PCI/SATA card for my NAS?

[HankB]

The real question is how to add storage capacity to my NAS. Perusing Newegg, it looks like a PCI SATA card is going to be my cheapest option.

The system is based on this Intel Atom mobo: (Intel D525MW)
http://ark.intel.com/products/48952/Intel-Desktop-Board-D525MW

I have two 2TB drives in Raid 1 partitioned for both boot and storage. System is running Ubuntu server 10.04 LTS, though I could upgrade to something newer if needed. Two additional SATA ports would suffice. It seems that the 4 port cards are considerably more expensive. I need internal ports, not eSata in a bulkhead. I have no desire to add external drives, though an extra eSata bulkhead port would not discourage me.

The mobo has one PCI card which is presently not in use. The cheapskate in me would choose this card http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816132012 which looks to have Linux support (according to the Via web page.) It's a dollar more than the cheapest card and I do still have some 200GB IDE Barracuda drives laying around that I could use as a boot device. The case this system lives in has space for full height cards if needed. I am not concerned about what Raid configurations the board supports since I'll be using Linux MD Raid.

Maybe I should splurge for something like this with a total of 6 SATA ports: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816132013 (based on a Silicon Image SiI3114 SATA controller chip and featuring " Enterprise-class mechanical platform with high-end bearings and actuator." ) Or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816124024 also using an SI chip and sporting 4 internal SATA ports.

I do not see any PCI cards that support more than 1.5Gb/s at this price point. The cheapest I see is http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816124028 for $37. I'm thinking that for serving files over my home LAN that this is no real benefit. (Dang, it's hard not to start upselling myself once I start looking at these things. )

What don't I know about these controllers that I should consider before placing an order?

thanks!

 

[EarthDog]

Not sure about the rest, but know that the SATA2 spec (1.5Gb/s) will not REMOTELY hold back a HDD or a few in R0.

 

[cullam3n]

Not sure about the rest, but know that the SATA2 spec (3.0Gb/s) will not REMOTELY hold back a HDD or a few in R0.

FTFY

PCI slots running at 33mhz (standard) have a max throughput of 133MB/sec (1.064Gb/sec). Most RAID cards are PCI-X, which allows for faster speeds due to running at 64-bit and/or 66mhz.

 

[HankB]

Thanks, both. I was not aware that anything more than 1.5 Gb/s would not be useful with spinning rust and a PCI interface. The MB SATA does support 6 Gb/s and I suppose may not be constrained by the PCI bus. (Then again, it would not surprise me if the SATA controller was internally on the PCI bus ...) But yes, my present plan is to use spinning rust so the extra speed will not be needed.

As an aside, I am in the throes of this because a 2TB drive on my remote NAS now has 1422 remapped sectors and as the boot drive in the remote NAS I think it was occasionally preventing boot up. Of course it passes the Seagate diagnostics with flying colors and is since this summer, out of warranty. I have (I think) successfully swapped it with a drive in a local NAS. When it does fail it will be close at hand. Through the wonders of RAID1 and not too many typos I can do this without disturbing data on either. But it seems clear that a drive with 1422 bad sectors is likely to be the first to go belly up.

My quandary now is whether to replace it with a 2TB, 3TB or 4TB drive and whether I should buy the replacement now or wait until this one goes bad (and the bottom falls out of large drive prices )

Thanks, again.