Solid 4-port Sata II controller/adapter
 

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?

Solid 4-port Sata II controller/adapter
 

"_Dee" wrote:
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*

Solid 4-port Sata II controller/adapter
 

On Mon, 5 Jun 2006 00:54:42 -0700, "Timothy Daniels"
wrote:

"_Dee" wrote:
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*

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?

Solid 4-port Sata II controller/adapter
 

Previously _Dee wrote:
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

Solid 4-port Sata II controller/adapter
 

"_Dee" wrote:
...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*

Solid 4-port Sata II controller/adapter
 

_Dee wrote:

On Mon, 5 Jun 2006 00:54:42 -0700, "Timothy Daniels"
wrote:

"_Dee" wrote:
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*

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
--
Retrodata
www.retrodata.co.uk
Globally Local Data Recovery Experts

Solid 4-port Sata II controller/adapter
 

On 6 Jun 2006 14:18:04 GMT, Arno Wagner wrote:

Previously _Dee wrote:
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.

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.

Solid 4-port Sata II controller/adapter
 

On Tue, 06 Jun 2006 22:11:37 +0100, Odie
wrote:

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.

Solid 4-port Sata II controller/adapter
 

"_Dee" wrote in message
On Tue, 06 Jun 2006 22:11:37 +0100, Odie
wrote:

Areca

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.

I'd like to stay with standard non-Raid controllers if that is the case.

Solid 4-port Sata II controller/adapter
 

On Wed, 7 Jun 2006 08:35:46 +0200, "Folkert Rienstra"
wrote:

"_Dee" wrote in message

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").

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

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

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.