sata problems

[drew einhorn]

On Sat, Sep 25, 2010 at 6:15 AM, Christopher Chan
<christopher.chan at bradbury.edu.hk> wrote:
>
> > I have had a similar problem with USB connected SATA drives (system
> > crashes or hangs when writing to more than 1 drive simultaneously, read
> > from one, write to another works)  and decided to try moving them to an
> > ESATA interface.  I have heard that the AHCI based controllers on the
> > motherboard are often the most reliable soulutions.    I'm planning to
> > try this card which is sil3124 based.  At least a handful of people have
> > reported success with the 3124 chipset.
> > http://eshop.macsales.com/item/DAT%20Optic/ESATAPCIE8/
>
> The Silicon Image 3124 appears to be one of the more stable sata chipset
> available. However, even that has issues with certain multiplexers IIRC.
> The Marvell 8 port sata chipset is perhaps the most stable. It was used
> in the Sun Thumper. Supermicro has such a card...

To recap for folks Googling,  Ubuntu Lucid freezes and requires reboot
when copying data to Sans Digital TR4M

Replacing the SiL 3132 card that came with the TR4M
with a Marvell 88SE91XX with firmware 1.0.0.1012
solved the problem.  The replacement card was sold as:

    HighPoint Rocket 620 Dual-Port SATA 6Gb/s PCI-E x1 Low Profile Host Adapter

 for $26.99 w/ free shipping by ewiz.com

The other cards discussed above are much more expensive,
although they do have more ports with much higher performance.
Their capabilities would be wasted in my box.

I think the issue is AHCI compliance.
Although the card can talk to the drives as 6Gb/s,
I believe the pci-e only talks at 2.5Gb/s

I have raised the issue with Sans Digital Tech Support, we will see what they
have to say.

--
Drew Einhorn

"You can see a lot by just looking."
  --  Yogi Berra