Mini vs. PCIe vs. embedded? Pass-Through/JBOD supported? SAS Supported? These are the frequent questions that get asked when it comes to RAID controllers in Dell servers.
We’ve put together a convenient Dell PERC RAID controller card comparison table, specifying its generational compatibility, interface, features supported, and cache, so you can have a high-level understanding of what functions a RAID controller is capable of performing.
Nomenclature Guidelines
When looking at the description of the Dell PowerEdge PERC RAID card controller functions, here are some helpful identifiers:
- “P” (as in PERC H710P, H730P, H740P) – the “P” stands for “Plus” and means that the RAID card has an expanded cache capacity. For example, the H730 Mini has a cache of 1GB, but the H730P has a cache of 2GB.
- HBA (“Host Bus Adapter”) – this terminology in the controller description means that the controller is not designed to perform any RAID activity and solely serves as a pass-through for a JBOD configuration. The advantage to these controllers is if your only requirement is a JBOD – with no RAID virtual disks – they can support a larger number of drives beyond the limitations of the embedded controller.
- “S” (PERC S140, and S130) – any controller with an ‘S’ means ‘Software;’ or that it is an embedded, or a default integrated controller, with the server’s system board. Additionally, this controller is limited by the type and amount of drives it can support. For Dell 12th Gen, that means a total of 4 SATA drives ONLY (no SAS); and for 13th and 14th gen, 8 SATA [only] drives.
CAVEAT CORNER: Some RAID controllers differentiate between the maximum number of drives they support versus the maximum number of drives they can support within a particular RAID disk. For our purposes, we’ve simplified our “Max Drives Supported” field to reflect the total amount of physical drives supported.
Additionally, here is a helpful Dell PowerEdge PERC RAID controller comparison chart, which lists all of their PERCs from the Series 6 family to the Series 11 family.
| RAID Card | Compatibility? | Interface (PCIe, Mini, Embedded) | SATA Drives Supported? | SAS Drives Supported? | Pass-through/JBOD? | Cache | Max Drives Supported |
| Dell PERC H740P PCIe Raid Controller 8GB Cache | Dell 14th Gen | PCIe | Yes | Yes | Yes | 8GB | 32 |
| Dell PERC H740P Mini Raid Controller | Dell 14th Gen | Mini | Yes | Yes | Yes | 8GB | 32 |
| Dell PERC H830 PCIe Raid Controller | Dell 13th & 14th Gen | PCIe | Yes | Yes | No | 2GB | 255 |
| Dell PERC H730P Mini Raid Controller | Dell 13th & 14th Gen | Mini | Yes | Yes | Yes | 2GB | 32 |
| Dell PERC H730P PCIe Raid Controller X4TTX / 0X4TTX | Dell 13th & 14th Gen | PCIe | Yes | Yes | Yes | 2GB | 32 |
| Dell PERC H730 PCIe Raid Controller | Dell 13th & 14th Gen | PCIe | Yes | Yes | Yes | 2GB | 32 |
| Dell PERC H730 Mini Raid Controller | Dell 13th & 14th Gen | Mini | Yes | Yes | Yes | 1GB | 32 |
| Dell PERC H710P PCIe Raid Controller | Dell 12th Gen | PCIe | Yes | Yes | No | 1GB | 32 |
| Dell PERC H330 Mini Raid Controller | Dell 13th & 14th Gen | Mini | Yes | Yes | Yes | 0 | 32 |
| Dell PERC H330 PCIe Raid Controller | Dell 13th & 14th Gen | PCie | Yes | Yes | Yes | 0 | 32 |
| Dell PERC H810 PCIe Raid Controller | Dell 12th Gen | PCIe | Yes | Yes | No | 1GB | 192 |
| Dell HBA330 12Gbps SAS HBA Controller (NON-RAID) MiniCard | Dell 13th & 14th Gen | PCIe | Yes | Yes | Yes | 12GB | 8 |
| Dell PERC H710 PCIe Raid Controller | Dell 12th Gen | PCIe | Yes | Yes | No | 512MB | 32 |
| Dell H700 with 1GB Cache Raid Controller | Dell 11th Gen | Mini | Yes | Yes | No | 1GB | 16 |
| Dell PERC H710P Mini Raid Controller | Dell 12th Gen | Mini | Yes | Yes | No | 1GB | 32 |
| Dell PERC H310 PCIe Raid Controller | Dell 12th Gen | PCIe | Yes | Yes | Yes | 0 | 16 |
| Dell PERC S140 Raid Controller | Dell 14th Gen | Embedded | Yes | No | Yes (software RAID) | 0 | 30 |
| Dell PERC H310 Mini Raid Controller | Dell 12th Gen | Mini | Yes | Yes | No | 0 | 16 |
| Dell PERC S130 Raid Controller | Dell 12th Gen | Embedded | Yes | No | Yes (software RAID) | 0 | 30 |
| Dell PERC H710 Mini Raid Controller | Dell 12th Gen | Mini | yes | Yes | No | 512MB | 32 |
2 comments
This is very helpful & thanks a ton for sharing these details. Please update the RAID card details for 15th & 16th Generation Servers.
Great
Thank you