Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2006 13:55:01 -0800 From: "Gayn Winters" <gayn.winters@bristolsystems.com> To: "'Alex Zbyslaw'" <xfb52@dial.pipex.com> Cc: 'freebsd-hardware' <freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org> Subject: RE: Dell 1900 and SATA Message-ID: <001701c718b8$067a83d0$6501a8c0@workdog> In-Reply-To: <4575DFA7.50104@dial.pipex.com>
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> >Have you looked at > >http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/pedge/en/1900_specs.pdf > > > >It is NOT a good specification, but it does give some clues that may > >help. > > > >Note the PERC5 is an option board for RAID support. > > > > > Thanks, yes I've seen that. After reading it I still had no > clue what > the on-board SATA controller was, as all the disk controllers were > listed as "optional" and all are RAID's which the on-board isn't. > > Maybe it's handled by the Intel 5000P chipset (I'm an AMD person > usually, and Intel chipsets mean nothing to me). In any case, that > chipset isn't listed in the hardware compatibility list that > I could see. > > The PERC 5e is just overkill for what this server does, and > capacity is > much more important than speed, hence the desire for SATA disks. > > Thanks, > > --Alex > On board SATA is handled by the Intel 5000P chipset: http://www.intel.com/products/chipsets/5000p/product_brief.pdf ; however, Dell does not always implement all features of the chipset used. For example, as I read the obfuscating 1900 specs, it looks like Dell wants you to buy a PERC for RAID5, even though the Intel chipset supports it. You might want to try calling Dell's technical support line. They won't be very friendly with FreeBSD questions, but if you tell them you are putting a Windows, DOS, or Red Hat partition on it, you can get info on what features of the Intel chipset have been implemented in the firmware. You can also figure (some of) this out from the firmware setup. -gayn Bristol Systems Inc. 714/532-6776 www.bristolsystems.com
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