[OT] Useable BIOS RAID 1 on the cheap?

[Steve Mynott]

(This is offtopic and sorry if you already saw this on $another_list)

At various places of employment I have used that nice BIOS RAID in the
Compaq/HP DL380 and similar, where we just set everything up via the BIOS and
can pull out disks and reinsert and the mirror Just Works.

I would like a similar RAID1 mirror at home but I don't want to pay Compaq/HP
prices and I don't want a server which makes more noise than a 747 taking off.

Is there anyway of doing hardware RAID on the cheap with those SATA disks and
a suitable motherboard which is actually likely to work that anyone can
recommend?  A Shuttle-type form factor would be particularly cool.

I guess my best bet might be the 3ware cards but they are expensive.

Or maybe reliable RAID on the cheap isn't possible.

-- 
Steve Mynott <steve at tightrope.demon.co.uk>