[mythtv-users] OT: Help selecting PCI SATA card

[griz_quattro]

Harry Orenstein wrote:
> On Monday 06 August 2007 6:36:33 pm griz_quattro wrote:
>> Harry Orenstein wrote:
>>> On Sunday 05 August 2007 1:20:05 am you wrote:
>>>> Harry O.,
>>>>
>>>> I recently acquired 3, Maxtor branded, Promise S150-TX2plus cards
>>>> for a home brew NAS. Just couldn't pass up $7.95 price. I have
>>>> found that Promise has been supporting this card since
>>>> Red Hat 7.3 with rpm and source drivers. S150-TX2plus has been
>>>> supported by libata from early on according some of the
>>>> newsgroups I googled.
>>>>
>>>> As far as chipset/performance goes I don't have any real world
>>>> experience yet since I am still building my server. The one thing you
>>>> will have to do is change the jumper from 3.0 gb/s to 1.5 gb/s if you
>>>> use an SATA 150 card.
>>>>
>>>> This isn't exactly what you asked but I thought that it may assist,
>>>>
>>>> Dennis
>>> Dennis,
>>>
>>> First, thanks for your reply.  I appreciate the feedback and
>>>
>>> I am leaning towards a S150-TX2plus card.  Performance-wise, if I went
>>> for 3.0 gbps it would not be any faster than 1.5 gbps since the speed
>>> is limited by the PCI bus.  I would be very interested if you could
>>> provide some actual performance numbers when you get your NAS up and
>>> running.  I haven't seen a price as low as $7.95.  Where did you get
>>> a price that low?
>>>
>>> On another note: you really shouldn't respond off-list.  I realize my
>>> post was OT, but I still think others could benefit from the
>>> discussion.
>>>
>>> Once again, thanks.  Please keep me posted on your progress.
>>>
>>> -- Harry O.
>> Harry,
>>
>> I ran into a snag building last night with the system I am building
>> continually reboots at random intervals. Performance numbers will have
>> to wait till I figure out this Supermicro 370DLI.
>> Any experience with a motherboard doing this? I am really stumped.
>>
>> I found my $7.95 S150-TX2plus cards at a mom and pop discount/surplus
>> electronics store in Carrolton or Farmers Branch, Texas. They've had a
>> whole bin of them (30-40) for months when I gave them a try. The place
>> is called Tanner Electronics. If I was able to afford large capacity
>> SCSI cards I would have bought an HP PERC card for about $10.00.
>> Web site is http://tannerelectronics.com/
>>
>> Dennis
>>

Harry and all,

	Stay away from the Promise (Maxtor) S150-TX2plus due
to lack of support (that I have found) for BOTH the PATA
_and_ SATA ports on this card. This is on the PDC20375
(SATA150 TX2plus)(rev 02), NON-RAID card. Promise had drivers
through RedHat 9.0 then Libata took over and didn't include
the PATA code. I reverted back to RedHat 7.3 since I had it
handy, works like a charm. Tried Centos 3.9 and SATA worked
great but no dice on PATA.
	From my searches, most say go with 3ware. They support
Linux better than most manufacturers out there.
	I haven't checked performance yet. Will have more
reading to do to find out how to optimize my aging setup.

Dennis