Hmm.. Which is better?
I would say software raid is better*, my reasons:
- Software raid follows the OS around, upgrade all your hardware, your raid array will still work (In Theory)
- Software is easy to update, Firmware is not
- If your on a budget, do you really want to trust a cheap raid controller?
[*] Under most conditions, ie. without big budgets, mission critical servers etc…
See Also:
Stackoverflow Blog: Tuesday Outage: It’s RAID-tastic!
Linux: Why software RAID?