SATA HD card

[Ken C]

An old PC has become available, 1.9gHz P4 with 512 mb of rambus memory (remember rambus?). Would like to turn it into a video media server using SATA hd's, Newegg has a good deal on some WD 320gb SATA 3gb/s drives @ $99. Any recommendations for a pci SATA drive controller card ? Don't think I'll need RAID, just four SATA drives for storage and the existing PATA drive for Windows boot.

TIA, Ken C

[bcjenkins]

Originally Posted by Ken C

An old PC has become available, 1.9gHz P4 with 512 mb of rambus memory (remember rambus?). Would like to turn it into a video media server using SATA hd's, Newegg has a good deal on some WD 320gb SATA 3gb/s drives @ $99. Any recommendations for a pci SATA drive controller card ? Don't think I'll need RAID, just four SATA drives for storage and the existing PATA drive for Windows boot.

TIA, Ken C

Ken,

Things may be different when using JBOD, but I would reccommend 3ware. I can't tell you how many issues I had with onboard software based SATA (running raid).

[Ken C]

Originally Posted by bcjenkins

Ken,

Things may be different when using JBOD, but I would reccommend 3ware. I can't tell you how many issues I had with onboard software based SATA (running raid).

Doesn't 3ware only make RAID cards ? Not sure I want (or need) a RAID setup. All I'm storing is recorded TV videos. Now, if it was DVD videos, RAID would be important.

Any suggestions for a non-RAID controller card ?

Ken C

[dbfresh23]

Just go to newegg.com and check out the reviews on the cards there. If you're looking for a brand, Promise has always made pretty good I/O products.

[Ken C]

Originally Posted by dbfresh23

Just go to newegg.com and check out the reviews on the cards there. If you're looking for a brand, Promise has always made pretty good I/O products.

Thanks, the PROMISE SATA300 TX4 PCI SATA Controller Card looks good.

Ken C

[stevech]

Originally Posted by Ken C

An old PC has become available, 1.9gHz P4 with 512 mb of rambus memory (remember rambus?). Would like to turn it into a video media server using SATA hd's, Newegg has a good deal on some WD 320gb SATA 3gb/s drives @ $99. Any recommendations for a pci SATA drive controller card ? Don't think I'll need RAID, just four SATA drives for storage and the existing PATA drive for Windows boot.

TIA, Ken C

I procrastinate going SATA - example: $80 for 300MB EIDE drive and no rebates required. I'm cheap

[bcjenkins]

Originally Posted by Ken C

Doesn't 3ware only make RAID cards ? Not sure I want (or need) a RAID setup. All I'm storing is recorded TV videos. Now, if it was DVD videos, RAID would be important.

Any suggestions for a non-RAID controller card ?

Ken C

Their cards are raid capable as well as JBOD

B

[rfutscher]

Don't forget the network and USB cards. I found a combo card. It has a power connector so that it has power available to run those high powered USB HD tuner cards. It also has a 10/100/1000 Ethernet port. It will give you the extra bandwidth headroom so that you won't ave to worry while streaming multiple video streams.

Koutech USB2.0 & FireWire & Gigabit Ethernet Network Combo PCI Card