I've been searching all over trying to find a bootable SATA PCI card for an old Dimension 2400. So far two cards later I've had no luck. The card needs a BIOS of its own of some sort for booting as the Dimension 2400 can't boot off attached SCSI devices. Any suggestions? Budget is an absolute MAX of $35. I'd like something cheaper if possible.
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Reccomend Bootable SATA PCI card?
- Thread starter cheese007
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bigdogchris
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RocketRAID 1740 can be had cheap on eBay. http://www.highpoint-tech.cn/USA/rr1740.htm says it's bootable to an array (JBOD for just 1).
What OS?
What OS?
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Windows 7. This sounds like what I need but the cheapest one hits my max price, and reading the newegg reviews a few people mentioned the thing "rewrites the drive parameters for the drives used with it and they brcome unusable with anything but the 'raid' card." Which is absolutely terrifying.
bigdogchris
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If you had PCI-E, there are several to choose from. Since you need PCI, the pickings now days are going to be slim, if you can even find one with Windows 7drivers.
wkearney99
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The lack of Win7 drivers is indeed your single biggest problem. But why can't you boot from the motherboard interfaces? There ought to be two IDE interfaces. And where do you have SCSI drives connected? Remember, there are such things are IDE to SATA adapters that will let you use a new SATA drive on an old IDE interface. The performance will stink, but no worse than what that machine would have otherwise with a usual IDE drive.
At some point trying to make old hardware continue working is totally wasted time and effort. Given what whole new machines cost these days you'd be far better served just replacing it rather than grinding away trying to make it work.
meatincereal
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I boot ESXi off a Sil3512 based card which cost me around $20 or something
Yeah, the 3512 is probably a better suggestion, especially if you have no use for 4 sata ports. It is a "newer" design (but still 8+ yrs old 
).
The Rosewill RC-210 [link] is < $20, and gives an eSATA port in addition to a single internal SATA. And, excellent driver/BIOS support from the SiI site.
).The Rosewill RC-210 [link] is < $20, and gives an eSATA port in addition to a single internal SATA. And, excellent driver/BIOS support from the SiI site.
The board can't boot from add-in cards that DON'T have their own BIOS. I have a card that would work (RC-209-EX that runs a Sil3114) if it weren't for that problem.
EDIT: Something like this as it has it's own BIOS according to this. Btw sorry if I'm being dumb, I'm really new to the RAID controller thing and the lack of clarity in most product descriptions doesn't help.
EDIT: Something like this as it has it's own BIOS according to this. Btw sorry if I'm being dumb, I'm really new to the RAID controller thing and the lack of clarity in most product descriptions doesn't help.
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BecauseScience
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Most SIL3114 cards have Option ROM (or "a bios" as you've been calling it.) I have this card and I can boot from it. http://www.sybausa.com/productInfo.php?iid=509
I would guess your 3114 card probably has an option rom too. Are you sure the bios on your motherboard is configured to load option roms? Some bios have a setting to enable/disable option rom loading.
EDIT:
According to the product page for your 3114 card it has an option rom:
"You can select booting from HDD connecting to motherboard or RC-209-EX"
http://www.rosewill.com/products/985/productDetail.htm
kindasmart
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Tag. Good info. Thanks.