PCI vs PCI-X SATAII controller

[roberttran]

Hey,
I would like to install SATA into my current computer which only has ATA100 and ATA133.
I have 2 PCI-X slots and 1 PCI slot free. I've found some PCI and PCI-X SATAII controllers but the PCI-X controllers are more expensive. Would there be any difference in performance? I would think the PCI-X would be faster, but not sure by how much.

Thanks,
Robert

[dekard]

pci-x is significantly faster and the options for controllers are much better for it than normal pci. It does depend on how extensive of an array you are planning. If its just a small thing then pci is ok, but anything interesting should be on pci-x.

If you just want to add sata capabilities to your existing system then just pop in a pci sata card, again, unless you are in need of best in class performance.

[defakto]

If you're running one or two drives, maybe three, pci should be enough under heavy drive load. If you plan on running more drives than that, pci will be a very large hinderance under load. You will want pci-x if you're going beyond 4 or more pci-x will make a huge difference in available bandwidth to the card.

[roberttran]

Great! thanks for the info. I just want to replace all my ATA drives with SATA at the moment. The only drive intensive thing I can forsee doing is video editing and running VMware.

-Robert

[roberttran]

can someone recommend a SATAII controller? I want it to have at least 4 internal ports. I was looking at the Promise cards around $60 and I also found some cards by Silicon Image that costs $20.

[oplin]

Areca 1210 or 1220 i think is the model number. Really nice cards, should be around 200-350 for the 4 port card.

[unhappy_mage]

If you're running Windows and don't need RAID functionality, the Supermicro card I've got (http://supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/AoC-SAT2-MV8.cfm) has the advantage of higher pci-x transfer rates. In windows it works as fast as the disks attached to it. I've pushed 180 MB/s, and that was with just 3 disks.

Would there really be a performance difference? Nah, not really. The $20 silimage card will probably do just fine, and if not... well, at least it was only $20 :p