SATA controllers

[Chan Chung Hang Christopher]

>> The CentOS, Debian, and Red Hat lists.
> 
> I went to http://www.centoslinuxhcl.org/ and searched for storage
> controllers with the keyword sata and got zero results.
> 
> I went to http://www.debian.org/intro/about#hardware which refers me to
> http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Hardware-HOWTO/ which has a latest copyright
> date of 2007 and where I haven't found any SATA information.
> 
> I went to https://hardware.redhat.com/ and searched for sata. There is
> one hit; the Promise SATAII150 SX8 which is only a 1.5 Gbps device.
> 
> Do you have any better hits? Or was I looking on the wrong sites?

The link I sent you should have the details of chipsets supported and 
what features are available with those chipsets and level of support in 
their respective driver.



> 
>> If you are looking for hardware RAID, go for 3ware or LSI.
> 
> I currently have 3ware 9500S and like them. One supplier is suggesting
> Areca and says recent 3ware can have problems. I don't know about LSI
> but will check thanks. But I am looking to use md kernel raid.

There have been some complaints about 3ware on the Centos list recently 
performance wise and even vendor support wise but the latter might be 
related to the corporate environment prior to and after LSI's 
purchase/takeover of 3ware. 3ware boards and service have otherwise been 
solid in my experience.



> 
>> If you are looking for software (mdadm) RAID, make sure that you do
>> not buy a FakeRAID card.
> 
> Why do you say this? I guess there may be some that are problematic but
> with most isn't it just a question of disabling the BIOS? The Promise
> card that red hat recommends is a fakeraid, for example, and the vendor
> claims linux-compatibility with the driver in the kernel.
> 

No problems with SIL3124 based fakeraid cards. On the SATA side of 
things, there are very few choices beyond onboard Nvidia/ATI that are 
SATAII and 4 ports. Only one chipset each from Silicon Image, Jmicron 
and Marvell. Marvell does have a PCI-X 8-port solution though.