Date: Mon, 15 Feb 2010 08:33:04 +0200 From: Alexander Motin <mav@FreeBSD.org> To: Dan Langille <dan@langille.org> Cc: FreeBSD Stable <freebsd-stable@freebsd.org>, Steve Polyack <korvus@comcast.net> Subject: Re: hardware for home use large storage Message-ID: <4B78EAA0.40403@FreeBSD.org> In-Reply-To: <4B78763E.5080105@langille.org> References: <1265617382.00216602.1265605802@10.7.7.3> <1265707385.00217197.1265696404@10.7.7.3> <1265728980.00217271.1265715603@10.7.7.3> <1265750583.00217397.1265739002@10.7.7.3> <1265754184.00217418.1265743204@10.7.7.3> <1265756530.00217435.1265745602@10.7.7.3> <1265790181.00217606.1265778601@10.7.7.3> <1265842691.00217889.1265831404@10.7.7.3> <4B78382E.8080905@FreeBSD.org> <4B78763E.5080105@langille.org>
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Dan Langille wrote: > Alexander Motin wrote: >> Steve Polyack wrote: >>> On 2/10/2010 12:02 AM, Dan Langille wrote: >>>> Don't use a port multiplier and this goes away. I was hoping to avoid >>>> a PM and using something like the Syba PCI Express SATA II 4 x Ports >>>> RAID Controller seems to be the best solution so far. >>>> >>>> http://www.amazon.com/Syba-Express-Ports-Controller-SY-PEX40008/dp/B002R0DZWQ/ref=sr_1_22?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1258452902&sr=1-22 >>>> >>> Dan, I can personally vouch for these cards under FreeBSD. We have 3 of >>> them in one system, with almost every port connected to a port >>> multiplier (SiI5xxx PMs). Using the siis(4) driver on 8.0-RELEASE >>> provides very good performance, and supports both NCQ and FIS-based >>> switching (an essential for decent port-multiplier performance). >>> >>> One thing to consider, however, is that the card is only single-lane >>> PCI-Express. The bandwidth available is only 2.5Gb/s (~312MB/sec, >>> slightly less than that of the SATA-2 link spec), so if you have 4 >>> high-performance drives connected, you may hit a bottleneck at the >>> bus. I'd be particularly interested if anyone can find any similar >>> Silicon Image SATA controllers with a PCI-E 4x or 8x interface ;) >> >> Here is SiI3124 based card with built-in PCIe x8 bridge: >> http://www.addonics.com/products/host_controller/adsa3gpx8-4em.asp >> >> It is not so cheap, but with 12 disks connected via 4 Port Multipliers >> it can give up to 1GB/s (4x250MB/s) of bandwidth. >> >> Cheaper PCIe x1 version mentioned above gave me up to 200MB/s, that is >> maximum of what I've seen from PCIe 1.0 x1 controllers. Looking on NCQ >> and FBS support it can be enough for many real-world applications, that >> don't need so high linear speeds, but have many concurrent I/Os. > > Is that the URL you meant to post? "4 Port eSATA PCI-E 8x Controller > for Mac Pro". I'd rather use internal connections. Not exactly what I meant, as it is a Mac version, but yes. At least such controllers exist. May be they also could be found with internal SATA. -- Alexander Motin
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