[mythtv-users] Question re: available SATA ports and linux software RAID

[Bobby Gill]

>
> That's a Marvell 7042 based board.
> I wrote the in-kernel sata_mv.c libata driver for that chip (and its
> relatives),
> and it is currently one of the more feature-full SATA controllers in Linux.
>
> No power management, but it has everything else including ATAPI and
> port-multipler
> support with FIS-based switching.
>
> For proper operation, it really wants 2.5.35.3 or newer.
> Support for SSD "TRIM" got added in 2.6.35.3.
>
> The 2.6.34, 2.5.33, and 2.6.32 kernels should also work fine,
> but without "TRIM" support.
>
> Cheers
>

Damn, wrote the driver! Respect :) I am using 2.6.37 on my distro, and I'm
always updating, no LTS, so should be good. Thanks!



SATA-2 drive can hit 300MB/s (though I'm not sure it sustains that - I
> think that'll just be reading from cache). Anyway, that means 2 drives
> can more than saturate the x1 card.  Of course, with 3 cards and 4
> drives, you're only hitting that on 1 of them.
>
> The PCIe x4 slot correspondingly provides 2GB/s of bandwidth, and the 4
> drives will max at 1.2GB/s, so there's bandwidth to spare there (though
> I would've thought they'd go for 6 ports instead of just 4).
>
> If you're only wanting the 4 drives, then I'd go with the RC-218.
>

Thanks, that makes a good case for the RC-218, which will give 12 ports
total vs. 14 for 3xRC-211.



> Right. You will not require any RAID from the card as you will be using
> > JBOD.
>
> You have to be careful with some RAID cards ; even if you add disks as
> JBOD, they become unusable with anything other than the RAID card it's
> been first used with.
>
> Learnt the hard way with that crap RocketRaid card
>

Whoa, this is a bit scary. Is that only with the RR cards or does it also
apply to these Rosewill cards we're talking about too? (RC-218/211)


Thanks
Bobby
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