Decent, cheap SATA controller

Joe Fleming joe at selectitaly.com
Fri Feb 6 12:15:48 MST 2009


First off, in the past I have recommended the Promise TX4 SATA
controller. I no longer recommend it; seems there's a hardware bug that
silently corrupts data in Linux. I recently found this out first hand...

This bring me to the purpose of this email; I need to replace the card.
 I simply need a vanilla SATA controller. I don't care if the card has
RAID, so long as it's cheap and I can use the card *without* the
on-board RAID configuration. I also don't care if it's a SATA or SATA-II
controller, but I need to use the PCI bus (which means it'll most likely
be SATA).

I'd run over the Fry's and pick one up, but the cheaper ones they carry
seem to have problems in Linux, so my plan is to order one from Newegg
or some other online retailer. Any advice? Even suggestions about what
brands to stick with (or keep away from) would be helpful. Most of the
reviews I see say whether or not the cards work in Linux, but I guess
I'm hoping for a little more input from some of the veterans around here.

I'm currently considering the Syba SD-SATA-4P. It uses the Sil3114
chipset which seems to be pretty well supported these days. This card
interests me because it's a 4-port card, so I only need to buy 1. Of
course, I'm open to comments and suggestions about this and other cards.
Any advice is appreciated.

-Joe


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