In collaboration with Steven F. Woolf, we bring you Part 4 of how to build yout external SATA RAID array.

We've obtained our PCI-based SATA RAID card, bridged the internal ports to external ports, and found a cheap external case and drives.  We've spent about $850 not including any special hardware deals, shipping, or taxes.

At this point we have a fully-functioning, external SATA, hardware-accelerated RAID array running from the internal PCI bus of our PC.  On the plus side, even though it won't compete with SCSI speeds, it comes in at a fraction of the cost.  While it costs the same as out-of-the-box Firewire RAID arrays, it will handily outperform them and give us options like hot-swappable drive trays, custom block sizes, and more.  Not to mention that when 400GB or 500GB drives get nice and cheap, you can upgrade your RAID array at a fraction of the original cost and double your storage.  Nice.

The drawbacks of this setup should be obvious by now.  This is not for the faint of heart.  You will  invest a significant amount of time to build the components, configure, and test.  You also will have 4 rather unsightly cables running from the back of your PC to the external case instead of 1 cable.

But those are pretty insignificant compared to being one of the few people to be using external SATA for your RAID array!  Let us know if you build one and how it works out for you!