Recommendations: PCI SATA controller with no pseudo-RAID?

[i]

I'm hoping someone can suggest a SATA controller with the following criteria:

1. 32-bit PCI card
2. NOT have any of that putrid "fakeRAID" garbage
3. Work with SATA II drives, even if it can't take advantage of whatever the improvements were over original SATA
4. Have a decent chance at working under Linux
5. Transfer rates are unimportant; I realize that an SATA/SATA II setup is going to be underutilized in a PCI environment

If some background helps:

I have two old systems, one with an ASUS P2B-D motherboard and the other with a P2B-F motherboard. Obviously there is no SATA support. Both will be running Linux shortly. I have a Seagate SCSI drive set up as the boot drive in each system. I'll be purchasing four 80 GB Samsung SATA II drives shortly. I would like to add two of the drives to each system, creating a RAID 1 array in each system using Linux's software RAID package.

 

[sechs]

Where's the tool here?

 

[i]

Tool.

 

[i]

It looks like I'm going to be out of luck on this one. I believe both of these motherboards have 33MHz, 32 bit PCI buses. All the PCI SATA cards I'm finding out there appear to be 66MHz, 32 bit. I doubt that there is any option for some backwards compatibility there. I also found some references to the PCI 2.3 specification that all of these SATA adapters tout, which seems to have implemented a new cut-off with respect to handling 3.3 volt versus 5 volt PCI buses. It's not very clear exactly how that might affect this situation either. But given the age of these motherboards, it's enough uncertainty for me to conclude that this isn't going to work.

I'll have to buy four IDE hard disks instead, and buy some plain, cheap Promise IDE adapters to provide additional connections. Bleah. I really didn't want to buy any more IDE hard disks. That means I'll have yet more obsolete hardware lying around in the near future...

 

[mubs]

If I'm talking crap, ignore me (the coffee hasn't kicked in yet).

1) Can't you buy one with the pseudo raid and use it in JBOD mode?

2) Here's an Adaptec that's 32-bit PCI 2.2. $38 according to PW.

3) A very quick look found this via pricewatch: Promise FastTrak TX2300 SATA PCI Adapter. "PCI Support: 32-bit / 66MHz PCI interface compliant to PCI Rev 2.3 (Backward-compatible with PCI 33)".

Don't want to use an adapter that lets you use SATA drives with IDE controllers? This looks to be a medium term project anyway.

 

[i]

Wow, thanks mubs!

I will definitely look at #2, and #3. As for #1, I'm not sure I'd ever trust the adapter to really be working with the drives in a standard fashion. One of the reasons many people suggest software RAID over hardware RAID, at least for small-scale implementations, is that you can pick up the disks and move them to any other environment. But if the controller has written the data to the disks in any sort of proprietary way, you're out of luck.

Oh, and I hadn't considered SATA to IDE adapters. Such things exist?

Mmm ... coffee.

 

[Will Rickards]

Any of these fit the bill?
I think the 66Mhz stuff is just that it supports it but is also backwards compatible. Just find a card with the silicon image chipset of your choice.
http://www.syba.com/product/43/02/index.html

 

[mubs]

Oh, and I hadn't considered SATA to IDE adapters. Such things exist?

Go to Pricewatch --> cards - Controller --> sata card --> scroll to middle of page to see adapters. Have no idea how well they work. And I presume there are adapters that go both ways.

 

[sechs]

Tool.

So where's the tool?

This is a forum for answers, not questions.

 

[Mercutio]

I have a couple dirt-cheap Syba 4-port cards that I'm pretty happy with. For $26, I can't say it's given me anything to complain about.

 

[i]

Tool.

So where's the tool?

This is a forum for answers, not questions.

If the placement of this thread confuses you that much, sechs, you go right ahead and move it.

 

[i]

That's some high praise coming from you Merc. Have you ever had the chance to try it with Linux of some type?

Anyway, thanks to both you and Will for the Syba recommendations. I haven't had any experience with Syba before.

Adding the question of Linux into the situation makes things a little more interesting. I found a fairly comprehensive list of SATA adapters and their compatibility with Linux. I also found another site that I believe is maintained by one of the Linux kernel developers who works on the SATA stuff. It mentions fewer specific cards and chipsets, but provides more concrete answers about the ones it does mention.

The Adaptec card you mentioned, mubs, and all of the Syba cards seem to use Silicon Image chips. I know that SATA support in Linux was updated yet again in the recently-released kernel 2.6.15, but I don't know if the modifications in that kernel are enough to bump the SATA support status for the Silicon Image chips out of "beta".

The Promise TX2/TX4 cards look well-supported from the Linux perspective, but then I run into that 66 MHz bus issue. I may just take a stab at one and see how it goes.

One way or another I'm going to give this a shot this week, so I will be sure to post an update...

 

[Mercutio]

The Sil chipset is autodetected under SuSE 9.2 and 10 for sure and I know of no reason why it wouldn't work with anything else that has a 2.6 kernel.

 

[i]

The Sil chipset is autodetected under SuSE 9.2 and 10 for sure and I know of no reason why it wouldn't work with anything else that has a 2.6 kernel.

Oooh ... awesome! Thanks!

 

[i]

I just bought three SATA adapters. One of these has to work:


First, the questionable parentage VIA Vectro VT6421 / SYBA SY-VIA-150R card, for $12.85
Has scary RAID drivers, if you're into that sort of thing.
Supports two SATA devices (and two irrelevant PATA devices). It uses a VIA VT6421L chip.
32-bit PCI. PCI 2.2 compliant. Does it support 33MHz PCI buses? Yes, in fact they specifically state, "33 MHz operation."


Second, a SYBA SD-SATA-4P, for $21.50
Has scary RAID drivers, if you're into that sort of thing.
Supports four SATA devices. It uses a SIL / Silicon Image 3114 chip.
32-bit PCI. PCI 2.3 compliant. Does it support 33MHz PCI buses? I don't know for certain yet. They only state, "supports 66Mhz PCI."


Third, a Promise SATAII150 TX4, for $54.00
No direct options for RAID. Yay!
Supports four SATA devices. It uses a Promise PDC20518 chip.
32-bit PCI. PCI 2.3 compliant. Does it support 33MHz PCI buses? I don't know for certain yet. They only state, "66 MHz PCI bus."


I still don't have a clue about the voltages here (3.3 volt PCI versus 5 volt PCI). Anyway, at the very least that first one had better work...

 

[CougTek]

Next time you have 54$ to waste, give it to me instead of Promise.

 

[sechs]

If the placement of this thread confuses you that much, sechs, you go right ahead and move it.

It's far easier to complain about it.

And, hey, maybe you'll avoid this mistake in the future.

 

[Buck]

I've been using the Promise SATA300 TX2PLUS. I also use it in my HDD Clone station.

 

[i]

It's far easier to complain about it.

And, hey, maybe you'll avoid this mistake in the future.

Those are the sort of friendly, constructive thoughts that I've come to expect from you, sechs. I want to thank you so much for sharing them.

Handy: what would you like? I had cared enough to post my original request, but everyone had good thoughts against creating a separate forum. I liked Fushigi's suggestion, and knowing threads can be moved between forums, that's the reason why this is here. I figured if anyone cared that much, it'd get moved.

Frankly now I don't care one way or another. In any case, Handy, just go ahead and delete this thread. It's clear that someone is hell-bent against it going ahead unfettered.

 

[LiamC]

Has anybody seen/know anything more about these ATTO PCD-e X4 U320 SCSI HBA's? Prices, availability?

http://www.attotech.com/press/UL5D10.05.html