Raid Card For N40L

Hi Guys,

My first post here so please be gentle

I recently purchased an N40L Microserver and installed WHS2011 - it worked perfectly but once the 30 day trial was up, I decided to try something else. I tried using ESXi 5 with Freenas 8.2 and had problems, then I tried Freenas on it's own and had problems....whilst toiling about these problems today I realised that I never had any such problems with WHS 2011! I'm more than happy to pay £35 for a copy - the grass isn't greener on the free side!

My only reservation with the WHS 2011 is the software RAID, it makes me nervous! On the HP N40L the only H/W raid option is RAID 0 and 1 - I need raid 5 for my 5x1TB disks.

So I'm considering wedging out for a RAID card. So far I like the look of the Highpoint RocketRaid 2710, SAS connection, 6GB/s, PCI-E x8...all good. It's going to cost me £120 notes....

(just looked at the Adaptec 6405e for £150 - might be the better option)

My question is...

Is it worth it? Is there a better equipped RAID card for the money? Is my data safer on this than it will on the WHS 2011 software RAID?

I will be backing up the most valuable data via an external eSATA HDD (1TB). My photos, home movies and music will be safely backed up but my 1.5TB of movies won't be. I can deal with losing these but I'd rather not. have to.

Any advice would be great!

Thanks for looking