From owner-freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Oct 26 22:22:23 2008 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 C2DDA106566C; Sun, 26 Oct 2008 22:22:23 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from louie@transsys.com) Received: from ringworld.transsys.com (ringworld.transsys.com [144.202.0.15]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 975F98FC17; Sun, 26 Oct 2008 22:22:23 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from louie@transsys.com) Received: from PM-G5.transsys.com (c-69-141-158-166.hsd1.nj.comcast.net [69.141.158.166]) (using TLSv1 with cipher AES128-SHA (128/128 bits)) (No client certificate requested) (Authenticated sender: louie) by ringworld.transsys.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5A5775C55; Sun, 26 Oct 2008 17:58:08 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <53B2E924-A690-4DAE-B937-076B1DA89F8E@transsys.com> From: Louis Mamakos To: Jeremy Chadwick In-Reply-To: <20081026204935.GA2429@icarus.home.lan> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v929.2) Date: Sun, 26 Oct 2008 17:58:07 -0400 References: <20081026125017.GA88016@icarus.home.lan> <20081026204935.GA2429@icarus.home.lan> X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.929.2) Cc: Charles Sprickman , freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Subject: Re: PCI-X SATA Card + Server Recommendation 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: Sun, 26 Oct 2008 22:22:23 -0000 On Oct 26, 2008, at 4:49 PM, Jeremy Chadwick wrote: > On Sun, Oct 26, 2008 at 03:30:11PM -0400, Charles Sprickman wrote: >> On Sun, 26 Oct 2008, Jeremy Chadwick wrote: >> >> Ouch. I was thinking more along the lines of a dead-simple SATA >> card in >> the under $50 range. I'm not up at all on PCI-X stuff, but I >> assume I >> can go with a normal PCI card, right? Or 64-bit PCI (or is that >> PCI-X)? >> What kind of performance hit would I have going from a PCI-X card to >> something else, and if I remove the PCI-X restriction, is there >> another >> recommended card? > > Any PCI 2.x or 3.x revision card should work fine in a PCI-X slot. Of > course, the card will only run at 33MHz 32-bit (vs. 133MHz 64-bit, > which is > what native PCI-X is), but it'll still work. Most PCI cards are 32- > bit > 33MHz, but a 64-bit 33MHz PCI card should also work. > > The only PCI 1.x cards will probably fry your motherboard; they use > a 5V > bus, not a 3.3V bus. :-) This has been a concern of mine. I just bought a Dell Poweredge 2650 off of eBay, and was going to outfit it with a USB2/Firewire PCI card so I can attach some cheap bulk storage to it for backup purposes. The Dell has PCI-X slots; backwards compatible with PCI, right? Try to find a USB PCI board that doesn't require a 5V capable PCI slot.. I haven't been able to; of course it's pretty obvious in that the USB host is supposed to supply 5V power to the peripherals.. D'oh! Oh well. You'll have to try extra hard to fry your machine with the wrong flavor card as the PC card connectors are keyed differently, and unless you try Really Hard or try to plug it in backwards, it just won't fit. louie