What is a good choice of sata-ii raid controller for freebsd?

[Jeremy Chadwick]

On Thu, Feb 08, 2007 at 03:25:57PM -0600, Jaime Bozza wrote:
> I want to second the recommendation for Areca controllers.  We have two
> systems - The first is using an 1160 (16-port PCI-x) with 16 400GB
> drives, the 2nd is using the newer 1261ML card (16 port PCI Express,
> mini SAS connectors) with 16 500GB drives. Comments below:

Jaime, can you expand a bit about what sort-of motherboard you
installed the 1261ML in?  I've yet to find any mainstream motherboards
which have a PCIe x8 slot.  Most have x1, some have x4, and many
have x16.  I've seen one Supermicro board which has a x8 slot but
is only wired for x4 (has 4 lanes).

Based on what I've read, you can install a x8 card in a x16 slot as long
as the x16 slot is wired (physically) for 8 or more lanes.

My concern is that these x16 slots on motherboards are being primarily
used for video cards, thus I ultimately have no idea what the
manufacturers are testing them with.  Most manufacturer documentation
I've seen says "for use with graphics applications".  I'll add that
I've only seen x1 and x16 cards until now -- the Areca cards are the
first card I've seen using x8.

Thoughts/comments?

-- 
| Jeremy Chadwick                                 jdc at parodius.com |
| Parodius Networking                        http://www.parodius.com/ |
| UNIX Systems Administrator                   Mountain View, CA, USA |
| Making life hard for others since 1977.               PGP: 4BD6C0CB |