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Is ITE or Promise a Better IDE Controller Card/RAID Chipset?

P

ParatoOptimal

Golden Member
I found ITE, Syba (Silicon Image) and Promise based cards for @ $13-$15 on Pricewatch.
Computergeeks and 4linkcomm have the ITE and SI cards for @ $17.
I've seen 4linkcomm.com and computergeeks.com mentioned favorable on AT many times.

The ratings of the site on Pricewatch, acortech, were 84% positive.
The Promise based card is on ascendtech.us with a pricewatch rating of 97%.
I haven't checked reseller ratings.

I think ITE is better for HDs and SI may be better for optical drives.

I've read that if you get the same chipset as your MOBO you may have conflicts.
I don't know the controller chipset on my ASUS CUSL2 MOBO.

Thanks for any help
 
There can be conflicts between different models of Promise controller cards, if your mobo includes a Promise controller chipset integrated; apparently there are slight differences in the BIOS. There is a "dummy" BIOS floating around that you can flash, to help fix that issue. Promise controllers newer than the Ultra66 don't really work with ATAPI devices. I would recommend the CMD/SI controllers that appear to the system as "Standard PCI IDE" controllers instead if you plan on using opticals. OTOH, Promise controllers can use UDMA modes for the HDs in DOS, which makes Ghost 2003 (running in DOS mode), much faster than CMD/SI controllers. I don't know anything about the ITE chipset-based cards at all.

As far as actually using them for software RAID, I haven't tried that. I just think the idea of firmware/software-based RAID is kind of silly, actually. Hopefully others who have actually used them in RAID will chime in here.

 
The major advantage that Promise cards have over the rest of the market is assured upgradability/replacability. Any Promise FastTrak/SuperTrak RAID card should be able to understand the RAID of another Promise card, given that they support the RAID type in question.

I was able to move a 2 drive stripe from a FastTrak 66 to a SuperTrak SX6000, data intact, with no alterations. It's the kind of feature you normally overlook, but you're glad you've got it once trouble hits. 🙂
 
I would go with a Silicon Image based card as they are more flexible. I don't know if they are any better than Syba or Link Depot, but LSI make SI based cards and they are much more expensive than the other brands.
.bh.
 
I've heard good things aout the SI chipset from two or three people.

One person told me that the ITE was better than the SI for hard drives.

I leaning towards the ITE because it has double the cache, I think it was.

It isn't big money but it's my only money. I was layed-off.
I'd hate to get the SI and find that a larger cache is preferable.
 
Originally posted by: ParatoOptimal
I've heard good things aout the SI chipset from two or three people.

One person told me that the ITE was better than the SI for hard drives.

I leaning towards the ITE because it has double the cache, I think it was.

It isn't big money but it's my only money. I was layed-off.
I'd hate to get the SI and find that a larger cache is preferable.
Click to expand...

The extra cache didn't do too much for the P4EE...

Do yourself a favour - do all the research you need.

If the ITE controller you're thinking of getting is the one in this article, then maybe an alternative is in order.

Hope this helps.
 
Aren't the Linux guys always saying their software RAID beats the sh!t out of these cheap "proprietary RAID, mostly implemented in the drivers and not the hardware" cards you are looking at? If you just have the penguin to look cool and not mean something, nevermind. ;p
 
Thanks for the great link futuristicmonkey.

That is the same or rather nearly the same chipset unless there's a big difference between the 8212 I'm looking at and the 8212F in the article.

The ITE I was looking at is at
http://store.4linkcomm.com/syulata133id.html

The Sil0680 I was looking at is at
http://www.compgeeks.com/detai...vtid=A-142&cat=CCD

The article didn't seem to slam the ITE or the VIA.
The ITE did well in the early tests and particularly well in FAT32 RAID 1.

There summary didn't really slam any of the 4 they reviewed.
They liked the ITE and VIA for home use.
I intend to use it for home use with 3 or 4 HDs (ATA100 AND ATA133 mix) in a Plain Old Hard Drive configuration.
I may or may not RAID them later but, with a new job, I could get a better card to RAID them in the future.

Am I reading their summary wrong?
If it's not alphabitical, are they ranking them in order of best to worst?
They seem to like the ITE for home use and rank the VIA a hair behind the ITE.
They go on to say the VIA is a "great choice for a home user".
The Promise models excel at workstation and fileserver tasks.

PriceWatch has the Promise FT TX2000 at around $79.
I can't find the VIA anywhere.
I'm looking to spend $15-$30.
My cards on my original links listed above cost around $17.

Sunase,
I have several distros of Linux but this is a winbox of various flavors sys.


Thank you to all and please keep any thoughts you have on the subject coming.
 
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