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eSATA Controller... PCI, PCI-E, IDE?
- Thread starter ppucci
- Start date
Well, it depends on your application.
Conventional PCI runs at 33MHz and is a 32-bit bus, so you get a maximum theoretical transfer rate of 132MB/s. Also, keep in mind that PCI is a shared bus topology, which means this bandwidth may be shared among multiple devices depending on your motherboard and how things are connected. Also, the bus is not full-duplex, so it is only possible to do either a read or a write over the bus in one direction at a time.
PCI-E is a serial bus that runs at 2.5gb/s per lane per direction (or twice that rate if it's PCI-E 2.0 compliant), which means you can transfer a theoretical maximum of 250MB/s in both directions on the bus (per lane -- a x8 connection can transfer 2GB/s in each direction for example). Also, PCI-E is a point-to-point topology so that entire bandwidth is dedicated to that single device. Also, the protocol is more efficient since it allows disconnects and multiple outstanding requests for each device.
IDE... well, you may be a little confused on that. IDE is an interface that is used to connect disk drives to controllers, not controllers to host systems.
Which of the PCI interfaces is suitable for you depends on how much bandwidth you expect your drives to be using, what types of slots your system has, and what kind of controller you want to get.
Conventional PCI runs at 33MHz and is a 32-bit bus, so you get a maximum theoretical transfer rate of 132MB/s. Also, keep in mind that PCI is a shared bus topology, which means this bandwidth may be shared among multiple devices depending on your motherboard and how things are connected. Also, the bus is not full-duplex, so it is only possible to do either a read or a write over the bus in one direction at a time.
PCI-E is a serial bus that runs at 2.5gb/s per lane per direction (or twice that rate if it's PCI-E 2.0 compliant), which means you can transfer a theoretical maximum of 250MB/s in both directions on the bus (per lane -- a x8 connection can transfer 2GB/s in each direction for example). Also, PCI-E is a point-to-point topology so that entire bandwidth is dedicated to that single device. Also, the protocol is more efficient since it allows disconnects and multiple outstanding requests for each device.
IDE... well, you may be a little confused on that. IDE is an interface that is used to connect disk drives to controllers, not controllers to host systems.
Which of the PCI interfaces is suitable for you depends on how much bandwidth you expect your drives to be using, what types of slots your system has, and what kind of controller you want to get.
unhappy_mage
[H]ard|DCer of the Month - October 2005
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In the general case, PCI express is a better choice. But what's most effective for the dollar depends on how much performance you need; PCI will almost certainly be cheaper.
I got myself a PCIe x1 eSATA card. After a few tests, I removed it: The JMicron JMB360 controller on that card is slower than using a PCIe x1 to ExpressCard adapter and an Express/34 eSATA adapter using the SiI3132 controller. It's definitely more expensive, but more versatile...
Edit: The PCIe x1 JMicron eSATA card was definitely cheap: 14.90 Euro. If you want eSATA cheap, then go for it! It's still faster than 1394b.
Edit: The PCIe x1 JMicron eSATA card was definitely cheap: 14.90 Euro. If you want eSATA cheap, then go for it! It's still faster than 1394b.