Silicon Image 3112 S-ATA controller any good?

SenorBeef · Apr 21, 2003

I searched for this on this forum and couldn't find anything, so hopefully I'm not repeating a question...

The Silicon Image 3112 S-ATA controller seems to be standard on any current MBs with integrated S-ATA capability.

So, how well does it work?

Is it a good controller in itself?

Any problems?

Speed?

How does the RAID function work? Good reliability/compatability, and speed at RAID 0?

I'm probably going to get an NF7-S and use abit seriell adapters to connect 2 IBM 30 gig DTLA 307030 drives to the controller and make a raid 0 setup. Any problems with that? How does the performance compare to a highpoint 370? Anyone know?

deathstar13 · Apr 21, 2003

the sata controller seems fine.but the raid function is crap.
i had the longest uptime of 1 week with it.many arrays would just crap out and corrupt and never reach windows again.

this is on my nf7-s

SenorBeef · Apr 21, 2003

That's dissapointing, because one of the main reasons I'd be going for the abit is the RAID capability.

Well, it runs fine then in a non-RAID config?

What about with adapters? Are drives just as fast as they would be on ata-100 setups with the seriell adapters?

deathstar13 · Apr 21, 2003

seems to be fine in non raid yes.im useing the adaptors on both hdd's but just deleted the array and running singley.and yeh i still get similier benchmarks as ide 100 hdd's

the raid0 setup was fast as hell tho.but only stable under 2kpro for a week and died big time.xp pro would corrupt in under 3 reboots or less.

this really kills my "dream" of 2x raptors raid0

as i dont trust this controller with raid0 and im not gonna pay $100 for a sata raid card,plus buy 2 raptors.

im gonna stick with ide raid until i get a mobo with a good sata raid controller.

Maximouse · Apr 21, 2003

deathstar13 said:
.xp pro would corrupt in under 3 reboots or less.

this really kills my "dream" of 2x raptors raid0
as i dont trust this controller with raid0 and im not gonna pay $100 for a sata raid card,plus buy 2 raptors.

im gonna stick with ide raid until i get a mobo with a good sata raid controller.

I had the same problem with the RAID controller on my A7N8x. It is the same one as the controller on the Abit board you are using.

I would set up the array and install the OS and after a few shutdown/restarts I would get the scandisk screen due to corruption. It reminded me of a problem that Win ME had that was caused by a quick shutdown not giving a fast IDE time to close all its files. Microsoft eventually developed an update fix that corrected it.

I wondered if WinXP was having the same type of problem and I went searching for a way to delay the shutdown process to see if that would help.

I found this: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314834 and tried it and I had no more corruption after that (until my maxtor drive which was on the array failed

).

I was quite happy with the fix and as soon as I can replace the second drive I wont hesitate to set up the raid again.

Al

deathstar13 · Apr 22, 2003

Maximouse said:
I had the same problem with the RAID controller on my A7N8x. It is the same one as the controller on the Abit board you are using.

I would set up the array and install the OS and after a few shutdown/restarts I would get the scandisk screen due to corruption. It reminded me of a problem that Win ME had that was caused by a quick shutdown not giving a fast IDE time to close all its files. Microsoft eventually developed an update fix that corrected it.

I wondered if WinXP was having the same type of problem and I went searching for a way to delay the shutdown process to see if that would help.

I found this: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314834 and tried it and I had no more corruption after that (until my maxtor drive which was on the array failed ).

I was quite happy with the fix and as soon as I can replace the second drive I wont hesitate to set up the raid again.

Al

well maximouse its on your shoulders i just reinstalled win2k pro on sata raid0 again.the perfomance is unbeliveable but i cant stand corruptions.i did the registry edit so im holding you responsable if it corrupts

lol jk man.

if this makes it until the 1st when i get paid im buying the 2 raptors to run raid0 with.but if it fails im not paying $100 for a sata raid card plus 2 raptors.ill just get an ide raid card and go back to that.

ill keep everyone posted as i tend to be a guini pig alot and i dont mind,keeps me from getting bored.
ty maxi i really really hope this works.

Maximouse · Apr 22, 2003

deathstar13 said:
well maximouse its on your shoulders i just reinstalled win2k pro on sata raid0 again.the perfomance is unbeliveable but i cant stand corruptions.i did the registry edit so im holding you responsable if it corrupts lol jk man.

if this makes it until the 1st when i get paid im buying the 2 raptors to run raid0 with.but if it fails im not paying $100 for a sata raid card plus 2 raptors.ill just get an ide raid card and go back to that.

ill keep everyone posted as i tend to be a guini pig alot and i dont mind,keeps me from getting bored.
ty maxi i really really hope this works.

I hope so too man. good luck. Btw are you using the updated raid driver for xp?

Lemme know how it goes. I ran it for about a month with no errors at all after I delayed the shutdown (Then i kept getting event errors on the maxtor just before it failed)..... I am eyeing those raptor drives as well

Al

deathstar13 · Apr 22, 2003

um ive found the performance gains only tend to happen under win 2kpro for me.xp was just average compared to ide raid0.

i just finished everything and ran a sandra benchy. 58008kbs
id post a benchy but i forgot to install photoshop so i can make the pick fit on theforumisdown.com as they only alloww 50kb pics.

anyhow i think thats a world record for ide drives if i could compare it somewhere.i saved it as i know someone will say im liying

they need more work with xp pro before i try it again.it would corrupt in one boot sometimes.mabey this will fix that also.ill try if this lasts so i can justify buying the raptors.

Maximouse · Apr 22, 2003

deathstar13 said:
um ive found the performance gains only tend to happen under win 2kpro for me.xp was just average compared to ide raid0.

i just finished everything and ran a sandra benchy. 58008kbs
id post a benchy but i forgot to install photoshop so i can make the pick fit on theforumisdown.com as they only alloww 50kb pics.

anyhow i think thats a world record for ide drives if i could compare it somewhere.i saved it as i know someone will say im liying

they need more work with xp pro before i try it again.it would corrupt in one boot sometimes.mabey this will fix that also.ill try if this lasts so i can justify buying the raptors.

I love those benchys

I use XP Pro. I have had No errors using it since that fix. Before I applied it i was losing the OS in one or two restarts as well. It sure looked like files were not being closed properly (and allocation tables).

Like I said before, they recognized the problem in ME and probably fixed it in XP....BUT only for the IDE ports I am betting. The SATA ports are independent of the IDE ports and they probably failed to anticipate the same problem would occur with them also

I gotta get another WD 40 gig drive to match the remaining drive soon so I can use the Raid on this machine again. I miss the
speed

Al

Drago · Apr 22, 2003

hey, a question here

when should I change that registry key to prevent corruption? Right on XP's 1st boot?

deathstar13 · Apr 22, 2003

Drago said:
hey, a question here

when should I change that registry key to prevent corruption? Right on XP's 1st boot?

yes! ive had a couple xp installs not even live after 1 reboot.

TheNamelessOne · Apr 22, 2003

Has anyone here used the silicon image pci ide raid controller? How is it?

Maximouse · Apr 24, 2003

Well. heres an update.

Just installed a matching WD drive to go with its brother in the Array.

Before, with the WD and the Maxtor, I would get corruption on both warm and cold restarts. Now with the Maxtor gone and the other WD installed the machine warm restarted without any corruption. (am wondering if the drives were incompatible?)

Installed the registry tweak and have done a number of cold restarts and there has been no sign of any trouble.

Now if only I can get my hands on a couple of those raptors

Drago · Apr 24, 2003

I don't think the problem was the different drives. I guess the registry fix did the trick to you.

are you using xp pro?

Maximouse · Apr 24, 2003

Drago said:
I don't think the problem was the different drives. I guess the registry fix did the trick to you.

are you using xp pro?

Yes, XP Pro.

I tried a little experiment.

I shut down the computer without the registry fix. When my drives were closing the files the system would shutdown in the middle of the activity. I am wondering if somehow it checks the ide ports for any activity and when it finds none then assumes its safe to turn off.

After I change the registry setting I am basically forcing the computer to check if the pagefile is closed...and since the pagefile is on the sata controlled drives, it waits until there is no activity on that port.

When it shuts down after the change, I notice my drive lights cease any activity and then the computer powers down.

Looks good so far.

btw. that Maxtor was giving me event errors before it failed, so that was probably one of my problems.

Al

deathstar13 · Apr 24, 2003

if you have xp pro working without incedent thats a good sign.xp pro wouldnt last 20 mins on mine before disaster.

i plan on ordering my 2 raptors next week when i get paid also.
and im gonna run xp pro on it as win2k pro doesnt support many games i have.anyhow maximouse have you done any sandra benches on those drives under xp pro?

i only got 40000 under xp pro
win2kpro was 56-58000 points there is a newer driver i didnt try so hopefully you have and will save me a ton of experiamnting when i get my raptors.

Maximouse · Apr 24, 2003

deathstar13 said:
if you have xp pro working without incedent thats a good sign.xp pro wouldnt last 20 mins on mine before disaster.

i plan on ordering my 2 raptors next week when i get paid also.
and im gonna run xp pro on it as win2k pro doesnt support many games i have.anyhow maximouse have you done any sandra benches on those drives under xp pro?

i only got 40000 under xp pro
win2kpro was 56-58000 points there is a newer driver i didnt try so hopefully you have and will save me a ton of experiamnting when i get my raptors.

Havent done any benchies yet. Got home from work at 6 am and threw the new drive in the A7N8X and got it setup and beat the tar out of it trying to get it to screw up....no luck, thank God, this is looking good

. Got to get some sleep now as I have to be back at work early this evening.

Will probably bench the setup tomorrow when I get home.

Al

deathstar13 · Apr 24, 2003

kool deal man its appreciated.
im sure your using the newest SI raid driver and i just tested with the old one so hopefully they fixed the perfomance issue.

ill be testing my fic 9700 today so its gonna be a busy one

SenorBeef · Apr 24, 2003

Hmm. Makes me wonder.. S-ata is supposed to be in control of the data channel, where in P-ata, the controller keeps polling devices. Maybe XP doesn't account for the difference in architecture, and so the "safe to shut down yet?" checks in regards to the hard drive controllers aren't accounted for properly and it ****s up the file system every time?

Spanko · Apr 24, 2003

hey guys can you help me with setting up my newly bought raptor as a single drive? I have an Abit NF7-S for a description of my problem read this please

http://forum.abit-usa.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8972

Silicon Image 3112 S-ATA controller any good?

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