Solid 4-port Sata II controller/adapter

[_Dee]

I'm currently using Syba 4-port SATA (I, not II) controllers. They're
picky about which card slot they're installed in. Not sure if this is
normal, but I'd like to find new controllers that are less touchy.
May as well go for Sata II, though I've heard there isn't much actual
speed difference.

Anyone know of something that works well?

 

[Timothy Daniels]

I'm currently using Syba 4-port SATA (I, not II) controllers. They're
picky about which card slot they're installed in. Not sure if this is
normal, but I'd like to find new controllers that are less touchy.
May as well go for Sata II, though I've heard there isn't much actual
speed difference.

How do you know it isn't just a bad connector on the motherboard?
Have you plugged something else into that "slot"?

*TimDaniels*

 

[_Dee]

How do you know it isn't just a bad connector on the motherboard?
Have you plugged something else into that "slot"?

*TimDaniels*

Tried them on a couple different machines, Tim. Yes, other cards work
in the slots where the Sata cards don't. I have to keep notes on what
works in which slot, in case I need to reinstall. It seems
ridiculous.

Besides, they are older Sata spec. Not sure if Sata II actually does
anything, but I'd still like to upgrade if they are not expensive.
Any ideas on a good 4-port controller card?

 

[Arno Wagner]

I'm currently using Syba 4-port SATA (I, not II) controllers. They're
picky about which card slot they're installed in. Not sure if this is
normal, but I'd like to find new controllers that are less touchy.
May as well go for Sata II, though I've heard there isn't much actual
speed difference.

Anyone know of something that works well?

The problem with PCI is that the slots often share interrupts
with other slots and on-board peripherials. I have for example
observed that a gigabit Ethernet card is usually slowed down
significantly when sharing the interrupt with on-board USB.

I would imagine you have such a problem as well, but to the
point that functionality is impaired.

I have made good experiences with promise Sata I and II
controllers, but your issue may actually be a problem with the
mainboard. Sorry, but nothing is simple or easy these days when
computer hardware is concerned.

Arno

 

[Timothy Daniels]

...they are older Sata spec. Not sure if Sata II actually does
anything, but I'd still like to upgrade if they are not expensive.
Any ideas on a good 4-port controller card?

Sorry, I'm still in the parallel ATA world. For my "trailing edge"
tastes, SATA is still a technology catching up to specs. Hey,
I'm still looking for a RAID card for floppy drives.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Odie]

Tried them on a couple different machines, Tim. Yes, other cards work
in the slots where the Sata cards don't. I have to keep notes on what
works in which slot, in case I need to reinstall. It seems
ridiculous.

Besides, they are older Sata spec. Not sure if Sata II actually does
anything, but I'd still like to upgrade if they are not expensive.
Any ideas on a good 4-port controller card?

Areca.

Even better, a PCI Express Areca - though you'd probably need a board
change.


Odie

 

[willbill]

_Dee wrote:

Areca.

Even better, a PCI Express Areca - though you'd probably need a board
change.

i agree on Areca

for the OP:

www.newegg.com shows 226 "raid" cards
(when you do a search on the single word: raid)

they have 11 Areca cards; fwiw, they (newegg)
state that the cheapest PCI-Express Areca card
(ARC-1210, 4 SATA2 connectors) can do raid-6,
but you in fact need the more expensive Areca
cards (1220/1230/1260) for raid-6

given that the box cover of the 1210 has raid-6
written on it (mis-leading to say the least!),
i can understand newegg making the mistake)

bill

 

[Arno Wagner]

Sorry, I'm still in the parallel ATA world. For my "trailing edge"
tastes, SATA is still a technology catching up to specs. Hey,
I'm still looking for a RAID card for floppy drives.

Well, if you settle for software-RAID, Linux can do that... ;-)

Arno

 

[_Dee]

The problem with PCI is that the slots often share interrupts
with other slots and on-board peripherials. I have for example
observed that a gigabit Ethernet card is usually slowed down
significantly when sharing the interrupt with on-board USB.

Yeah. Pretty retarded design. Still miles above the old ISA bus
(active-high interrupt lines? Who was responsible for that?)

I would imagine you have such a problem as well, but to the
point that functionality is impaired.

Functionally dead, actually. And different systems need to have the
boards in different slots.

I have made good experiences with promise Sata I and II
controllers, but your issue may actually be a problem with the
mainboard. Sorry, but nothing is simple or easy these days when
computer hardware is concerned.

If the hardware and drivers are written well, at least there's a
chance.

It's amazing what gets by these days. The Silicon Image 0680 chipset
had a design flaw that caused hangs when drives' Smart data was
interrogated. Lots of problems with Everest and other low-level
programs traced back to that. The chipset was in everything,
including Adaptec's own ATA controller.

 

[_Dee]

Areca

Just looked. I'll take your word that those are nice, but they're
pricey.

For that amount (or less), what is wrong with 3Ware? I've always had
good luck with their Raid controllers. Seems like you could run 4
drives in JBod. Not sure if doing that requires alterations to the
format that would prevent the drive from being transported to other
systems, though. I'd like to stay with standard non-Raid controllers
if that is the case.

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

Just looked.

I'll take your word that those are nice, but they're pricey.

And Taiwanese.

For that amount (or less), what is wrong with 3Ware? I've always had
good luck with their Raid controllers.

Seems like you could run 4 drives in JBOD.

Which is Raid without the striping (ie "Spanned" or "Concatenated").

Not sure if doing that requires alterations to the format that would
prevent the drive from being transported to other systems, though.

So yes.

 

[_dee]

Which is Raid without the striping (ie "Spanned" or "Concatenated").

I've heard of two different modes for running 'native formatted'
drives from a Raid controller. See below.

So yes.

I've hooked regular-formatted ATA drives up to older gen 3Ware Raid
controllers in the past. No reformat necessary. Then transported the
drives back to non-Raid Promise and Adaptec controllers with no
problems. The 3Ware controller seemed to work just like a normal ATA
controller, but with the advantage that I had 4 separate cables, so no
master-slave contending for control. If the 3Ware controllers wrote
anything to the drive, it was transparent.

I was wondering if this could still be the case with newer SATA raid
controllers.

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

I've heard of two different modes for running 'native formatted'
drives from a Raid controller. See below.


I've hooked regular-formatted ATA drives up to older gen 3Ware Raid
controllers in the past. No reformat necessary. Then transported the
drives back to non-Raid Promise and Adaptec controllers with no
problems. The 3Ware controller seemed to work just like a normal ATA
controller, but with the advantage that I had 4 separate cables, so no
master-slave contending for control.

Sure, but that is just not JBOD. JBOD is an array of spanned drives.

If the 3Ware controllers wrote anything to the drive, it was transparent.

Why would it write something to it?
If it would do that and it still worked after that, it would mean it already re-
cognized it for what it was and any writing to the drive would serve nothing.
The fact that meta data is missing is the best signpost for the controller that
a drive is a non-RAIDed drive. If the drive is partitioned and formatted
that again is the best signpost for the bios not to offer forced Setup menus.

I was wondering if this could still be the case with newer SATA raid
controllers.

Can't see why not, though such capabilities are at the whim of the Bios maker.