Re: [gentoo-user] Any recommendations for PCI-X SATA cards?

[Michael Mol <mikemol@gmail.com>]

On Sat, Jun 23, 2012 at 6:20 PM,  <felix@crowfix.com> wrote:
> On Sat, Jun 23, 2012 at 06:05:30PM -0400, Michael Mol wrote:
>> I have a couple "MV88SX6081 8-port SATA II PCI-X Controller" devices I
>> picked up from Newegg a couple years back. They work beautifully.
>>
>> They were marked as RAID cards, but it's software raid, and I only
>> wanted them as AHCI SATA controllers anyhow. As it happens, they work
>> in PCI slots as well as PCI-X slots.
>
> Hmmm ... that's one I bookmarked, but I am curious how they claim 8
> port when it only has three connectors?  Newegg's pictures aren't
> clear enough for me to figure that out.  Is it two on the back and
> three doublt-ports on the front?  How well do they work?  I suppose
> must be good enough to recommend it :-)  Do you actually have 8 drives
> connected to one?

There are 8 ports, but I'm only currently using three. Here's a pic:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28208534@N07/7428312264/

(The big passive heat sink is on the NVidia GeForce 210 in the system.
Neither component has had heat issues in this configuration)

There are three modules on one side of the PCB. Each module has two
SATA ports. There are two modules on the flip side that each have only
one SATA port. So, that's 3x2+2, or 8.

The reason I'm only using 3? This system doesn't have PCI-X, only PCIe
and PCI. So I want as much as reasonable plugged into the mainboard's
SATA ports.

-- 
:wq