SATA-II PCI Controller

[TheRift]

Need a little help on finding this.

Looking for a SATA-II controller with PCI or PCI-X interface (not PCI-E). Preferably 4 port.

I have found PCI-E controllers for SATA-II, but ofcourse only looking for PCI or PCI-X because I have system without PCI-E.

Looking for something like this:

http://www.usb-ware.com/sata-raid-pci-controller-4-port.htm

Yes, yes, I know, PCI won't get me full 300MB/s speed of SATA-II, but I'm not upgrading the whole thing to support a Hitachi Ultrastar SATA-II 1TB drive.

Have a mix of SATA-I and SATA-II drives in this thing, all set to 150Mb/s interfacing, but Hitachi don't offer that. Controllers are Sil3112 on motherboard and Sil3114 on current PCI SATA controller running 6 drives. Me want more.

Thanks to anyone who can give me a hand on this.

 

[koffiejunkie]

Need a little help on finding this.

Looking for a SATA-II controller with PCI or PCI-X interface (not PCI-E). Preferably 4 port.

Here you go. I have worked with this card before, it's excellent. It's much much better and faster (and runs cooler) than it's nearest (6 port) competitor from LSI. It's proper hardware raid, and if that's your thing, it works like a champ in Linux too. You can get it from Storgate.

Yes, yes, I know, PCI won't get me full 300MB/s speed of SATA-II

Neither will your "Hitachi Ultrastar SATA-II 1TB drive." That 300MB/s only ever kicks in when you're bursting to or from the drive's cache, and since you don't have 300MB of cache on your drive, you'll be bursting for, uhm, one 20th of a second, roughly before you have to sit back and wait for the drive to write it out to disc. The difference between SATA-I and SATA-II is academic with a single drive. It does nothing for sustained transfer. Now, four WD caviars (10,000rpm drives) hooked up to this card, in a serious multi-user environment, and you might see a small difference.

Oh, and with PCI-X you will get the full speed of the card, unless you're plugging in four of these babies. (One day I'm going to, I swear)

 

[TheRift]

Here you go. I have worked with this card before, it's excellent. It's much much better and faster (and runs cooler) than it's nearest (6 port) competitor from LSI. It's proper hardware raid, and if that's your thing, it works like a champ in Linux too. You can get it from Storgate.

Thanks. I know this card. It's R3K for that card. A bit pricey. I'll call Storgate tomorrow, maybe they have a better price than my supplier or perhaps have something just a little smaller.

Neither will your "Hitachi Ultrastar SATA-II 1TB drive." That 300MB/s only ever kicks in when you're bursting to or from the drive's cache, and since you don't have 300MB of cache on your drive, you'll be bursting for, uhm, one 20th of a second, roughly before you have to sit back and wait for the drive to write it out to disc. The difference between SATA-I and SATA-II is academic with a single drive. It does nothing for sustained transfer. Now, four WD caviars (10,000rpm drives) hooked up to this card, in a serious multi-user environment, and you might see a small difference.

Yip, fully aware of it hence not bothered with rushing out to buy a PCI-E motherboard with SATA-II on it. The Sil3124 is only available here in PCI-E. Pity. I guess there is more support for older crap overseas.

Looks like I'll order from an online spot in the USA. $39 for item, $32 for express shipping ($9 for normal).

Oh, and with PCI-X you will get the full speed of the card, unless you're plugging in four of these babies. (One day I'm going to, I swear)

So am I! I've been wanting those from when they first came out.

 

[koffiejunkie]

Thanks. I know this card. It's R3K for that card.

It's worth it. This will probably do it for you. It does support SATA-II (I phoned them before I placed my order, but I haven't gotten my drives yet to build the system). It doesn't, however, give you RAID-5, but then all these cheapies are software raid, so it doesn't really make a difference.

So am I! I've been wanting those from when they first came out.

They're not available any more, sadly. I had this perverse idea of sticking 16 of those (they don't actually have to hang off the same board, because they connect to your machine via SATA, they just get power from the motherboard) into the Adaptec 16 port SATA/SAS controller and putting MySQL's data store on that space. But there are better things these days. Dell's R900 and R905 servers can take 128GB of memory - Ramdrive! More space without the PCI(X/e) bus being a bottleneck.

 

[TheRift]

It's worth it. This will probably do it for you. It does support SATA-II (I phoned them before I placed my order, but I haven't gotten my drives yet to build the system). It doesn't, however, give you RAID-5, but then all these cheapies are software raid, so it doesn't really make a difference.

I don't need the RAID facilities for a home system. Perhaps for work it would be fantastic. I've never sold add-on controllers other than LSI and Adaptec, but for home use it's definitely overgrown. Looking to spend a few hundred max. This PC has a few more years in it before proper upgrade. I'm still after the Kurobox, but think the drive I'll get for it won't be one of the hitachi units. My old Audi's ECU was a Hitachi unit... I should've known better.

They're not available any more, sadly. I had this perverse idea of sticking 16 of those (they don't actually have to hang off the same board, because they connect to your machine via SATA, they just get power from the motherboard) into the Adaptec 16 port SATA/SAS controller and putting MySQL's data store on that space. But there are better things these days. Dell's R900 and R905 servers can take 128GB of memory - Ramdrive! More space without the PCI(X/e) bus being a bottleneck.

You'd probably get the same effect out of the new solid-state drives. Not sure how the wallet might look afterwards though. And don't say "mysql" ... it's annoyed me no end this past week.

 

[koffiejunkie]

I don't need the RAID facilities

Then the £10 one I mentioned will be just dandy.

You'd probably get the same effect out of the new solid-state drives. Not sure how the wallet might look afterwards though.

It will be inivisible...

And don't say "mysql" ... it's annoyed me no end this past week.

Ha! I spend a lot of hours every day in MySQL - loving it more and more every day - mostly because I work on servers for developers who clearly couldn't find their arses with their hands let alone design a half decent database sceme. Today I took on a box that was barely doing 50 queries per second and crashing every couple of minutes. After 30 minutes on it it was doing over 1000 queries per second and the client was able to cancel their order for that new mofo server. They now believe me to be super human. Shows you the difference a little knowledge can make.

 

[koffiejunkie]

Oh, and you won't get the same speed out of solid state. Looking at the 64gb Transcend SSD:

Read up to 116MB/s, Write up to 43MB/s

 

[TheRift]

Then the £10 one I mentioned will be just dandy.

Totally missed that link. But, alas, no it will not work. I have a Sil3114. It only does SATA-1. It will find the drive, but comms stop after that. Heading over to the brother on the weekend, at least he has a more "modern" workhouse with real SATA ports.

It will be inivisible...

You'll have to hand them the wallet too ... sorry.

Ha! I spend a lot of hours every day in MySQL - loving it more and more every day - mostly because I work on servers for developers who clearly couldn't find their arses with their hands let alone design a half decent database sceme. Today I took on a box that was barely doing 50 queries per second and crashing every couple of minutes. After 30 minutes on it it was doing over 1000 queries per second and the client was able to cancel their order for that new mofo server. They now believe me to be super human. Shows you the difference a little knowledge can make.

I am a developer. One that is pretty sick and tired of colleagues who cannot put together a db scheme of any use, let alone not understanding the concepts of actually thinking when crafting up their sql queries. The ever-horrible cross product join ... "but the database will optimize it for me!" There are unfortunately some things other databases can do in queries that don't seem to like being done in mysql. Ofcourse those databases unfortunately flatten the wallet too.

I just tried ordering that SATA-II card from the USA, but what a nightmare ordering process. It just always wants to bill me $20 extra for "wire transfer" when I'm paying by credit card. The PayPal thing doesn't even function. Looks ... well ... outsourced.

 

[koffiejunkie]

Totally missed that link. But, alas, no it will not work. I have a Sil3114. It only does SATA-1. It will find the drive, but comms stop after that.

Hmm, I'll have to order a drive and check. I intend to use it with 2.5" drives though, I don't even know if they are SATA-I or SATA-II

I am a developer. One that is pretty sick and tired of colleagues who cannot put together a db scheme of any use, let alone not understanding the concepts of actually thinking when crafting up their sql queries.

Well, there lies one of the biggest problems. I'm *not* a developer (aside from assembly crimes I committed in the early 90s) and my SQL is sketchy at the best of times, but I find myself fixing people's code on a daily basis.

The ever-horrible cross product join ...

Or the everything-in-one-table-including-logging-the-page-clicks-with-no-indexes using MyISAM (because it's faster) and then wondering why they're having locking issues. *cough*cough*xcart*cough*cough*

 

[TheRift]

Hmm, I'll have to order a drive and check. I intend to use it with 2.5" drives though, I don't even know if they are SATA-I or SATA-II

Probably II, but with a 1.5MBit switch. I have SATA-II units here hooked up to the Sil3114, all switched to 1.5MBit via jumper and they are fine. Just the server grade Hitachi is version 2 SATA and the 3114 will not do any of that. The hitachi seems to only want one sort of thing.

Well, there lies one of the biggest problems. I'm *not* a developer (aside from assembly crimes I committed in the early 90s) and my SQL is sketchy at the best of times, but I find myself fixing people's code on a daily basis.

I have the same. It's a new breed of developer. Man, this one guy at the previous company was the top dev person and revered by the boss and was all advice and everything ... then one day I said "x86" and he was just "What's x86?"

And, uhm, he is now a MVP as well. Shame. Says alot. Too many coming out of 5-day become-a-software-engineer course.

Or the everything-in-one-table-including-logging-the-page-clicks-with-no-indexes using MyISAM (because it's faster) and then wondering why they're having locking issues. *cough*cough*xcart*cough*cough*

Pfft... use Access!

 

[TheRift]

Right, I just ordered the Syba card. Let's see what happens with the credit card.

 

[howardb]

What about something like this. I am using one with no hassles...

 

[TheRift]

I've been having it. 4 drives connected, some of them are SATA-II 1.5GB/s. Hitachi detected on it, but it stops there.

 

[TheRift]

Me again. Problem fixed. That Syba 3124 card arrived this afternoon. Just installed it a few moments ago, drive is busy formatting. It's definitely a SATA-II/SATA-300 only drive. I suspect the Deskstar will do either, but the Ultrastar doesn't.

Didn't see the normal SiliconImage boot menu as on the other SATA interfaces in this PC, not sure if I should be worried about that.

Cost came to $72.49 including $32 shipping. Took a week from the USA. Import charges are another R113 on that. Ah, well, worth it for now.

Now to figure out if these e-SATA ports do those "multilane" stuff 'cos getting drives in and out is horrible.