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Date:      Mon, 26 May 2008 00:22:08 -0700
From:      "Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm@toybox.placo.com>
To:        "Erik Trulsson" <ertr1013@student.uu.se>
Cc:        perryh@pluto.rain.com, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   RE: non-RAID SATA
Message-ID:  <BMEDLGAENEKCJFGODFOCAEKKCFAA.tedm@toybox.placo.com>
In-Reply-To: <20080526054125.GA34908@owl.midgard.homeip.net>

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> -----Original Message-----
> From: Erik Trulsson [mailto:ertr1013@student.uu.se]
> Sent: Sunday, May 25, 2008 10:41 PM
> To: Ted Mittelstaedt
> Cc: perryh@pluto.rain.com; freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
> Subject: Re: non-RAID SATA
> 
> 
> On Sun, May 25, 2008 at 08:01:42PM -0700, Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:
> > 
> > 
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
> > > [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org]On Behalf Of
> > > perryh@pluto.rain.com
> > > Sent: Sunday, May 25, 2008 6:11 PM
> > > To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
> > > Subject: non-RAID SATA
> > > 
> > > 
> > > I am looking for a cost-effective way to add a SATA drive to an
> > > existing 7.0 system whose on-board controller is PATA, and am not
> > > getting very far at all in identifying an inexpensive controller
> > > which would be expected to work well.  (I'd prefer PCI, since the
> > > USB in this box is probably 1.0 and not capable of sustaining
> > > desirable data rates.)
> > > 
> > 
> > SATA is faster than PCI.  Most people would replace the motherboard
> > or use a USB 2.0 card which has a far faster transfer speed than
> > PCI does as a transition, with the expectation that sooner or
> > later they are going to replace the system.
> 
> While it is true that the maximum theoretical transfer speed available
> from SATA (150MB/s or 300MB/s depending on SATA version) exceeds that
> of a normal PCI bus (133MB/s for a standard 32bit/33MHz bus), there
> is currently no single SATA disk available on the market that will
> swamp the PCI bus.
> USB 2.0 is however much slower than either of SATA and PCI.
> USB 2.0 has a maximum theoretical transfer speed of 480Mbit/s ( = 60MB/s)
> with a practical maximum of maybe 30-40 MB/s - less than half of 
> either PCI
> or SATA.
> 

Oops, my bad - I misread that.  Your correct about that.

As for the original posters question I also know of no SATA PCI
card that is non-RAID.

However, it is possible to pick up used Adaptec 1200A pci RAID
sata card off Ebay for about $15, all this is, is a re-branded Highpoint 
1520 card and will work with FreeBSD.  For some reason the equivalent
Highpoint cards sell for a little more on Ebay.

I personally don't understand the bias against these cards in
the Windows community but there obviously is some.  Adaptec
discontinued these cards a while back, perhaps that is why.

Ted



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