From owner-freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Jan 6 20:10:34 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1EE0E106566C for ; Tue, 6 Jan 2009 20:10:34 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from vss@73rus.com) Received: from tail.lionet.info (tail.lionet.info [216.218.215.226]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E32CC8FC12 for ; Tue, 6 Jan 2009 20:10:33 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from vss@73rus.com) Received: from [10.72.109.162] (nat-dip4.fw.corp.yahoo.com [209.131.62.113]) (authenticated bits=0) by tail.lionet.info (8.13.8/8.13.6) with ESMTP id n06KAWkr084089 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NOT); Tue, 6 Jan 2009 12:10:33 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from vss@73rus.com) Message-ID: <4963BAB8.2040808@73rus.com> Date: Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:10:32 -0800 From: Vlad Skvortsov User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.18 (Macintosh/20081105) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Mark Kirkwood References: <495D6317.4050603@73rus.com> <49602D06.8040501@paradise.net.nz> In-Reply-To: <49602D06.8040501@paradise.net.nz> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Greylist: Sender succeeded SMTP AUTH authentication, not delayed by milter-greylist-2.0.2 (tail.lionet.info [216.218.215.226]); Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:10:33 -0800 (PST) Cc: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Promise SATA300 TX4302 feedback? X-BeenThere: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: General discussion of FreeBSD hardware List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:10:34 -0000 Mark Kirkwood wrote: > Vlad Skvortsov wrote: >> Hi, >> >> I'm looking to buy a Promise SATA300 TX4302 (PCI->[e]SATA) card to >> use for external backups on a FreeBSD 6-STABLE system. Can anyone >> share their experiences with this one? >> >> Also, the box is a pretty old hardware; pardon my ignorance, what >> should I check to see if the PCI bus will accomomdate the card? The >> card description[1] mentions: >> >> # PCI 33/66MHz bus supports up to 266MB/sec burst data transfer rate >> (PCI 66MHz) >> # PCI 2.3 compliant >> >> Thanks! >> >> [1]: >> http://www.promise.com/product/product_detail_eng.asp?segment=Non-RAID%20HBAs&product_id=168 >> >> > Your motherboard needs to be PCI 2.2 or 2.3 complaint according to the > manual (you need to tell us what the board is for us to help here). > Most should be unless they are very old (later Pentium III Coppermine > onwards should be ok). Thanks Mark -- that's exactly what I was asking for :-) Is there a way to check this without physical access to the box? dmesg doesn't seem to contain this info; pciconf is hot helpful as well. > > The physical slot can be either a 32 or 64 bit one (if the latter the > card only occupies the 1st half of it) - i.e any PCI slot. > > Having said that, Promise support in Freebsd is a little variable - I > have not tried the later cards, but had no joy with a TX4000 in a > Supermicro P3TDER, whereas a 3Ware 7506 worked no trouble at all. I > would recommend getting a 3Ware SATA card (also they typically are a > better card than the corresponding Promise). Hmm, that's too pricey for me ($250+ range); I was looking for something < $100 and without RAID. It seems that people have no experience with this particular card though, so I'll start another thread to find out what other options exist. -- Vlad Skvortsov, vss@73rus.com, http://vss.73rus.com