PCI to SATA RAID controllers VIA VT6421A or Promise PDC20378

[cypeq]

Hi,
so i am about to buy one of this controllers VIA VT6421A or Promise PDC20378.
They are similary priced but how are they doing in real life are there any driver
issues or other problems ? Which one is a better buy ?

 

[sub mesa]

Why on earth would you want a PCI RAID controller?!

PCI should be banned; nobody should be allowed to use it. You shouldn't buy any stuff with PCI either.

Unless you have no other choice, either look at PCI-express Silicon Image controllers, or buy a new motherboard; investing in old PCI stuff might not be the best way to spend your money.

Oh and Promise and VIA are both crap.

 

[cypeq]

sub mesa thx for your answer and yes I don't have another choice.
It will be addition for board without SATA interface and it is like 20x cheaper solution than new board & cpu ofc.

 

[sub mesa]

Then try a cheap Silicon Image SiI-3114 controller (4-port) or 3112 (2-port) these come in about a thousand different brands, all carrying the same chip and drivers, essentially being the same product. It should cost about $15-20, and could be a solution to you.

You would need to use their sucky RAID drivers under Windows, creating a RAID array for each disk. It wouldn't be stable, it wouldn't be reliable, but it should work and if you want something quick it may be suitable. I wouldn't invest too much in older systems though; for 200 euro you have a brand new system already, but $20 should be okay i guess.

 

[Plumble]

My SiI-3114 (4-port) PCI 33MHzt will max out at around 105MB/s. My Via 6421a i(IDE + SATA) is a real POS. But my SiI 3132 PCI-E 2 port SATA 2 is limited to SATA 1.

If performance is not an issue, SiI 3114 has worked well for me, but I did need to update firmware before it would accept large drive.

Just to add what sub mesa has said. The SiI single disk concatenations (JBOD) is what you'll need to set up.

 

[cypeq]

thx for all of your answers I'll get PROMISE one if it will make any problems i'd go straight to SiI which are twice the price not rly apealing...