The following chart compares all current server RAID offerings.

RAID Controller Comparison

PERC5
/E
OS SAS SAS SAS PERC PERC PERC5/ PERC Adapte
Feature
RAID 5/i 5/E 5/iR 4e/Di 4/DC i 4e/DC r
Extern
al
RAID non- non- 0, 1, 5, 0, 1, 5, 0, 1, 5, 0, 1, 5, 0, 1, 5,
0,1 0, 1
Levels RAID RAID 10, 50 10, 50 10, 50 10, 50 10, 50
3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0
Disk SATA or U320 U320 3.0 Gb/s U320
Gb/s Gb/s Gb/s Gb/s
Interconnect SCSI SCSI SCSI SAS SCSI
SAS SAS SAS SAS
Supported SATA or SAS, SAS, SAS, SAS, SAS,
SCSI SCSI SCSI
Disks SCSI SATA SATA SATA SATA SATA
Adapter
Number of Platform : 4 ports 2 2 2
4
Channels or dependen 8 ports Integrat Channel Channel 8 Ports Channel 8 Ports
Ports
Ports t ed: 2 or s s s
4 ports
Number of
Platform
Internal/Ext
dependen 1/0 0/2 1/0 2/1 2/2 2/0 2/2 0/2
ernal
t
Connectors
Integrat
On-Board Intel® Intel Intel Intel Intel
None N/A N/A ed
Processor 80332 80303 IOP333 80332 IOP333
ARM
Disk
Max burst
Interconn
speed per 3.0 3.0 3.0 320 320 3.0 320 3.0
ect
channel or GB/s GB/s GB/s MB/s MB/s GB/s MB/s GB/s
dependen
port
t
x4 x8
PCI 64-
Host PCI- PCI- x4 PCI- x8 PCI- x8 PCI- x8 PCI- x8 PCI-
N/A bit/66
Interface Expre Expres Express Express Express Express Express
MHz
ss s
Cache (MB) None None None None 256 128 256 128 256
Cache Type N/A N/A N/A N/A DDR-2 SDRAM DDR-2 SDRAM DDR-2
ECC Cache N/A N/A N/A N/A Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
PowerE
dge -
Battery Yes
No No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Backup PowerE
dge SC -
No
Backup Up to 72 Up to 72 Up to 72 Up to 72 Up to
N/A N/A N/A N/A
Duration Hrs Hrs Hrs Hrs 72 Hrs
Yes - Yes - Yes -
cache cache cache
and and and
battery battery battery
Transportabl
N/A N/A N/A N/A No backup No backup backup
e Cache
integrate integrate integrat
d on a d on a ed on a
daughter daughter daughte
card card r card
Background
No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Patrol Read
Hot Plug N/A
N/A Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes
PCI Support ROMB
SMART
Hard Drive Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
support
Online
Capacity
Expansion
No No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
and RAID
Level
Migration
Internal and
External N/A N/A N/A N/A No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Coexistence
Max Platform 4 See Adapter Internal 28 Internal 28 90
Physical dependen enclos :4 HDD hard
Drive t ure Integrat Only, drives
Support suppor ed: 2 depends only
t (PE195 on depends
 5), 4
on
(Precisi platform
platform
on 690
See
Maximum OS enclos
Virtual dependen 4 ure 2 40 40 64 40 64
Disks t suppor
t
Half Half Adapter
Half
Lengt Length : Half Half Half Half
Length,
Card h, , Length, N/A Length, Length, Length,
N/A Standar
Dimensions Standa Standa Standar ROMB Standard Standar Standard
d
rd rd d Profile d Profile Profile
Profile
Profile Profile Profile
SAS
Open Open SAS Open
RAID
Open Open Manage ManageRAID Manage
Storage
Mana Manag Array Array Storage Array Open
Manage
Software OS ge e Manager Manager
Manage Manager Manage
r
Managemen dependen Storag Storag r Storage
Open
t t e e Open Open Open Open Service
Manage
Servic Servic Manage Manage Manage Manage s
Storage
es es Storage Storage Storage Storage
Service
Services Services Services Services
s
Commo
OS LSI LSI Commo LSI
RAID Disk LSI n DDF,
dependen N/A N/A MegaR MegaR n DDF, MegaR
Data Format SSP Profile
t AID AID Profile 1 AID
1

SAS iR Controller Comparison

Feature SAS5/iR SAS6/iR
RAID Levels 0,1 0,1
Disk Interconnect SATA or SAS SATA or SAS
Supported Disks SAS, SATA SAS, SATA
8 ports (4 ports per
Number of Ports 4 Ports
connector)
Number of Internal 1 2
Connectors
Number of External
0 0
Connectors
LSI SAS 1068 with LSI SAS 1068E with ARM
On-Board Chipset
ARM and Fusion MPT and Fusion MPT
Max burst speed per channel
3.0 GB/s 3.0 GB/s
or port
Host Interface x4 PCI-Express x8 PCI-Express
Controller Cache (MB) None None
Not Supported, Yes,
Drive Caching all drive cache turned Please see the matrix on the
off by default Adapter Features page  
Battery Backup No No
Background Patrol Read No No
SMART Physical Drive
Yes Yes
support
Online Capacity Expansion
No No
and RAID Level Migration
Offline RAID roaming No Yes
Max Physical Drive Support 4 10
SAS Expander support Not Supported Yes
Maximum Virtual Disks 2 2
Not 2 Terabytes (Limit
Maximum Virtual Disks Size 2 Terabytes imposed by available disk
size)
Half Length, Standard
Card Dimensions Half Length, Standard Profile
Profile
Online configuration Not Supported Yes
Open Manage Storage
Open Manage Storage
Services
Services
Software Management and
and
SAS RAID Storage
SAS RAID Storage Manager
Manager
RAID Disk Data Format N/A 512 MB on each disk
Global Hotspare N/A Yes
Native Command Queuing
(NCQ)
Low Level Format
Yes for SATA drives only for
Not Supported
performance improvement
Low level format is not a
Yes
user-selectable option

Comparing the Three PERC6 SAS RAID Controllers

The PERC6 controller family consists of three SAS 3 Gb/s RAID controllers. These are:

 The PERC6/e adapter fits in a standard PCI-E slot supporting PowerVault direct attach
storage.
 The PERC6/i adapter fits in a standard PCI-E slot supporting PowerEdge and Precision
internal storage.
 The PERC6/i is an integrated PCI-E based card supporting PowerEdge internal storage.

PERC6 Controller Comparison

PERC6/E PERC6/i PERC6/i
Specification
Adapter Adapter Integrated
0, 1, 5, 6, 10,50, 0, 1, 5, 6, 10,50, 0, 1, 5, 6, 10,50,
RAID Levels
60 60 60
Enclosures/Backplanes Up to three
N/A N/A
per Port enclosures
2 x4 external wide 2 x4 internal wide 2 x4 internal wide
Ports
port port port
LSI adapter SAS LSI adapter SAS LSI adapter SAS
Processor RAID-on-Chip, 8- RAID-on-Chip, 8- RAID-on-Chip, 8-
port with 1078 port with 1078 port with 1078
Yes,
Battery Backup Unit Yes ¹ Yes
Transportable
256-MB DDR2
cache memory 256-MB DDR2 256-MB DDR2
Cache Memory size cache memory cache memory
Optional 512-MB size size
DIMM
Cache Function Write-back, Write-back, Write-back, Write-
Write-through, Write-through, through, Adaptive
 Adaptive Read Adaptive Read
Read Ahead, Non-
Ahead, Non-Read Ahead, Non-Read
Read Ahead, Read
Ahead, Read Ahead, Read
Ahead
Ahead Ahead
Max Physical Drives per
Up to 32 Up to 32 Up to 32
Array
Up to 8 arrays (in Up to 8 arrays (in Up to 8 arrays (in
Maximum Number of
a spanned a spanned a spanned
Arrays per Disk Group
configuration) configuration) configuration)
Up to 16 virtual Up to 16 virtual Up to 16 virtual
disks per disk disks per disk disks per disk
group group group
RAID 0=16 RAID 0=16 RAID 0=16
Maximum Number of
RAID 1=16 RAID 1=16 RAID 1=16
Virtual Disks per Disk
RAID 5=16 RAID 5=16 RAID 5=16
Group
RAID 6=16 RAID 6=16 RAID 6=16
RAID 10=1 RAID 10=1 RAID 10=1
RAID 50=1 RAID 50=1 RAID 50=1
RAID 60=1 RAID 60=1 RAID 60=1
Multiple Virtual Disks
Up to 64 Up to 64 Up to 64
per Controller
Support for x8 PCI
Yes Yes Yes
Express host interface
Online Capacity
Yes Yes Yes
Expansion
Dedicated and Global
Yes Yes Yes
Hot Spares
Hot Swap Devices
Yes Yes Yes
Supported
Non-Disk Devices
No No No
Supported
Mixed Capacity Physical
Yes Yes Yes
Disks Supported
Hardware Exclusive-OR
Yes yes Yes
(XOR) Assistance

¹ The PERC 6/i adapter supports a battery backup unit (BBU) on selected systems only. See the
documentation that shipped with the system for additional information.
 NOTE:
The maximum array size is limited by the maximum number of drives per array (32), the
maximum number of spans per disk group (8), and the size of the physical drives. This
limits the number of spans in RAID 10 to eight, giving a total of 16 drives per virtual disk.

NOTE:
The minimum number of drives for RAID 6 is four and four drives per span for RAID 60.

NOTE:
You cannot migrate virtual disks from SAS 5/iR or SAS 6/iR to PERC 6.

NOTE:
The number of physical disks on a controller is limited by the number of slots in the
backplane on which the card is attached.

Comparing the PERC6 Controllers to the PERC5

Controllers
The following table compares the PERC6 to PERC5 family of controllers.

PERC6 vs. PERC5 Controller Family Comparison

Specification PERC5 PERC6
RAID Levels 0, 1, 5, 10, 50 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, 60
256KB, 512KB and
No Yes
1024KB Stripe Sizes
SATA NCQ Support No Yes
Hotspare Enclosure
No Yes
Affinity
Enclosures per Port Up to 3 enclosures Up to 3 enclosures
Ports 2 x 4 external wide port 2 x 4 internal wide port
Write-back, Write-through, Write-back, Write-through,
Cache Function Adaptive Read Ahead, Non- Adaptive Read Ahead, Non-
Read Ahead, Read Ahead Read Ahead, Read Ahead
Multiple Virtual Up to 64 virtual disks per Up to 64 virtual disks per
Disks per Controller controller controller
Online Capacity
Yes Yes
Expansion
Dedicated and Global
Yes Yes
Hot Spares
Hot Swap Devices
Yes Yes
Supported
Non-Disk Devices
No No
Supported
Mixed Capacity
Physical Disks Yes Yes
Supported
Hardware Exclusive-
OR (XOR) Yes Yes
Assistance
256 MB, Optional 512 MB
Cache Memory Size 256 MB
(for PERC6/E only)
PCI-e Link Width x8 x8
Audible Alarm PERC5/E Only No Support