will a pci sata II controler card be worth it?

[regan1985]

i currently only only have sata I and i my bench results show thats whats holding me back my average read is 98mb but at burst speeds i can only get 124mb! so i was thinking of getting a satta II pci card like this http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-2-X-SATA-II-PORT-PCI-EXPRESS-SATA-II-RAID-CARD_W0QQitemZ170072326629QQihZ007QQcategoryZ39968 QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item170072326629


but im not sure if i will see a improvement as i dont know how fast pci can go??!! is it 250mb? or am wrong?!!!!

cheers if you can help:toast:

[zekrahminator]

Let's put it this way....PCI bottlenecks any card to roughly 100MB/s, so it would be effectively like downgrading to ATA100. You'd basically waste your money and lose a bunch of speed....but you'd get one or two extra SATA ports.

[AthlonX2]

do they make pci express SATA controller cards? maybe for a x4 slot?

[Grings]

http://tomshardware.co.uk/2005/11/23/pci_express_battles_pciuk/

dragged your post into google bar

[regan1985]

thats interesting i have a crossfire board so 2x pci ex!!! hmm going to do more reading see what i could do!!

[Grings]

just looked at this thread again, and realised that link you posted is a pci-express one anyway, i was going on you saying pci then zek pointing out pci's limitations, then ath x2 asking if they make pci-e ones

looks like we all deserve a slap

[regan1985]

so does it look like im going to get better performance as its pci ex??? as i take it you can get a far better bandwith with it?

plus will i notice a difference is load up speeds and performance as sata2 should give me better burst speeds??

or will it slow it down as its not a onboard controler?

[Grings]

so does it look like im going to get better performance as its pci ex??? as i take it you can get a far better bandwith with it?

yes, a pci (non express) is'nt even fast enough to do sata 1 full speed i THINK it's limited to 133 (hence ide maxing out at this)

A single 1x card slot has the possible bandwidth of 500MB/s

The current PCI standard allows for a 32-bit bus that has a maximum throughput of 133MB/s. This133MB/s of bandwidth must be shared between all of the PCI peripherals

[cdawall]

basically he is saying that if you have even a soundcard you wont break ATA100 speeds the PCI-E 2x should be enough for SATA1 though 2 would still be to much

[regan1985]

but am i right in thinking pci ex is faster then normal pci? so my pci ex x1 slot should be faster then 100mb??

[cdawall]

but am i right in thinking pci ex is faster then normal pci? so my pci ex x1 slot should be faster then 100mb??

yes

[AshenSugar]

this is more complex then it first appears, yes pci limmits bandwith but many times addincards controlers have better chips/drivers/perf then onboard sata(specly then via sata) so you would limmit your overall bandwith using normal pci but could endup with better perf if the onboard sata was crap OR you didnt have sata at all.

eather way it could help or have little to no effect even with pci-3 1x or 4x cards, really depends on the chipsets your talking about.

[regan1985]

yes the reason i am looking to change is because my chipset isnt the best and mostly because its sata1 not sat2! if you look at the link at the top of the page it says its a Silicon Image Sil3132 chipset which i have looked at and its a average performer but is sata2!!!! but i need to do some more research as i dont know for sure if i will have enough bandwith!

[regan1985]

i have found reviews online of a similar card!!!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/CustRatingReview.asp?DEPA=0&Type=&Item=N82E16815124027&SortField=0&SummaryType=ALL&Pagesize=&Page=3

turns out that pci ex x1 has a massive bandwith and i should have no problems, other then getting the card to work with my mobo!!!

[AshenSugar]

yeah ur boards got the old ati southbrige dosnt it?

if so then yeah an addin cards a good move, if it has ULI then stick with the onboard, sata2 isnt gonna give you any real advantege over sata1 if the controler its connected to is good(uli southy is good perf for sata and usb ati old 400 chip is bad)

[regan1985]

yeh i do have the old 450chip it is crap, but i also have a silcon image onboard and thats about as good so if i go for a silcon image sata2 i dont think im going to find it much better?????

[Grings]

yeh i do have the old 450chip it is crap, but i also have a silcon image onboard and thats about as good so if i go for a silcon image sata2 i dont think im going to find it much better?????

depends, silicon image have made a fair few chips now, some better than others, i wouldnt know the specifics of which ones are better, but a fair few motherboard ones (even sata2 ones) connected to the pci(non -e) bus