[gentoo-user] Port Multiplier Support

[gentoo-user] Port Multiplier Support

[Jon Hardcastle]

I am looking at ways to increase the drive capacity of my machine. It has 4 in built sata ports, and currently 2 off the PCI port - which is only sata 150 - this has proved a troublesome route. I have the option of a 2 port sata-300 off the 1 pci-express I have but I was looking to increase slightly more than that. to a total of 8.

I have come across Sata Port Multiplying before and saw the support was abit weak. I have come back to it again.

i am lookin at this bad boy.

[Lycom ST-158 SATA II-3Gbps 1-To-5Ports H/W RAID Host Adapter]
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Lycom-ST-158-SATA-II-3Gbps-1-To-5Ports-H-W-RAID-Host-Adapter

Can anyone advise if they have any experience in this area? Or indicate some level of success failure? (it is £50 so i dont want to buy it unless there is a reasonable chance of success!

thank you in advance!

-----------------------
N: Jon Hardcastle
E: Jon@eHardcastle.com
'Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own.'
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Re: [gentoo-user] Port Multiplier Support

[Mike Kazantsev]

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On Tue, 25 Aug 2009 02:15:54 -0700 (PDT)
Jon Hardcastle <jd_hardcastle@yahoo.com> wrote:

> I am looking at ways to increase the drive capacity of my machine. It has 4 in built sata ports, and currently 2 off the PCI port - which is only sata 150 - this has proved a troublesome route. I have the option of a 2 port sata-300 off the 1 pci-express I have but I was looking to increase slightly more than that. to a total of 8.
> 
> I have come across Sata Port Multiplying before and saw the support was abit weak. I have come back to it again.
> 
> i am lookin at this bad boy.
> 
> [Lycom ST-158 SATA II-3Gbps 1-To-5Ports H/W RAID Host Adapter]
> http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Lycom-ST-158-SATA-II-3Gbps-1-To-5Ports-H-W-RAID-Host-Adapter
> 
> Can anyone advise if they have any experience in this area? Or indicate some level of success failure? (it is £50 so i dont want to buy it unless there is a reasonable chance of success!

I believe this card should present all the disks connected to it as a
single device (disk) to the controller it's 1-sata plugged in to, so
there should be no problems with support as the whole thing is
transparent to software.

Alas, I've only heard of such devices, but never used one and I have no
clue about the performance.

-- 
Mike Kazantsev // fraggod.net

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Re: [gentoo-user] Port Multiplier Support

[Anthony Mutiso]

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Wikipedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_multiplier> says that after
3 disks you start to saturate the controller.

Mike Kazantsev wrote:
> On Tue, 25 Aug 2009 02:15:54 -0700 (PDT)
> Jon Hardcastle <jd_hardcastle@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>   
>> I am looking at ways to increase the drive capacity of my machine. It has 4 in built sata ports, and currently 2 off the PCI port - which is only sata 150 - this has proved a troublesome route. I have the option of a 2 port sata-300 off the 1 pci-express I have but I was looking to increase slightly more than that. to a total of 8.
>>
>> I have come across Sata Port Multiplying before and saw the support was abit weak. I have come back to it again.
>>
>> i am lookin at this bad boy.
>>
>> [Lycom ST-158 SATA II-3Gbps 1-To-5Ports H/W RAID Host Adapter]
>> http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Lycom-ST-158-SATA-II-3Gbps-1-To-5Ports-H-W-RAID-Host-Adapter
>>
>> Can anyone advise if they have any experience in this area? Or indicate some level of success failure? (it is £50 so i dont want to buy it unless there is a reasonable chance of success!
>>     
>
> I believe this card should present all the disks connected to it as a
> single device (disk) to the controller it's 1-sata plugged in to, so
> there should be no problems with support as the whole thing is
> transparent to software.
>
> Alas, I've only heard of such devices, but never used one and I have no
> clue about the performance.
>
>   

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Re: [gentoo-user] Port Multiplier Support

[Mike Kazantsev]

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On Wed, 26 Aug 2009 09:39:04 -0600
Anthony Mutiso <anm.mlist01@limuru.com> wrote:

> Wikipedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_multiplier> says that after
> 3 disks you start to saturate the controller.

Guess I was wrong about the whole 'Port Multiplication' thing, if it
works in that mode.

Still, the original post also mentions that it's an H/W RAID
controller, so I guess the problem can be negated just by packing disks
into RAID0 or linear array, so it'll be one channel instead of three
separate ones.

Kinda curious about it's performance - H/W RAID cards seem to be more
expensive than fifty pounds and this one shouldn't have any interface
to draw power from CPU via OS drivers.

-- 
Mike Kazantsev // fraggod.net

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