Ncq

[Shadowman9876]

Quick Question. Eventually I will be upgrading my hard drive. I have an Abit IS7 with the Intel ICH5R. In order to take advantage of the Command Queuing feature of new drives do I need to get a special card for my HD or can I just use the native SATA on my mobo?

 

[spectrum]

I believe the ICH6 is the only Intel chipset that supports NCQ so you would need a controller card.

 

[Shadowman9876]

Any recomendations for a NCQ controller card?

 

[Shadowman9876]

Anyone know any good NCQ SATA Controllers?

 

[Lazn_Work]

I think that the only ones that do it are the high end ones like 3ware and one cheap Silicon Image chip.. This one: http://www.siimage.com/press/09_16_03_3.asp

google might be of more help.

==>Lazn

 

[Shadowman9876]

OK, this looks like it has what I need, but can you buy it yet, i cant seem to find it anywhere

 

[Lazn_Work]

looks like I was wrong, the Promise TX4200 supports it: http://www.storagereview.com/articles/200406/20040625TCQ_1.html

But again, I can't find anyone selling it.

==>Lazn

 

[Shadowman9876]

Its a little bit vague, but I think that this one might support it, but im not sure. http://www.pacificdigital.com/products.asp?gpcid=7&cid=41&scid=135&ItemID=772

 

[Dark Ember]

I don't think that promise one is out yet.

I think the only ones you can buy at the moment are the Silicon Image 3124 and ICH6. The new Highpoint might be out as well (1830 I believe) which also supports it.

We've been using the 3124 and ICH6 for testing at work, and we just got a shipment of the Highpoint controllers in as well, so, should be finding out more about those next week.

 

[defakto]

I've heard rumors floating around, which i can't verify obviously, that some controllers may need as little as a BIOS update to support NCQ, but milage may vary if that's true.