Dedicated SATA Controller

[gshlomi]

Hello.

I've got my main windows machine running on an:

i7 920

Gigabyte EX58-UD5

24GB ram

R9 290x

SSD for OS

2 HDD for Data & Games

 

I'm considering moving my unRAID (currently running on a C60M1-I in a Chenbro ES34069, a perfect combo for low-power, near silent NAS) onto this hardware, virtualizing my Win8.1 machine.

 

Is it possible to directly attach the additional SATA controller found on the MB (2 x JMB322) to attach the additional HDD & ODD to the VM ?

Is it possible to attach the onboard sound card to the VM ?

Will using an Asus P6T be preferable for this purpose ?

 

btw - is it possible to do a P2V to my existing Win install?

 

Thanks

[gshlomi]

Anyone?

[garycase]

The i7-920 is an older Core i7 that does not support vt-d, so you can't pass through I/O devices (e.g. the SATA controller).

 

Since it does support vt-x, you'll get excellent performance from a VM running under v6's hypervisor; BUT without pass-through your video card can't be passed through, so you'll not get the benefits of the high end video card.

 

I'd be more inclined to update to a newer motherboard/CPU with both higher performance AND pass-through support ==> or just leave your configuration as is [dedicated Wndows box and very low power NAS] until you're ready to do a more sweeping update.

 

 

[gshlomi]

The i7-920 does support vt-d - already tried setting up a win7 vm using the i7-920/p6t/hd5870, went pretty smooth.

My question was - is it possible to passthrough a sata controller...

[garycase]

The i7-920 does support vt-d

 

Not according to Intel.  It has hardware virtualization support (vt-x) but NOT directed I/O (pass-through) support (vt-d)    http://ark.intel.com/products/37147/Intel-Core-i7-920-Processor-8M-Cache-2_66-GHz-4_80-GTs-Intel-QPI

 

In fact, if you go to that generation of i7's, and search for Socket 1366 CPUs with vt-d support, there are NONE

 

 

My question was - is it possible to passthrough a sata controller...

 

No.  As I noted earlier, pass-through requires vt-d support.

 

[garycase]

Here's the result of searching for Socket 1366 and vt-d

 

[gshlomi]

On older sockets (like s1366), vt-d was implemented at the chipset, not the CPU. See here http://ark.intel.com/m/products/36785/Intel-X58-Express-IO-Hub#@product/specifications

[garycase]

I actually knew that at one point -- but clearly that's been lost over too many senior moments 

 

Given that it does have vt-d support, the only way I know for sure to check whether or not you can pass-through an onboard controller is to try it => onboard devices often do NOT work with pass-through; but if they're interfaced through the PCIe bus then they will generally work okay.    There are numerous examples of both outcomes in various threads on this forum.

 

[jonp]

On older sockets (like s1366), vt-d was implemented at the chipset, not the CPU. See here http://ark.intel.com/m/products/36785/Intel-X58-Express-IO-Hub#@product/specifications

 

I don't think this is going to work, but would be happy if you proved me wrong.  VT-d is required on BOTH the chipset and the CPU itself in order for PCI device assignments to work.

[garycase]

I could be wrong, but I think it's fine with the support on the motherboard as long as the BIOS supports it.    The newer CPU's (Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge, and Haswell) have integrated some of the North Bridge functions in the CPU (memory controller, etc.), including support for I/O passthrough (vt-d).    I believe all that's required is that support AND support in the BIOS.

 

Note that the specifications for the newer chipsets don't say a word about vt-x or vt-d support => I'm fairly sure that's simply because those functions are now on the CPUs.