ATA cables and drives

ATA cables and drives

[Molle Bestefich]

I'm looking for new harddrives.

This is my experience so far.


SATA cables:
=============

I have zero good experiences with any SATA cables.
They've all been crap so far.


3.5" ATA harddrives buyable where I live:
==========================================

(All drives are 7200rpm, for some reason.)

Hitachi "DeskStar"              500 GB / 16 MB /  8.5 ms / SATA or PATA
Maxtor "DiamondMax 11"          500 GB / 16 MB /  8.5 ms / SATA or PATA
Maxtor "MaXLine Pro"            500 GB / 16 MB /  8.5 ms / SATA or PATA
Seagate "Barracuda 7200.10"     500 GB / 16 MB /    ?    / SATA or PATA
Seagate "Barracuda 7200.10"     750 GB / 16 MB /    ?    / SATA or PATA
Seagate "Barracuda 7200.9"      500 GB / 16 MB / 11   ms / SATA or PATA
Seagate "Barracuda 7200.9"      500 GB /  8 MB / 11   ms / SATA or PATA
Seagate "Barracuda ES"          500 GB / 16 MB /  8.5 ms / SATA
Seagate "Barracuda ES"          750 GB / 16 MB /  8.5 ms / SATA
Seagate "ESATA"                 500 GB / 16 MB /    ?    / SATA (external)
Seagate "NL35.2 ST3500641NS"    500 GB / 16 MB /  8   ms / ? / SATA
Seagate "NL35.2 ST3500841NS"    500 GB /  8 MB /  8   ms / ? / SATA
Western Digital "SE16 WD5000KS" 500 GB / 16 MB /  8.9 ms / SATA
Western Digital "RE2 WD5000YS"  500 GB / 16 MB /  8.7 ms / SATA

I've tried Maxtor and IBM (now Hitachi) harddrives.
Both makes have failed on me, but most of the time due to horrible packaging.

I don't care a split-second whether one kind is marginally faster than
the other, so all the reviews on AnandTech etc. are utterly useless to
me.  There's an infinite number of more effective ways to get better
performance than to buy a slightly faster harddrive.

I DO care about quality, namely:
* How often the drives has catastrophic failure,
* How they handle heat (dissipation & acceptance - how hot before it fails?),
* How big the spare area is,
* How often they have single-sector failures,
* How long the manufacturer warranty lasts,
* How easy the manufacturer is to work with wrt. warranty.

I haven't been able to figure the spare area size, heat properties,
etc. for any drives.
Thus my only criteria so far has been manufacturer warranty: How much
bitching do I get when I tell them my drive doesn't work.

My main experience is with Maxtor.
Maxtor has been none less than superb wrt. warranty!
Download an ISO with a diag tool, burn the CD, boot the CD, type in
the fault code it prints on Maxtor's site, and a day or two later
you've got a new drive in the mail and packaging to ship the old one
back in.  If something odd happens, call them up and they're extremely
helpful.

Unfortunately, I lack thorough experience with the other brands.


Questions:
===========

A.) Does anyone have experience with returning Hitachi, Seagate or WD
drives to the manufacturer?
    Do they have manufacturer warranty at all?
    How much/little trouble did you have with Hitachi, Seagate or WD?

B.) Can anyone *prove* (to a reasonable degree) that drives from
manufacturer H, M, S or WD is of better quality?
    Has anyone seen a review that heat/shock/stress test drives?

C.) Does good SATA cables exist?
    Eg. cables that lock on to the drives, or backplanes which lock
the entire disk in place?


Thanks for reading, and thanks in advance for answers (if any) :-).

Re: ATA cables and drives

[Jeff Woods]

At 15:16 +0200 9/16/2006, Molle Bestefich wrote:
>A.) Does anyone have experience with returning Hitachi, Seagate or 
>WD drives to the manufacturer? Do they have manufacturer warranty at 
>all? How much/little trouble did you have with Hitachi, Seagate or WD?

A few years ago (but after IBM sold their HDD business to Hitachi) I 
had a laptop drive (48GB 2.5") die before the three year warranty 
ended. I did the diagnostic code, RMA thing and got a refurbished 
replacement which also died within a year. Repeated diagnostic and 
RMA which got me another drive which still works fine. I think the 
original two drives died because I was running the laptop they were 
in 24x7; most laptop drives are not designed for that duty cycle. The 
new drive has been great in an external USB+Firewire enclosure as a 
48GB sneakernet drive.

I've never had reason to return a Seagate or WD drive. It's been a 
few years since I used a Seagate personally. I have a 4-way RAID-0 of 
WD 74GB 10K-RPM Raptors (five year warranty) which work great. I also 
have two WD 400GB RE2 drives (also five year warranty) in RAID-0 that 
also seem great.

>B.) Can anyone *prove* (to a reasonable degree) that drives from 
>manufacturer H, M, S or WD is of better quality? Has anyone seen a 
>review that heat/shock/stress test drives?

I can't even prove that *I* exist. ;)

>C.) Does good SATA cables exist? Eg. cables that lock on to the 
>drives, or backplanes which lock the entire disk in place?

WD has "SecureConnect" which is a SATA connecter their drives 
support. I use it and like it on all my WD SATA drives.
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/accessories.asp?ProdID=74

--
Jeff Woods <kazrak+kernel@cesmail.net>  

Re: ATA cables and drives

[Bill Davidsen]

Molle Bestefich wrote:

> I'm looking for new harddrives.
>
> This is my experience so far.
>
>
> SATA cables:
> =============
>
> I have zero good experiences with any SATA cables.
> They've all been crap so far.
>
>
> 3.5" ATA harddrives buyable where I live:
> ==========================================
>
> (All drives are 7200rpm, for some reason.)


Unless you live where delivery services don't go, you can get 10k SATA 
or 15k Ultra320 drives from many vendors. I checked newegg just as a 
reference, there are many others.

The rest of your questions sound like you are running the drives very 
hot, and drive life is inversely proportional to temperature. There are 
mil-spec drives which will live at 100C, but they are not readily 
available and cost way more than keeping drives cool. I have no idea 
what kind of SATA cable failure you are seeing, I have some in machines 
I take to give presentations, and if 10k miles in the back of an SUV 
didn't cause problems, I doubt any normal operation would. I've had them 
bad when I got them, but if they work once they keep working, in my 
experience.

>
>
> I've tried Maxtor and IBM (now Hitachi) harddrives.
> Both makes have failed on me, but most of the time due to horrible 
> packaging.
>
> I don't care a split-second whether one kind is marginally faster than
> the other, so all the reviews on AnandTech etc. are utterly useless to
> me.  There's an infinite number of more effective ways to get better
> performance than to buy a slightly faster harddrive.
>
> I DO care about quality, namely:
> * How often the drives has catastrophic failure,
> * How they handle heat (dissipation & acceptance - how hot before it 
> fails?),
> * How big the spare area is,
> * How often they have single-sector failures,
> * How long the manufacturer warranty lasts,
> * How easy the manufacturer is to work with wrt. warranty.
>
> I haven't been able to figure the spare area size, heat properties,
> etc. for any drives.
> Thus my only criteria so far has been manufacturer warranty: How much
> bitching do I get when I tell them my drive doesn't work.
>
> My main experience is with Maxtor.
> Maxtor has been none less than superb wrt. warranty!
> Download an ISO with a diag tool, burn the CD, boot the CD, type in
> the fault code it prints on Maxtor's site, and a day or two later
> you've got a new drive in the mail and packaging to ship the old one
> back in.  If something odd happens, call them up and they're extremely
> helpful.
>
> Unfortunately, I lack thorough experience with the other brands.
>
>
> Questions:
> ===========
>
> A.) Does anyone have experience with returning Hitachi, Seagate or WD
> drives to the manufacturer?
>    Do they have manufacturer warranty at all?
>    How much/little trouble did you have with Hitachi, Seagate or WD?
>
> B.) Can anyone *prove* (to a reasonable degree) that drives from
> manufacturer H, M, S or WD is of better quality?
>    Has anyone seen a review that heat/shock/stress test drives?
>
> C.) Does good SATA cables exist?
>    Eg. cables that lock on to the drives, or backplanes which lock
> the entire disk in place?
>
>
> Thanks for reading, and thanks in advance for answers (if any) :-).
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-raid" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
>


-- 
bill davidsen <davidsen@tmr.com>
  CTO TMR Associates, Inc
  Doing interesting things with small computers since 1979

RE: ATA cables and drives

[Guy]

Most manufacturers give you a 1 or 3 year warranty.  I must assume this
indicates how long they think the drive will last.  Seagate gives you 5
years.  I use Seagate but have not had to return a drive in many years.

I have 4 of these:
Seagate "Barracuda 7200.10"     320 GB / 16 MB /    ?    / SATA

And 2 of these:
Seagate "Barracuda 7200.9"     300 GB / 16 MB /    ?    / SATA

No problems with above, very quiet and cool.

And many (17+) 18 Gig 10,000 RPM SCSI disks.  1 or 2 have failed in the last
2 years.  But they are vary out of warranty.

No problems, very quiet and cool.

Guy

} -----Original Message-----
} From: linux-raid-owner@vger.kernel.org [mailto:linux-raid-
} owner@vger.kernel.org] On Behalf Of Molle Bestefich
} Sent: Saturday, September 16, 2006 9:16 AM
} To: linux-raid@vger.kernel.org
} Subject: ATA cables and drives
} 
} I'm looking for new harddrives.
} 
} This is my experience so far.
} 
} 
} SATA cables:
} =============
} 
} I have zero good experiences with any SATA cables.
} They've all been crap so far.
} 
} 
} 3.5" ATA harddrives buyable where I live:
} ==========================================
} 
} (All drives are 7200rpm, for some reason.)
} 
} Hitachi "DeskStar"              500 GB / 16 MB /  8.5 ms / SATA or PATA
} Maxtor "DiamondMax 11"          500 GB / 16 MB /  8.5 ms / SATA or PATA
} Maxtor "MaXLine Pro"            500 GB / 16 MB /  8.5 ms / SATA or PATA
} Seagate "Barracuda 7200.10"     500 GB / 16 MB /    ?    / SATA or PATA
} Seagate "Barracuda 7200.10"     750 GB / 16 MB /    ?    / SATA or PATA
} Seagate "Barracuda 7200.9"      500 GB / 16 MB / 11   ms / SATA or PATA
} Seagate "Barracuda 7200.9"      500 GB /  8 MB / 11   ms / SATA or PATA
} Seagate "Barracuda ES"          500 GB / 16 MB /  8.5 ms / SATA
} Seagate "Barracuda ES"          750 GB / 16 MB /  8.5 ms / SATA
} Seagate "ESATA"                 500 GB / 16 MB /    ?    / SATA (external)
} Seagate "NL35.2 ST3500641NS"    500 GB / 16 MB /  8   ms / ? / SATA
} Seagate "NL35.2 ST3500841NS"    500 GB /  8 MB /  8   ms / ? / SATA
} Western Digital "SE16 WD5000KS" 500 GB / 16 MB /  8.9 ms / SATA
} Western Digital "RE2 WD5000YS"  500 GB / 16 MB /  8.7 ms / SATA
} 
} I've tried Maxtor and IBM (now Hitachi) harddrives.
} Both makes have failed on me, but most of the time due to horrible
} packaging.
} 
} I don't care a split-second whether one kind is marginally faster than
} the other, so all the reviews on AnandTech etc. are utterly useless to
} me.  There's an infinite number of more effective ways to get better
} performance than to buy a slightly faster harddrive.
} 
} I DO care about quality, namely:
} * How often the drives has catastrophic failure,
} * How they handle heat (dissipation & acceptance - how hot before it
} fails?),
} * How big the spare area is,
} * How often they have single-sector failures,
} * How long the manufacturer warranty lasts,
} * How easy the manufacturer is to work with wrt. warranty.
} 
} I haven't been able to figure the spare area size, heat properties,
} etc. for any drives.
} Thus my only criteria so far has been manufacturer warranty: How much
} bitching do I get when I tell them my drive doesn't work.
} 
} My main experience is with Maxtor.
} Maxtor has been none less than superb wrt. warranty!
} Download an ISO with a diag tool, burn the CD, boot the CD, type in
} the fault code it prints on Maxtor's site, and a day or two later
} you've got a new drive in the mail and packaging to ship the old one
} back in.  If something odd happens, call them up and they're extremely
} helpful.
} 
} Unfortunately, I lack thorough experience with the other brands.
} 
} 
} Questions:
} ===========
} 
} A.) Does anyone have experience with returning Hitachi, Seagate or WD
} drives to the manufacturer?
}     Do they have manufacturer warranty at all?
}     How much/little trouble did you have with Hitachi, Seagate or WD?
} 
} B.) Can anyone *prove* (to a reasonable degree) that drives from
} manufacturer H, M, S or WD is of better quality?
}     Has anyone seen a review that heat/shock/stress test drives?
} 
} C.) Does good SATA cables exist?
}     Eg. cables that lock on to the drives, or backplanes which lock
} the entire disk in place?
} 
} 
} Thanks for reading, and thanks in advance for answers (if any) :-).
} -
} To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-raid" in
} the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
} More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html

Re: ATA cables and drives

[Rob Bray]

> I'm looking for new harddrives.
>
> This is my experience so far.
>
>
> SATA cables:
> =============
>
> I have zero good experiences with any SATA cables.
> They've all been crap so far.
>
>
> 3.5" ATA harddrives buyable where I live:
> ==========================================
>
> (All drives are 7200rpm, for some reason.)
>
> Hitachi "DeskStar"              500 GB / 16 MB /  8.5 ms / SATA or PATA
> Maxtor "DiamondMax 11"          500 GB / 16 MB /  8.5 ms / SATA or PATA
> Maxtor "MaXLine Pro"            500 GB / 16 MB /  8.5 ms / SATA or PATA
> Seagate "Barracuda 7200.10"     500 GB / 16 MB /    ?    / SATA or PATA
> Seagate "Barracuda 7200.10"     750 GB / 16 MB /    ?    / SATA or PATA
> Seagate "Barracuda 7200.9"      500 GB / 16 MB / 11   ms / SATA or PATA
> Seagate "Barracuda 7200.9"      500 GB /  8 MB / 11   ms / SATA or PATA
> Seagate "Barracuda ES"          500 GB / 16 MB /  8.5 ms / SATA
> Seagate "Barracuda ES"          750 GB / 16 MB /  8.5 ms / SATA
> Seagate "ESATA"                 500 GB / 16 MB /    ?    / SATA (external)
> Seagate "NL35.2 ST3500641NS"    500 GB / 16 MB /  8   ms / ? / SATA
> Seagate "NL35.2 ST3500841NS"    500 GB /  8 MB /  8   ms / ? / SATA
> Western Digital "SE16 WD5000KS" 500 GB / 16 MB /  8.9 ms / SATA
> Western Digital "RE2 WD5000YS"  500 GB / 16 MB /  8.7 ms / SATA
>
> I've tried Maxtor and IBM (now Hitachi) harddrives.
> Both makes have failed on me, but most of the time due to horrible
> packaging.
>
> I don't care a split-second whether one kind is marginally faster than
> the other, so all the reviews on AnandTech etc. are utterly useless to
> me.  There's an infinite number of more effective ways to get better
> performance than to buy a slightly faster harddrive.
>
> I DO care about quality, namely:
> * How often the drives has catastrophic failure,
> * How they handle heat (dissipation & acceptance - how hot before it
> fails?),
> * How big the spare area is,
> * How often they have single-sector failures,
> * How long the manufacturer warranty lasts,
> * How easy the manufacturer is to work with wrt. warranty.
>
> I haven't been able to figure the spare area size, heat properties,
> etc. for any drives.
> Thus my only criteria so far has been manufacturer warranty: How much
> bitching do I get when I tell them my drive doesn't work.
>
> My main experience is with Maxtor.
> Maxtor has been none less than superb wrt. warranty!
> Download an ISO with a diag tool, burn the CD, boot the CD, type in
> the fault code it prints on Maxtor's site, and a day or two later
> you've got a new drive in the mail and packaging to ship the old one
> back in.  If something odd happens, call them up and they're extremely
> helpful.
>
> Unfortunately, I lack thorough experience with the other brands.
>
>
> Questions:
> ===========
>
> A.) Does anyone have experience with returning Hitachi, Seagate or WD
> drives to the manufacturer?
>     Do they have manufacturer warranty at all?
>     How much/little trouble did you have with Hitachi, Seagate or WD?
>
> B.) Can anyone *prove* (to a reasonable degree) that drives from
> manufacturer H, M, S or WD is of better quality?
>     Has anyone seen a review that heat/shock/stress test drives?
>
> C.) Does good SATA cables exist?
>     Eg. cables that lock on to the drives, or backplanes which lock
> the entire disk in place?
>
>
> Thanks for reading, and thanks in advance for answers (if any) :-).
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-raid" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
>

I've experienced consumer-class drive failures with Seagate, Western
Digital, and Maxtor. WD is the only one I've had catastrophically fail on
me -- the rest developed bad sectors slowly enough to catch. I have yet to
have a Hitachi drive fail. WD got a bad name with me when they sold drives
under the same model number while changing to different drives (assembled
in Thailand) that performend considerably slower than the originals (from
Malaysia).

Warranty experiences with Western Digital, Maxtor, and Seagate have been
pleasant and quick (although WD and Maxtor sent me refurbished disks).
I've never been refused a drive replacement. Maxtor required me to
generate a code with their proprietary tool before the website would even
talk about a replacement; a way around this was to select "Drive doesn't
spin up" as the symptom :-P

Consumer-level drives are made primarily with volume and profit margin in
mind. If reliability is a chief concern, most server-class drives are
designed with longer service life and higher reliability in mind. If price
is paramount, as you said, go for the most inexpensive disk with the
longest warranty.

Re: ATA cables and drives

[Rob Bray]

> I'm looking for new harddrives.
>
> This is my experience so far.
>
>
> SATA cables:
> =============
>
> I have zero good experiences with any SATA cables.
> They've all been crap so far.
>
>
> 3.5" ATA harddrives buyable where I live:
> ==========================================
>
> (All drives are 7200rpm, for some reason.)
>
> Hitachi "DeskStar"              500 GB / 16 MB /  8.5 ms / SATA or PATA
> Maxtor "DiamondMax 11"          500 GB / 16 MB /  8.5 ms / SATA or PATA
> Maxtor "MaXLine Pro"            500 GB / 16 MB /  8.5 ms / SATA or PATA
> Seagate "Barracuda 7200.10"     500 GB / 16 MB /    ?    / SATA or PATA
> Seagate "Barracuda 7200.10"     750 GB / 16 MB /    ?    / SATA or PATA
> Seagate "Barracuda 7200.9"      500 GB / 16 MB / 11   ms / SATA or PATA
> Seagate "Barracuda 7200.9"      500 GB /  8 MB / 11   ms / SATA or PATA
> Seagate "Barracuda ES"          500 GB / 16 MB /  8.5 ms / SATA
> Seagate "Barracuda ES"          750 GB / 16 MB /  8.5 ms / SATA
> Seagate "ESATA"                 500 GB / 16 MB /    ?    / SATA (external)
> Seagate "NL35.2 ST3500641NS"    500 GB / 16 MB /  8   ms / ? / SATA
> Seagate "NL35.2 ST3500841NS"    500 GB /  8 MB /  8   ms / ? / SATA
> Western Digital "SE16 WD5000KS" 500 GB / 16 MB /  8.9 ms / SATA
> Western Digital "RE2 WD5000YS"  500 GB / 16 MB /  8.7 ms / SATA
>
> I've tried Maxtor and IBM (now Hitachi) harddrives.
> Both makes have failed on me, but most of the time due to horrible
> packaging.
>
> I don't care a split-second whether one kind is marginally faster than
> the other, so all the reviews on AnandTech etc. are utterly useless to
> me.  There's an infinite number of more effective ways to get better
> performance than to buy a slightly faster harddrive.
>
> I DO care about quality, namely:
> * How often the drives has catastrophic failure,
> * How they handle heat (dissipation & acceptance - how hot before it
> fails?),
> * How big the spare area is,
> * How often they have single-sector failures,
> * How long the manufacturer warranty lasts,
> * How easy the manufacturer is to work with wrt. warranty.
>
> I haven't been able to figure the spare area size, heat properties,
> etc. for any drives.
> Thus my only criteria so far has been manufacturer warranty: How much
> bitching do I get when I tell them my drive doesn't work.
>
> My main experience is with Maxtor.
> Maxtor has been none less than superb wrt. warranty!
> Download an ISO with a diag tool, burn the CD, boot the CD, type in
> the fault code it prints on Maxtor's site, and a day or two later
> you've got a new drive in the mail and packaging to ship the old one
> back in.  If something odd happens, call them up and they're extremely
> helpful.
>
> Unfortunately, I lack thorough experience with the other brands.
>
>
> Questions:
> ===========
>
> A.) Does anyone have experience with returning Hitachi, Seagate or WD
> drives to the manufacturer?
>     Do they have manufacturer warranty at all?
>     How much/little trouble did you have with Hitachi, Seagate or WD?
>
> B.) Can anyone *prove* (to a reasonable degree) that drives from
> manufacturer H, M, S or WD is of better quality?
>     Has anyone seen a review that heat/shock/stress test drives?
>
> C.) Does good SATA cables exist?
>     Eg. cables that lock on to the drives, or backplanes which lock
> the entire disk in place?
>
>
> Thanks for reading, and thanks in advance for answers (if any) :-).
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-raid" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
>

I've experienced consumer-class drive failures with Seagate, Western
Digital, and Maxtor. WD is the only one I've had catastrophically fail on
me -- the rest developed bad sectors slowly enough to catch. I have yet to
have a Hitachi drive fail. WD got a bad name with me when they sold drives
under the same model number while changing to different drives (assembled
in Thailand) that performend considerably slower than the originals (from
Malaysia).

Warranty experiences with Western Digital, Maxtor, and Seagate have been
pleasant and quick (although WD and Maxtor sent me refurbished disks).
I've never been refused a drive replacement. Maxtor required me to
generate a code with their proprietary tool before the website would even
talk about a replacement; a way around this was to select "Drive doesn't
spin up" as the symptom :-P

Consumer-level drives are made primarily with volume and profit margin in
mind. If reliability is a chief concern, most server-class drives are
designed with longer service life and higher reliability in mind. If price
is paramount, as you said, go for the most inexpensive disk with the
longest warranty.

Re: ATA cables and drives

[Molle Bestefich]

Hi everyone;

Thanks for the information so far!
Greatly appreciated.

I've just found this:
http://home-tj.org/wiki/index.php/Sil_m15w#Message:_Re:_SiI_3112_.26_Seagate_drivers

Which in particular mentions that Silicon Image controllers and
Seagate drives don't work too well together, and neither Silicon Image
nor Seagate wants to know about or do anything about the problem.

Hmm.

Re: ATA cables and drives

[Jeff Garzik]

Molle Bestefich wrote:
> Hi everyone;
> 
> Thanks for the information so far!
> Greatly appreciated.
> 
> I've just found this:
> http://home-tj.org/wiki/index.php/Sil_m15w#Message:_Re:_SiI_3112_.26_Seagate_drivers 
> 
> 
> Which in particular mentions that Silicon Image controllers and
> Seagate drives don't work too well together, and neither Silicon Image
> nor Seagate wants to know about or do anything about the problem.

Not really true...

	Jeff

Re: ATA cables and drives

[Molle Bestefich]

Jeff Garzik wrote:
> Molle Bestefich wrote:
> > I've just found this:
> > http://home-tj.org/wiki/index.php/Sil_m15w#Message:_Re:_SiI_3112_.26_Seagate_drivers
> >
> > Which in particular mentions that Silicon Image controllers and
> > Seagate drives don't work too well together, and neither Silicon Image
> > nor Seagate wants to know about or do anything about the problem.
>
> Not really true...

It's not?
That's how I read it.

Which part of it is wrong?

Re: ATA cables and drives

[Jeff Garzik]

Molle Bestefich wrote:
> Jeff Garzik wrote:
>> Molle Bestefich wrote:
>> > I've just found this:
>> > 
>> http://home-tj.org/wiki/index.php/Sil_m15w#Message:_Re:_SiI_3112_.26_Seagate_drivers 
>>
>> >
>> > Which in particular mentions that Silicon Image controllers and
>> > Seagate drives don't work too well together, and neither Silicon Image
>> > nor Seagate wants to know about or do anything about the problem.
>>
>> Not really true...
> 
> It's not?
> That's how I read it.
> 
> Which part of it is wrong?

The last two paragraphs.

	Jeff