Sata Port Multiplier

Hi there,

I am looking for a SATA port multiplier controller with two internal and two external ports and have zero interest in RAID.

All I need is internal and external SATA ports, as I have my eye on a Thermaltake BlacX Duet. Although I always try to buy the biggest and the baddest, in this situation I am only looking for more SATA ports without degradation of seek/access speed in my HDs.

Sorry for such an infantile question. I am hoping, perhaps in vain, that someone can suggest a bottom-line look-at-these-products conclusion.
As many of you know, such SATA multipliers can vary considerably in price. What I need is reliability. I don't need system crashes or hard drive conflicts, both of which are common in these cards, though I believe with those who are using them for a RAID configuration. I will not.


Much appreciated,
xavis

 

I have no idea but I have forwarded your post to one member who I am reasonably sure can help you. Watch this space later.

 

Any decent MOBO will have at least 1 (more commonly 2) External SATA ports on the back

You can then use any internal PCI or PCI-X (board dependent) add in card

They are all pretty much of a much ness and even the cheap ones from the likes of Ebay I have used with no issues, just make sure that they support the SATA speed that you require and more importantly come with drivers. and supports JBOD (as opposed to RAID)

You can get to stupid money on these too, I had an 8 port Supermicro one which I sourced from Ebay for £8 (retail was £180) because he didnt have the drivers... I 'sourced' the drivers in 10 minutes

 

Thank you very much for your replies.

I have the D945GCLF2 mobo from Intel, so no eSATA there - and only one conventional PCI slot for use as expansion, in which i currently have the Promise SATA300 TX4302 controller, but I'm unsure whether or not it features port multiplier functionality. Anyone?

 

A lot of information here from Google search.

http://www.google.com.au/search?client=opera&rls=en&q=D945GCLF2+intel+port+multiplier&sourceid=opera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&channel=suggest

 

What exactly are you trying to achive?

The fact that you are after more SATA ports indicated that you want to connect more drives/opticals to your board.

Give us more info and then I can tell you which is the best way forward.

 

I would like to connect the Thermaltake BlacX Duet to my server via eSata, but I am unsure whether my current controller (Promise SATA300 TX4302) supports port multiplying.
If it does not, I would like to know if there are any controllers out there with two internal and two external ports that does support port multiplying.

So you see, I do want to connect more drives to my board - I am just not sure, whether I already have the equipment to do so or not.

So, questions - in prioritized order:

1. Does Promise SATA300 TX4302 support port multiplying?
2. If not, which cards out there do?

 

You also have the 2x SATA connectors on the MOBO - again it doesnt state anywhere in the manual if they support port multiplier or not

Port multiplier is a very old technology and doesnt even work on all chipsets (you would have to find additional details from Intel if your board is even capable to support port multiplier)

 

I know it is not stated on the manufacturer's website - that's why I'm asking you guys

I wasn't aware that it was a "very old technology" and that not even all mobos support it. Then I just wonder why Thermaltake launches products only compatible with port multiplier controllers.

I may be able to sacrifice some speed if it could be possible to do it this way.

 

The Information required is too specific and would require you to contact Intel (for the chipset compatibility) and Promise (for the full spec of the SATA card)

In my personal opinion the Thermaltake kit is more designed to be used with USB

You wont be sacrificing some speed, you will sacrifice lots of it.

For each additional SATA drive using port multiplier you have to divide the total bandwidth between the total drives...

 

It could seem that you're right about the Thermaltake kit being designed to be used with USB - I just think it's too slow.

I have contacted Intel and Promise, so now I am just waiting for their response.

Thank you very much for your help so far

 

No problem,

Let us know how you get on/ responses.

 

Hi again,

I have now recieved responses from both Intel and Promise, and here's the deal:

- Intel's D945GCLF2 DOES support port multiplying, but only on a hardware level (I'm not quite sure what this means; if maybe there could be some 3rd-party programs out there?)
- However, none of Promise's expansion cards support port multiplying, so if I would want to pursue the matter, I would have to purchase a new expansion card - which isn't the biggest issue in the world. Provided that I could make it work with the MOBO.

Cheers

 

Any thoughts?

 

RAID is supported on 2 levels:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID

Scroll down to Implementations for the difference.