From owner-freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Nov 9 19:51:11 2010 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 68030106564A for ; Tue, 9 Nov 2010 19:51:11 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from dieterbsd@engineer.com) Received: from imr-mb02.mx.aol.com (imr-mb02.mx.aol.com [64.12.207.163]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 74A468FC15 for ; Tue, 9 Nov 2010 19:50:59 +0000 (UTC) Received: from imo-ma03.mx.aol.com (imo-ma03.mx.aol.com [64.12.78.138]) by imr-mb02.mx.aol.com (8.14.1/8.14.1) with ESMTP id oA9JWe2B000816 for ; Tue, 9 Nov 2010 14:32:40 -0500 Received: from dieterbsd@engineer.com by imo-ma03.mx.aol.com (mail_out_v42.9.) id n.c3f.74538186 (34968) for ; Tue, 9 Nov 2010 14:32:34 -0500 (EST) Received: from smtprly-da01.mx.aol.com (smtprly-da01.mx.aol.com [205.188.249.144]) by cia-da07.mx.aol.com (v129.5) with ESMTP id MAILCIADA075-5bae4cd9a1c813a; Tue, 09 Nov 2010 14:32:34 -0500 Received: from web-mmc-d02 (web-mmc-d02.sim.aol.com [205.188.103.68]) by smtprly-da01.mx.aol.com (v129.4) with ESMTP id MAILSMTPRLYDA015-5bae4cd9a1c813a; Tue, 09 Nov 2010 14:32:24 -0500 To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Date: Tue, 09 Nov 2010 14:32:24 -0500 X-MB-Message-Source: WebUI X-AOL-IP: 67.206.164.64 X-MB-Message-Type: User MIME-Version: 1.0 From: dieterbsd@engineer.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed X-Mailer: Mail.com Webmail 32843-STANDARD Received: from 67.206.164.64 by web-mmc-d02.sysops.aol.com (205.188.103.68) with HTTP (WebMailUI); Tue, 09 Nov 2010 14:32:24 -0500 Message-Id: <8CD4E5BF8456212-978-828@web-mmc-d02.sysops.aol.com> X-Spam-Flag: NO X-AOL-SENDER: dieterbsd@engineer.com Subject: Re: 12 SATA ports via PCI-X slots 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, 09 Nov 2010 19:51:11 -0000 >> And I just noticed on the Newegg.com photos of the AOC-SAT2-MV8 that >> for disk activity there doesn't seem to be a ground pin for each=20 disk, >> just one common ground pin. Which, for me at least, sucks because all >> of the disk activity LEDs in my chassis have their own ground wire=20 and >> are terminated in duplex headers, not the split headers. > > - The optional BIOS ROMs don't play nice with other extension cards=20 you > might have on a busy system. You might want to disable them and leave > the disk initialization to FreeBSD. How does one disable the BIOS ROMs on expansion cards? Is this specific to the AOC-SAT2-MV8, or can you do this on the mainboard? Sounds like the sort of thing they would hide in the mainboard BIOS somewhere. I have a couple of JMB363 cards that I think would work better without the BIOS ROMs. Unfortunately I have never run across any sort of "turn off expansion card BIOS ROM" option. If at all possible get cards that have NCQ support in the driver (e.g. ahci(4) or siis(4)). Write performance is 10-13 times as fast with NCQ, and the system doesn't get clogged up with outstanding work.