SiI3112 Controller Question

[Richard P. Koett]

Garance A Drosihn wrote:
> At 1:51 PM -0800 3/30/06, Richard P. Koett wrote:
>> Some quick questions:
>> 
>> 1) Are these SiI3112 controllers any good?
> 
> They suck.
> They are horrible.
> They are very cheap to buy -- and are overpriced after
> you add in all the aggravation they provide.
> 
> Don't waste your time on them.  Buy a real SATA
> controller.  (disclaimer: I am only commenting on
> their SATA controllers)
> 
>> I have the option of using a HighPoint HPT372 instead
>> but was planning to use that elsewhere.
> 
> Unfortunately I don't know enough to comment on other
> alternatives.  I dumped my SiI3112 SATA controller
> and bought a real controller as made by Promise, but
> there are probably a number of other good options.

Well, the HPT controller is not what I'd call *real* RAID
either but it's lying around so I'll give it a try.

>> 2) Would upgrading to something newer than 5.4-RELEASE
>> help with this issue?
> 
> It will probably help.  That doesn't mean you will have
> a reliable controller, it just means that 6.x includes
> more work-arounds for the myriad bugs in these super-
> cheap controllers.  Some of these work-arounds result
> in performance penalties.
> 
> Just my opinion, of course...  YMMV.

Thanks. Your comments are appreciated.