Promise SATA300 TX4302 feedback?

[Vlad Skvortsov]

Hi,

I'm looking to buy a Promise SATA300 TX4302 (PCI->[e]SATA) card to use
for external backups on a FreeBSD 6-STABLE system. Can anyone share
their experiences with this one?

Also, the box is a pretty old hardware; pardon my ignorance, what should
I check to see if the PCI bus will accomomdate the card? The card
description[1] mentions:

# PCI 33/66MHz bus supports up to 266MB/sec burst data transfer rate
(PCI 66MHz)
# PCI 2.3 compliant

Thanks!

[1]:
http://www.promise.com/product/product_detail_eng.asp?segment=Non-RAID%20HBAs&product_id=168

--
Vlad Skvortsov, vss@..., http://vss.73rus.com

_______________________________________________
freebsd-hardware@... mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-hardware
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-hardware-unsubscribe@..."

[Alex Keda]

Vlad Skvortsov пишет:
> Hi,
>
> I'm looking to buy a Promise SATA300 TX4302 (PCI->[e]SATA) card to use
> for external backups on a FreeBSD 6-STABLE system. Can anyone share
> their experiences with this one?
Use Hardware Controllers - such as 3ware....

_______________________________________________
freebsd-hardware@... mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-hardware
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-hardware-unsubscribe@..."

[Vlad Skvortsov]

Alex Keda wrote:
>>
>> I'm looking to buy a Promise SATA300 TX4302 (PCI->[e]SATA) card to
>> use for external backups on a FreeBSD 6-STABLE system. Can anyone
>> share their experiences with this one?
> Use Hardware Controllers - such as 3ware....
>

I'm not quite getting what you mean -- can you clarify please?

--
Vlad Skvortsov, vss@..., http://vss.73rus.com

_______________________________________________
freebsd-hardware@... mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-hardware
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-hardware-unsubscribe@..."

[Eirik Øverby]

On Jan 2, 2009, at 19:38, Vlad Skvortsov wrote:

> Alex Keda wrote:
>>>
>>> I'm looking to buy a Promise SATA300 TX4302 (PCI->[e]SATA) card to  
>>> use for external backups on a FreeBSD 6-STABLE system. Can anyone  
>>> share their experiences with this one?
>> Use Hardware Controllers - such as 3ware....
>>
>
> I'm not quite getting what you mean -- can you clarify please?

What he means is use controllers that do RAID in hardware, not  
software-raid cards like that Promise.

/Eirik

_______________________________________________
freebsd-hardware@... mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-hardware
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-hardware-unsubscribe@..."

[Vlad Skvortsov]

Eirik Øverby wrote:

>>>>
>>>> I'm looking to buy a Promise SATA300 TX4302 (PCI->[e]SATA) card to
>>>> use for external backups on a FreeBSD 6-STABLE system. Can anyone
>>>> share their experiences with this one?
>>> Use Hardware Controllers - such as 3ware....
>>>
>>
>> I'm not quite getting what you mean -- can you clarify please?
>
> What he means is use controllers that do RAID in hardware, not
> software-raid cards like that Promise.

I don't need RAID, I just need an eSATA jack.

--
Vlad Skvortsov, vss@..., http://vss.73rus.com

_______________________________________________
freebsd-hardware@... mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-hardware
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-hardware-unsubscribe@..."

[Michael Giegerich]

On Sat, 2009-01-03 at 15:17 -0800, Vlad Skvortsov wrote:

> Eirik Øverby wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> I'm looking to buy a Promise SATA300 TX4302 (PCI->[e]SATA) card to
> >>>> use for external backups on a FreeBSD 6-STABLE system. Can anyone
> >>>> share their experiences with this one?
> >>> Use Hardware Controllers - such as 3ware....
> >>>
> >>
> >> I'm not quite getting what you mean -- can you clarify please?
> >
> > What he means is use controllers that do RAID in hardware, not
> > software-raid cards like that Promise.
>
> I don't need RAID, I just need an eSATA jack.

Wouldn't drives connected via eSata saturate the PCI bus? OTOH for
backup purposes that might be negletable...
(I'm looking too for something to replace my SLR tapes. Hard drives
today are much less expensive, faster (?) and reliable as much (?)
as any tape).

So yes, I would be also interested to hear about experiences with
this or other eSATA controllers under 6-STABLE...

Michael



_______________________________________________
freebsd-hardware@... mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-hardware
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-hardware-unsubscribe@..."

[Mark Kirkwood]

Vlad Skvortsov wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I'm looking to buy a Promise SATA300 TX4302 (PCI->[e]SATA) card to use
> for external backups on a FreeBSD 6-STABLE system. Can anyone share
> their experiences with this one?
>
> Also, the box is a pretty old hardware; pardon my ignorance, what
> should I check to see if the PCI bus will accomomdate the card? The
> card description[1] mentions:
>
> # PCI 33/66MHz bus supports up to 266MB/sec burst data transfer rate
> (PCI 66MHz)
> # PCI 2.3 compliant
>
> Thanks!
>
> [1]:
> http://www.promise.com/product/product_detail_eng.asp?segment=Non-RAID%20HBAs&product_id=168 
>
>

Your motherboard needs to be PCI 2.2 or 2.3 complaint according to the
manual (you need to tell us what the board is for us to help here). Most
should be unless they are very old (later Pentium III Coppermine onwards
should be ok).

The physical slot can be either a 32 or 64 bit one (if the latter the
card only occupies the 1st half of it) - i.e any PCI slot.

Having said that, Promise support in Freebsd is a little variable - I
have not tried the later cards, but had no joy with a TX4000 in a
Supermicro P3TDER,  whereas a 3Ware 7506 worked no trouble at all. I
would recommend getting a 3Ware SATA card (also they typically are a
better card than the corresponding Promise).

regards

Mark
_______________________________________________
freebsd-hardware@... mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-hardware
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-hardware-unsubscribe@..."

[dieter-7]

> > >>>> I'm looking to buy a Promise SATA300 TX4302 (PCI->[e]SATA) card to
> > >>>> use for external backups on a FreeBSD 6-STABLE system. Can anyone
> > >>>> share their experiences with this one?
> > >>> Use Hardware Controllers - such as 3ware....
> > >>>
> > >>
> > >> I'm not quite getting what you mean -- can you clarify please?
> > >
> > > What he means is use controllers that do RAID in hardware, not
> > > software-raid cards like that Promise.
> >
> > I don't need RAID, I just need an eSATA jack.
>
> Wouldn't drives connected via eSata saturate the PCI bus?

Assuming the controller is fast enough:
  1 SATA drive could saturate a PCI bus for short periods.
  2 recent SATA drives could saturate a PCI bus sustained.
If the machine doesn't have a PCIe slot available, what choice do you have?
The main problem I see is if the machine is recording data coming in on
the PCI bus in real time I'd worry about losing data.

The Voltages are supposed to be a tad higher for eSATA,
the official eSATA connector is different, and eSATA cables
have more shielding.

There are brackets that convert a SATA port to an eSATA port,
if the case has a spare bracket-hole.  Which probably means
using up a slot.  :-(

Some cards with external ports use the internal SATA connector
rather than the eSATA connector.  Same for the convertor brackets.
They make cables with one of each connector if you need that.

There are cards with both internal and external ports and jumpers
to route the signals to the desired port.

For an inexpensive non-hardware-raid SATA PCI card I would look into
the Sil 3124. 4 ports, 2nd generation, supposed to be faster and better
than the 1st gen Sil controllers.  See if someone has experience with
it with FreeBSD.  I have a 1st gen 3512 that works well with NetBSD,
but some say the 1st gen Sil controllers don't work well with FreeBSD,
and they might be leery of even the 2nd gen chips.  The 3512 is too slow
to saturate the PCI bus.

For inexpensive non-hardware-raid SATA PCIe, there is the Sil 3132
with 2 ports, and the JMicron JMB363 with 2 SATA ports plus 1 PATA channel.
I have the JMB363 with FreeBSD 7.0, it can do over 100 MB/s with recent drives.

Has anyone found an inexpensive PCIe card with more than 2 SATA ports?
Alternately, does FreeBSD support port multipliers yet?  Or NCQ?
_______________________________________________
freebsd-hardware@... mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-hardware
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-hardware-unsubscribe@..."

[dieter-7]

> > Your motherboard needs to be PCI 2.2 or 2.3 complaint according to the
> > manual (you need to tell us what the board is for us to help here).
> > Most should be unless they are very old (later Pentium III Coppermine
> > onwards should be ok).
>
> Thanks Mark -- that's exactly what I was asking for :-)
>
> Is there a way to check this without physical access to the box? dmesg
> doesn't seem to contain this info; pciconf is hot helpful as well.

If you know the make and model of the mainboard you could see if the
specifications are online.  Try the manufacturer's web site, or ask
yahoo/google/...

If the card you select isn't universal Voltage, you'll need to know if
the slot is 5 Volt or 3.3 Volt.  The keying is supposed to tell you, but
some mainboards have a jumper to select the PCI Voltage, and I don't
think moving the jumper changes the keying.  :-)
_______________________________________________
freebsd-hardware@... mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-hardware
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-hardware-unsubscribe@..."

[Vlad Skvortsov]

Mark Kirkwood wrote:

> Vlad Skvortsov wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I'm looking to buy a Promise SATA300 TX4302 (PCI->[e]SATA) card to
>> use for external backups on a FreeBSD 6-STABLE system. Can anyone
>> share their experiences with this one?
>>
>> Also, the box is a pretty old hardware; pardon my ignorance, what
>> should I check to see if the PCI bus will accomomdate the card? The
>> card description[1] mentions:
>>
>> # PCI 33/66MHz bus supports up to 266MB/sec burst data transfer rate
>> (PCI 66MHz)
>> # PCI 2.3 compliant
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>> [1]:
>> http://www.promise.com/product/product_detail_eng.asp?segment=Non-RAID%20HBAs&product_id=168 
>>
>>
> Your motherboard needs to be PCI 2.2 or 2.3 complaint according to the
> manual (you need to tell us what the board is for us to help here).
> Most should be unless they are very old (later Pentium III Coppermine
> onwards should be ok).

Thanks Mark -- that's exactly what I was asking for :-)

Is there a way to check this without physical access to the box? dmesg
doesn't seem to contain this info; pciconf is hot helpful as well.

>
> The physical slot can be either a 32 or 64 bit one (if the latter the
> card only occupies the 1st half of it) - i.e any PCI slot.
>
> Having said that, Promise support in Freebsd is a little variable - I
> have not tried the later cards, but had no joy with a TX4000 in a
> Supermicro P3TDER,  whereas a 3Ware 7506 worked no trouble at all. I
> would recommend getting a 3Ware SATA card (also they typically are a
> better card than the corresponding Promise).

Hmm, that's too pricey for me ($250+ range); I was looking for something
< $100 and without RAID.

It seems that people have no experience with this particular card
though, so I'll start another thread to find out what other options exist.

--
Vlad Skvortsov, vss@..., http://vss.73rus.com

_______________________________________________
freebsd-hardware@... mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-hardware
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-hardware-unsubscribe@..."