of one that can support all of these features if possible? I want to be able to easily migrate from one OS to another if I choose to do so in the future. AND why the hell is it so hard to find support Windows Server 2008 from a Hardware Raid card?? Any help would be greatly appreciated! [Edited by - Instigator on January 15, 2009 3:16:21 PM]

Server 2008 is the same as Vista, which made a bunch of changes to the kernel driver model. To be properly certified, you have to do a lot of magic, which includes signing to make sure you don't attempt to sidestep the kernel-level DRM for media(!) Perhaps vendors are waiting until enterprise in general actually upgrade to 2008 on a wide front before porting their product.
XP/2003 64 will also be a problem, because the driver support there is generally spotty. Vista changed the driver model, so any 64-bit port to XP/2003 will be targeting ONLY that particular OS installation, and most systems that are running that don't need new hardware.
I think the biggest problem is your budget. If you want enterprise-class hardware and software support, I'd suggest that about $500 US is the price point. The $100 cards don't really worry about the cases that a high-end enterprise would worry about (and which you seem to worry about).

Thanks for the reply! I guess I'll stick with Windows 2003 x86-32 and use VM Ware to support any other distros that I may need within the main OS.

I still don't see why more people aren't using Windows 2008. I thought that updates were going to end pretty soon Windows 2003.

[Edited by - Instigator on January 21, 2009 1:26:14 PM]