Gabriel said:
Hi all, my friend bought a raid card with 6 sata ports on it but when we
found out it isnt compatable with his mobo and his win 7 (but it is
compatable with his win xp) we decided to skip the raid card and have just
the extra 6 sata port somehow so is there a PCI card with 3, 4 or 6 sata
ports to use with hard drives at 1TB? We have used up all his mobos sata
ports and one of them is broken from a shody repair at a computer shop.
Thanks, GK.
Just to show you they exist...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Marvell_Technology_Group_chipsets
88SX6081 8-port SATA II PCI-X Controller
http://web.archive.org/web/20040414...orage/sata/88SX60xx Product Brief - Final.pdf
Typically, chips like that are controlled by a RAID processor.
For example, there might be an XOR processor underneath the
black heatsink in this picture.
RocketRAID 2322 (listed on Amazon for $274)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816115028
With a decent driver, that chip could likely be used stand-alone
on a plugin card. With perhaps, an EEPROM with BIOS Extended INT 0x13
routine on it (so the card can be used to boot the computer). But
as far as I know, nobody makes such a card. I haven't been
able to find one.
*******
Most users with old PCI-only computers, would assume they're limited
to SIL3112 or SIL3114 based solutions. But StarTech has been working
on low-profile adapters. You could combine one of these with a low-profile
PCI Express storage controller card (x1 slot).
http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-...1360829717&sr=8-2&keywords=pci+to+pci+express
PCI Express chip
|
Bridge \
| |-- One of the two StarTech adapters does this...
PCI Bus /
Say I were to find a SIL3132 PCI Express card, in low profile format.
In this example, not only does the PCB have a low profile, but they
even included the correct low profile faceplate. You could
combine this card with the previous product, to achieve putting
a PCI Express controller, in a PCI-only computer. Note that
physically, you always have to use low-profile card, since otherwise
the resulting stack of stuff, would be too tall. If a 32 bit 33MHz PCI
bus is used, the sustained disk transfer rate might peak at 100 to 110MB/sec.
Whereas, the PCI Express chip itself, might be capable of going much
faster. That would be important if connecting a 500MB/sec SATA III SSD.
http://www.amazon.com/SD-LP-PEX2IR-...=UTF8&qid=1360829857&sr=1-14&keywords=sil3132
*******
Now, if I combined one of these with the StarTech adapter, I get my
eight ports. But I think this card costs $185. A bit expensive,
when what I wanted was a $50 card.
http://www.addonics.com/products/ad2ms6gpx8.php
Note that the odds of all these bits and pieces lining up, is poor.
I'm just demonstrating that there is enough "junk" available from
the silicon companies, to build a solution. The x8 card may not
fit in the x1 adapter, for example. (It would, if an open-ended
connector was used on the StarTech adapter board.)
*******
An alternative, is to use something like a couple SIL3114 cards.
But then, I don't know if the driver handles that situation correctly.
Some manufacturers seem to lack imagination, and they don't bother
to do the firmware and software, such that multiple cards will
work properly.
The SIL3132 chip, apparently the RAID driver is supposed to know
how to combine multiple SIL3132 chips (up to 20 disks total???).
But there could be other chips, where one plugin card works fine,
but if a second card is added, it either isn't detected, or it
doesn't work right. Before buying two or more cards of any
storage product, you need to find a testimonial from
someone who has tried it, and proved it works. Adaptec
is normally pretty good at supporting multiple
identical cards.
*******
You can use a Port Multiplier box. Such a box, accepts one SATA
port from the motherboard, and makes five ports on the disk side.
The protocol supports up to maybe fifteen disks (addressing limit), but
hardware isn't made with that large a fanout. Since a Port
Multiplier box typically retails for $100, it isn't exactly
cheap. And it requires a host chip (like a SIL3132), that
supports FIS (frame interleaved switching???). The tricky part,
is figuring out whether an existing motherboard port, could
host one of these. (More research required...)
http://www.sataport.com/
SIL3132 card ---- Port 0 ---- five_port-port_multiplier_box ---- 5X
(FIS) ---- Port 1 ---- five_port-port_multiplier_box ---- 5X
Using a solution like that, about $230 or so, might get you ten ports
for separate disks.
This is an example of a chip that could be used to build a
Port Multiplier box.
"SiI3826 SATA Port Multiplier"
http://www.siliconimage.com/products/product.aspx?pid=202
(Previous generation SIL3726 port multiplier. If the 3826 is
pin compatible, perhaps designs can be upgraded with no effort.)
http://web.archive.org/liveweb/http://www.siliconimage.com/docs/SiI-DS-0121-C1.pdf
*******
So far, two SIL3114 cards is about the only thing that comes
remotely close to a $50 solution. Whereas a budget of $400
probably yields a lot of different solutions. And generally
speaking, no matter what you select, it requires research.
And having a PCI-only motherboard doesn't help matters,
because at least a part of the industry has transitioned
to PCI Express.
Paul
