SATA controllers

[Dave Howorth]

Chan Chung Hang Christopher wrote:
> 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.

Yes, that was very useful thanks. It seems slightly out of date but
complements the
<http://ata.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/SATA_hardware_features> site well.

> 3ware boards and service have otherwise been solid in my experience.

Yes, same here.

> 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.

I've seen reports that PCI-X cards can hit bus limits (sorry, can't
remember where) so I'm more inclined toward PCIe variants. Is the
Sil3132also problem-free as far as you know (I'd need two cards).

Areca use the Intel IOP332 and IOP333. A supplier says there are
problems using those cards in JBOD mode. But they're expensive if a
simple card plus md raid will work as well.

Cheers, Dave