I'm looking for a 4 ports pci or pci-express (not pci-x) sata controller with these features: - real hot swap support - no RAID support, or with RAID support that can be disabled through the controller bios interface or reflashing the bios
My need is to hot plug/unplug one or more different sata1 and/or sata2 disks from different brands size and speed (even at the same time), coming from my customers computers to perform lab activities on them, like backup.
I tried several Silicon Image controllers (3112,3114,3124) and Promise TX4. Everyone has issues: some disks are not seen or are dropped during the backup process while the Promise even hangs the host pc with some hard-drives. Adaptec raid (Serveraid 8s) controllers aren't transparent to the operating system and it seems there is noway to disable the raid.
What would you suggest?
Thank you!
Did you consider a SAS card? They usually allow also SATA.
Could something like Intel SASWT4I (WILDWOOD TRAIL) fit the bill? I have absolutely no experience with it, but on paper it does everything you need.
Have had sucess with this card LaCie 2Port They also make a four port but it is not inexpensive. Have had issues with some Startech cards not allowing Dell servers to boot and have not found a solution.
Have you considered a SATA USB Dock? http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/a7ea/
Not sure what performance you are trying to achieve but this could be handy.
As you mentioned fragility in a comment: Be really careful, as SATA plugs aren't supposed to be used thousands of time, in fact they are really fragile, as I have learned the hard way just two days ago.
For this kind of use I would try to find a controller with e-sata ports since they are designed for much greater stress.