Hey guys, maybe someone can give me an insight into this. I am considering getting one of these. Can someone tell me what the limitations of the  PCI-e bus is compared the other options available? I know that a normal PCI card has limited bus speed when using multiple drives, but what about this? Any insight would be great.

 

 

PCI Express SATA II 4x Ports software RAID Controller Card

 

SIL3124 Chipset

The PCIe 1x bus can hook up two drives without any bandwidth issues. That card I assume adds on a onboard port multiplier.

 

Just by doing the math based on the specs I don't trust more than 2 HDs per PCIe 1x slot. But I assume this card works because almost all Sils do.

Thanks for the insight poofyhairguy. So am I right in assuming that I can get two, 2-port cards and use the existing PCIe 1x and PCIe 16x on my MB without any bandwidth issues?

 

My MB had 4 Sata ports and I have a Plus license so four more ports should cover it nicely and give me a nice e-SATA port for use with SNAP..

 

 

That's correct.  The card you posted above will work, it will just be slow.  I recommend either or both of these cards:

 

PCIe x1 2 port SATA

 

PCIe x1 2 port eSATA

 

They are essentially the same card with different ports.  I have personally used the SATA version, it works out-of-the-box with unRAID.  I expect the eSATA version would work just the same.

Thanks Raj! Thats the exact card available at the local shop.

Here's a lengthy in-depth explaination: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=7520.msg72912#msg72912

 

The performance impact comes into play during parity builds, parity checks, failed drive situation, drive rebuilds, simultaneous writes, and simultaneous reads.

 

Even with 4 drives on a 1x PCI-Express that limitation is 62.5 MB/s (250 MB/s / 4), which isn't too bad.