From owner-freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Jul 22 01:34:54 2014 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [8.8.178.115]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ADH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id ACC5886F for ; Tue, 22 Jul 2014 01:34:54 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail-ig0-x234.google.com (mail-ig0-x234.google.com [IPv6:2607:f8b0:4001:c05::234]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-RC4-SHA (128/128 bits)) (Client CN "smtp.gmail.com", Issuer "Google Internet Authority G2" (verified OK)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 8095C29DD for ; Tue, 22 Jul 2014 01:34:54 +0000 (UTC) Received: by mail-ig0-f180.google.com with SMTP id l13so3480080iga.13 for ; Mon, 21 Jul 2014 18:34:53 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20120113; h=mime-version:date:message-id:subject:from:to:content-type; bh=rpSIHBkCpKf4A691ndvBxkEEnawC8LgBdUCNc4t6+ow=; b=jPWH9k+z8jOaKJSQ/ifCiAEa/IBCSmqK0zp7D92KhNyWGcUGESWSG6++LrXKljmZ0Y uemIo3ys5uwzgrBErc6q+mbhr6NKRRu87dTcR97yb0xuThZwWIwhyHQbvVlneUwHlwwb Zdlt0CRVTTVEDhyKHTuLzSVjoV8ttzcj3mDatVll01LyxIUWzgC3ScHWz15aRKdUv8C3 W1cYcCg7UEf/HpS/cE4d9k6o3BVPBdQU6GS1foUf56yGvdKD4Vw2lPruyHjdfQx8ot+Q 0CYj68pfFZSPGahYiTpJ8vyeFmtst7Fq79dJlN0uu+p3Wv0JHheglUzGpX6PPAUmMH9z yT8g== MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Received: by 10.42.178.133 with SMTP id bm5mr17539808icb.75.1405992893740; Mon, 21 Jul 2014 18:34:53 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.64.239.212 with HTTP; Mon, 21 Jul 2014 18:34:53 -0700 (PDT) Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 18:34:53 -0700 Message-ID: Subject: Re: Inexpensive PCI SATA, anyone? From: Dieter BSD To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 X-BeenThere: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.18 Precedence: list List-Id: General discussion of FreeBSD hardware List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2014 01:34:54 -0000 > I'm quite content with all other parts of the box, but controller is > VERY slow. > > Can anyone recommend me inexpensive and reasonably fast PCI SATA with > 2-4 ports? > According to dmidecode, the box has PCI-E slot, x4 PCI Express, long. Note that "PCI" and "PCI Express" are different. JMicron JMB363 chipset: NCQ SATA-300 PATA-133 hotplug port multiplier 2 SATA ports + 1 PATA channel works on FreeBSD, ahci(4) driver, NCQ works, port multiplier works, PATA works needs PCIe-x1 slot Silicon Image 3132 chipset: NCQ SATA-300 hotplug port multiplier 2 SATA ports works on FreeBSD, siis(4) driver, NCQ works, port multiplier works needs PCIe-x1 slot Some cards with a single 363 or 3132 chip claim "4 ports", but mean 2 ports with 4 connectors (2 internal and 2 external). You set jumpers to select which connectors are active. Silicon Image 3124 chipset: 4 ports (4 real ports) There are at least two types of cards with 3124: (1) needs PCI-X slot (wide PCI slot, not to be confused with PCI-Express) or (2) needs PCIe-x1 slot (PCI-Express) A PCIe-x1 card should work fine in a PCI-x4 slot. 363 is a tad faster than 3132. However 363 has problems with some disks that 3132 works fine with. 3124 is said to be faster than 3132. None of these are blindingly fast by 2014 standards. Neither 363 nor 3132 can saturate PCIe-x1 bandwidth. I would hope that 3124 can? There is also a EX-3508 card. 8 ports, PCIe-x1, no raid, sil3132 8 ports would need either 4 3232 chips or a port multiplier. Photo at www.exsys.ch but I can't make out the chip numbers and I don't see 4 chips that are the same size. Sellers appear to all be in Europe, I didn't find any sellers in USA. (I wasn't looking for sellers in Russia.) Anyone know anything about this card? (or similar cards?) The 3132 and 3124 are second generation chips. Note that the first generation Silicon Image chips are very very slow, and as far as I know, FreeBSD still doesn't support them properly. (They work fine on NetBSD. Very slow, but at least they work correctly there.)