Looking for 8 port SATA card

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mrmagoo_83

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Aug 8, 2002
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I had a link once to an 8 port SATA PCI card on NewEgg for around $100, but cannot find my bookmark, and was unable to locate the item searching NewEgg.

Does anyone know of such a card that exists anymore? I'm trying to add some drives to an older motherboard that is functioning as my server till I can save up for some new hardware.
 
Your probably looking for the SuperMicro AOC-SAT2-MV8. Try that in Google - or PM me - I have one I could sell you.
 
Its PCIX though, I do not have a PCIX slot on this older board, at least I do not think I do.
 
You can put a PCIX in a PCI slot in most cases provided there space after the slot for the rest of card to fit. It will however be crippled in performance. However any PCI SATA card that supports more than 1 drive will also be crippled in performance or at least you can not get full performance from the drives if more than 1 is active on the card at a time..
 
Hmm, was unaware of that, thanks for the info. This is a simple file server for media streaming on my network. We were looking at later swapping out the system for a AMD x6 setup, but being broke, we settle for the guts out of an old machine until we can get the funds.
 
I would try to track down compatibility first. I believe that card has been discussed a few times on this list..
 
I would definitely suggest either the PCI-E version or the PCI-X version if all you need are increased number of ports to ttach drives to. However, I would not recommend using the PCI-X card in a system with only PCI. Performance will be terrible. Please don't try to do software RAID of any kind with these cards though, even if you have the proper board to fully support the HBA JBOD cards. It will be terrible.
 
sabregen said:
I would definitely suggest either the PCI-E version or the PCI-X version if all you need are increased number of ports to ttach drives to. However, I would not recommend using the PCI-X card in a system with only PCI. Performance will be terrible. Please don't try to do software RAID of any kind with these cards though, even if you have the proper board to fully support the HBA JBOD cards. It will be terrible.
Click to expand...

Don't know why you say that. The performance of a PCI-X card using only the PCI slot is exactly equal to - no less "crippled" than - a PCI only card in that same slot. Crippled compared to what it could do if you plugged it into a PCI-X slot - definitely. But crippled compared to another card plugged into that same PCI slot - no way! The limiting factor is the slot itself...

There were precious few PCI-based 8-port SATA-II cards ever on the market (precisely because PCI can't manage the bandwidth of 8 SATA-II drivs). Most of what you will find are 2 or 4 port PCI cards or 6 port PCI-X cards (SM, Adaptec, Highpoint, etc).

I speak from first-hand experience: the SuperMicro PCI-X AOC-SAT2-MV8 referenced above works in PCI slots and runs at the full bandwidth that PCI can deliver. Fully ack that PCI can't deliver much...but another card in that same slot won't run any faster.

It is compatible with all version of Windows (XP, Vista, 7, Server 2003, Server 2008, WHS), Most Linux & Solaris (unlike its newer PCIe brother - AOC-SASLP-MV8 - which has trouble with Solaris and some Linux drivers...). It will not work with FreeBSD-based NAS solutions (freeNAS, ZFSguru, etc).

And if you're on a tight budget - PM me. I have one for you. It will cost less than your stated budget.
 
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PigLover said:
Don't know why you say that. The performance of a PCI-X card using only the PCI slot is exactly equal to - no less "crippled" than - a PCI only card in that same slot. Crippled compared to what it could do if you plugged it into a PCI-X slot - definitely. But crippled compared to another card plugged into that same PCI slot - no way! The limiting factor is the slot itself...

There were precious few PCI-based 6-port SATA-II cards ever on the market (precisely because PCI can't manage the bandwidth of 6 SATA-II drivs). Most of what you will find are 2 or 4 port PCI cards or 6 port PCI-X cards (SM, Adaptec, Highpoint, etc).

I speak from first-hand experience: the SuperMicro PCI-X AOC-SAT2-MV8 referenced above works in PCI slots and runs at the full bandwidth that PCI can deliver. Fully ack that PCI can't deliver much...but another card in that same slot won't run any faster.
Click to expand...

It was meant to be implied that although it would work, the HBA will be crippled due to it not having access to the full amount of bandwidth that it would normally have, were it installed into a full length PCI-X slot. I did not mean to imply anything else.
 
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