SATA-300 adapter card for ASUS P4PE. Promise SATA300 TX4?

[Ken]

I am considering a SATA 300 adapter card for a SATA-300 drive instead of
attaching it to the motherboard directly in order to use it to the max,
if in fact, it would operate that quickly (but at some time in the
future it will probably be in a system that will use it at its maximum
capability)

Does anyone know of any issues with the Promise SATA300 TX4? Any
experience with the Promise or any other add-in card that does or does
not work with this mb?

Thanks
Ken K

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

I am considering a SATA 300 adapter card for a SATA-300 drive instead of
attaching it to the motherboard directly in order to use it to the max,

You have that backwards. It will be slower.

if in fact, it would operate that quickly (but at some time in the
future it will probably be in a system that will use it at its maximum
capability)

Which likely has PCIe, not PCI-X or PCI66.

 

[Ken]

Folkert Rienstra said the following on 12/21/2006 9:43 AM:

You have that backwards. It will be slower.

Interesting. I am all ears... I would love to know why. I think my
ASUS P4PE mb only uses the SATA I (150?) standard on the Promise
on-board controller while the add-in card uses the 300 standard.

Thanks
Ken

 

[Rod Speed]

Folkert Rienstra wrote

Interesting. I am all ears...

No wonder you're so ugly...

I would love to know why.

Essentially because the card is limited by the bandwidth available
to a card which is normally less than is available to the onboard ports.

I think my ASUS P4PE mb only uses the SATA I (150?) standard on the Promise on-board controller
while the add-in card uses the 300 standard.

Its very unlikely that the drives can do better than the SATA 1 standard thruput wise.

Thats normally limited by the drive physical
characteristics, sectors per track and RPM etc.

 

[Angry American]

No wonder you're so ugly...


Essentially because the card is limited by the bandwidth available
to a card which is normally less than is available to the onboard
ports.

I hope your only speaking if the standard PCI spec, and not of PCIX or PCIe,
both of which can handle a ton more bandwidth. Not to mention having up to a
Gb of cache with a dedicated I/O processor onboard the card. Not that the
Promise solutions offer any of these caveats, they are the very low end of
the market for addon drive cards.

 

[Rod Speed]

Rod Speed wrote

I hope your only speaking if the standard PCI spec,
Nope.

and not of PCIX or PCIe, both of which can handle a ton more bandwidth.

Not than what is available to the onboard ports.

Not to mention having up to a Gb of cache with a dedicated I/O processor onboard the card.

Irrelevant in most normal use. Thruput is
still normally limited by the card interface.

Not that the Promise solutions offer any of these caveats, they are the very low end of the market
for addon drive cards.

Pity he asked about one of those.

 

[Arno Wagner]

I hope your only speaking if the standard PCI spec, and not of PCIX or PCIe,
both of which can handle a ton more bandwidth. Not to mention having up to a
Gb of cache with a dedicated I/O processor onboard the card. Not that the
Promise solutions offer any of these caveats, they are the very low end of
the market for addon drive cards.

Basically the on-board ports can be connected in several fashions:

- PCI
- PCI-X or PXI-E in various speeds
- Something special

I have seen mixed solutions were some on-board controllers
are attached to PCI-X and some to PCI. In my experience
on-board controllers are allways faster or as fast as external
controllers in PCI. The TX4 however does 32bit/66MHz PCI-X.
If places in such a slot, the TX4 will be significantly faster
than in an ordinary PCI slot. The limit is still somewere
around 150...200MB/sec, i.e. 4 fast drives can saturate the
controller easily.

Arno

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

Basically the on-board ports can be connected in several fashions:

- PCI

PCI in 2 speeds and 2 widths

- PCI-X or PXI-E in various speeds

and/or widths

- Something special

As in: connected to the CPU Chipset internal bus

I have seen mixed solutions were some on-board controllers
are attached to PCI-X and some to PCI.

Which is in server boards.

In my experience on-board controllers are allways faster

Chipset included controllers, connected to the internal bus.

or as fast as external controllers in PCI.

Standard PCI, as is his case.

The TX4 however does 32bit/66MHz PCI-X.

PCI, not PCI-X.

If places in such a slot, the TX4 will be significantly faster
than in an ordinary PCI slot.

Fully loaded, eg using RAID.

The limit is still somewere around 150...200MB/sec,

Which is about 2 future SATA300 drives worth.

i.e. 4 fast drives can saturate the controller easily.

But not by their own.

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

Folkert Rienstra said the following on 12/21/2006 9:43 AM:

Interesting. I am all ears... I would love to know why. I think my
ASUS P4PE mb only uses the SATA I (150?) standard on the Promise
on-board controller while the add-in card uses the 300 standard.

In that case they are equally fast/slow, using the standard 33MHz PCI bus.

 

[Ken]

Rod Speed said the following on 12/21/2006 10:25 PM:

Not than what is available to the onboard ports.


Irrelevant in most normal use. Thruput is
still normally limited by the card interface.


Pity he asked about one of those.

I am open to looking at other solutions. Are there better controllers
that are not much more expensive? I should add that I am using this
computer for storage, so the drives on the controller card are used for
music and movies. I expect that within a year I will be upgrading to a
different board/cpu/memory system to take advantage of faster bus speed,
core 2 duo, etc (Vista?).

Thanks
Ken

 

[Rod Speed]

Rod Speed wrote

I am open to looking at other solutions.

The best 'solution' in your case is to use the onboard controllers.

Are there better controllers that are not much more expensive?

Not better in the sense of being able to do anything about the
limitation to bandwidth you get with any card in that motherboard.

I should add that I am using this computer for storage, so the drives on the controller card are
used for music and movies.

Then you dont need anything better than what the onboard controllers can do.

I expect that within a year I will be upgrading to a different board/cpu/memory system to take
advantage of faster bus speed, core 2 duo, etc (Vista?).

That will have even better onboard controllers.