[kwlug-disc] Linux-compatible eSATA expansion cards

[unsolicited]

Yes, it must be PCIe. PCI can never keep up - even if only one drive. As 
I recall, when I investigated. [If you have that many drives that you 
need a card, and no PCIe slots - time to replace the MB. This was one 
reason to wait for after-Sandybridge - more onboard Sata ports.]

The whole x1 / x4 thing - thanks for the reminder, I had forgotten about 
such. (Shows how often I buy cards.)

However, for Paul's case ... it need not be eSata for that use case. USB 
3.0 would do it. Bonus for a USB 3.0 / eSata 6Gbps dock or enclosure you 
take the enclosure out of. (Leaving all Sata ports for internal drives.) 
USB 2.0 may well even do it for the use case Paul described.

And nothing says you can't get more than 1 x4 card - but check your 
slots. IIRC most MBs I saw at the time had 3 x4 slots but one taken by 
video. Or using one slot halved the speed on some other - which mostly 
didn't matter as it was never expected that both such slots would be 
used at the same time. But do check the manual beforehand.


On 14-06-30 06:09 PM, Khalid Baheyeldin wrote:
> Let us backtrack a bit ...
>
> You need eSATA, perhaps for backup ...
>
> But do you need it to be PCIe?
>
> When I needed eSATA, I found that my older Aspire M3400 "server" has a
> chipset that supports eSATA (SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 SATA Controller). All I did
> was get a bracket that connected from the internal SATA connectors on the
> motherboard to the back of the PC so I can plug in the eSATA cable to the
> dock.
>
> The speed ranges from 29,955 kB/s to 43,330 kB/s.
>
> Perhaps that would be sufficient for your need?
>
>
> On Mon, Jun 30, 2014 at 3:37 PM, Paul Nijjar <paul_nijjar at yahoo.ca> wrote:
>
>> As a corollory to Darcy's excellent question (which I do not have an
>> answer for either, even though we are going through a very similar
>> exercise at work), I am looking for some PCIe eSATA cards that will
>> work reliably under Linux (in particular, under Debian/Ubuntu).
>>
>> Here are some expansion cards I have found so far. Reviews report that
>> they all seem to have problems with large I/O transfers:
>>
>> http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815287028
>>
>> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816124064
>>
>> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816124056
>>
>> I am guessing that some chipsets are supported well under Linux and
>> some are not, but I do not know how to find good, compatible cards.
>>
>> Ideally the card would have some internal SATA ports along with the
>> eSATA ones, but this is not a firm requirement.
>>
>> - Paul
>>
>> --
>> http://pnijjar.freeshell.org
>>
>>
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