[Linux] linux supported RAID cards

[Kendrick Vargas]

I know there are a bunch of RAID cards out there that are "supported" by
 linux but have no real management utilities. I'd like to get a card
that has:

 - Non proprietery drivers
 - RAID 5
 - Quality enough to live 4-5 years (preferably more)
 - Good/Native management and notification utilities
 - Good performance on the cheap
 - Ideally PCIe (as it's the tech going forward)
 - < $300 (a bit more ain't bad, but that's my room-to-grow limit)

Performance doesn't have to be stellar as this isn't exactly a
production box. It's just sitting in my closet. What I want is good
compatibility, management tools and I'd like to avoid having to rebuild
drivers and all sorts of craziness just to install an OS or do a kernel
upgrade.

I've been looking at the LSI Logic MegaRAID SAS stuff (likely the 8208
ELP) because I've used their management stuff in linux before and I know
the brand name. I can't seem to find performance numbers online and I'm
troubled by the lack of cache, however the only time I do interesting
transfers is when I move ISO's onto or off of a share, which I imagine
blasts through any cache on the card anyway.

Right now I've got an Adaptec 2610SA that was apparently a Dell server
pull blowout that I picked up off eBay for $100. While it's working fine
(I guess), I can't really get anything in terms of management utilities
to recognize it. I'm assuming this is because it's not sitting in a
Dell. I can get info from it through the BIOS between boots, but that's
a crappy way to judge the status of the card.

So, any thoughts or suggestions here?
			-peace