From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Ryan Bourgeois Subject: Re: Which SATA Combos To Consider? Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 18:25:26 -0600 Message-ID: <421535F6.80609@latech.edu> References: <4212CBD6.7020703@wasp.net.au> <42132803.2080701@wasp.net.au> <4213821D.1030203@pobox.com> <4213B2F8.2070800@wasp.net.au> <20050216154033.I10699@florence.linkmargin.com> <4213CD9E.9040703@pobox.com> <20050216174954.K10699@florence.linkmargin.com> <4213DE38.70309@pobox.com> <20050216182040.L10699@florence.linkmargin.com> <421426DB.2000308@pobox.com> <20050217085934.M10699@florence.linkmargin.com> <4214ECE9.7070502@pobox.com> <1108669364.3604.80.camel@vom> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Received: from selene.LaTech.edu ([138.47.18.25]:24782 "EHLO LaTech.edu") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S261261AbVBRA33 (ORCPT ); Thu, 17 Feb 2005 19:29:29 -0500 In-Reply-To: <1108669364.3604.80.camel@vom> Sender: linux-ide-owner@vger.kernel.org List-Id: linux-ide@vger.kernel.org To: Danny Cox Cc: Linux IDE List Danny Cox wrote: > I've been mostly lurking here for awhile now, just seeing how things >are going. I've seen various drives on a blacklist, and various >controllers that do this or that well, but have problems doing foo. >There also seem to have been a Strange Interaction as well, but that's a >fuzzy memory at best. > > So, my question is: if YOU were to purchase an SATA setup brand new, >what would you specify? Which drives, motherboards, and PCI cards would >you recommend that just work? > > I don't even mean "work like a Mercedes", by which I mean almost >perfection. I mean like a Chevy. I don't mind a little tinkering to >get it right, but I want my disk subsystem to be solid thereafter! I've >got important stuff here! Like my wife's backup; NEVER lose your wife's >backup (shudder)! > > If SATA isn't ready for consumerdom, I'd like to know that too. This >just isn't for Jeff and Bart either. I'd like to hear success stories >from those whose systems just hum along all the time! > > Thanks in advance! > > > On my file server I run the Highpoint RocketRAID 1640. It's a software RAID five card. Basically it's just a PCI card with two HPT374 chips each with two SATA plugs (a total of four plugs). So it's a no frills PATA card with SATA converters onboard. I run three Western Digital 120gb SATA drives on it with a Linux Software RAID 5 array on them. Aside from the fact that it's a PATA card at heart (so it doesn't use libata), my only complaint is that it's slow. It's stable as a rock, though, I've had no problems with the card or drives. I have a Promise SX4 that I tried. I had those same three drives connected to it, but I was having some problems with the array when I was using it. It had a tendency to corrupt the filesystem, for some reason. I was having other problems at the time, though, so it could be unrelated to the card I was using. If I get time and money I may try and set up an array on the card for testing. Anyways, out of personal preference, I go with Western Digital hard drives. For SATA cards, the Promise TX cards seem pretty reliable. I have an onboard TX2 on my main machine running a WD Raptor. I've had absolutely no problems with it and libata. Or in Windows, for that matter. I haven't used any other cards or drives, so I cannot offer anything in that direction. -Ryan Bourgeois