Koutech IO-PIR133 Ultra ATA/133 RAID PCI Card... $21 + shipping

[tbrooks40]

title says it all...

KOUTECH RAID UATA 133 - $21 + shipping

Specifications:
? Ultra DMA (ATA) 133MB/sec data transfer rate
? Two (2) independent Ultra ATA/133 channels
? Supports up to four (4) IDE devices
? Supports software RAID function (RAID 0, 1, 0+1)
? ATA clock independent from PCI bus
? 256 Byte FIFO per ATA channel
? Large FIFO independent
? Supports Ultra DMA 6/5/4/3/2/1, PIO 4/3/2/1/0, DMA 2/1/0 modes
? IDE drive types support ATA, Fast ATA-2, EIDE, Ultra ATA/33, Ultra ATA/66, Ultra ATA/100, and Ultra ATA/133
? Can share interrupt (IRQ) level with most PCI cards
? 32-bit 33/66MHz PCI interface
? PCI specification v.2.2 compliant
? Fully Plug-N-Play compatible
? Supports Windows® 95/98/98SE/Me/NT 4.0/2000/XP, and DOS
? One (1) year direct manufacturer warranty

Package contents:
? One (1) Ultra ATA/133 PCI card (IOFUTURE-PIR133)
? One (1) 80-wire/40-pin IDE cable
? Software driver CD
? User manual
? Warranty card

here's an older 'Koutech Raid' thread that has some really good info for any Raid pups like myself... seems like almost everyone had super results with this $21 raid card! feel free to just bump the original as it deserves the love

'OG' Koutech Thread...

 

[fengpc]

Seems like a good deal, anyone use this before? Comment?

 

[tbrooks40]

Originally posted by: fengpc
Seems like a good deal, anyone use this before? Comment?

i think everyone and their sister bought one when the deal was up at newegg. check out the link to the older thread for the same card - seems as though everyone really like it... you know it would be good to see how this cheap card held up since that thread - let's bump it and see why don't we - hehe

 

[sharq]

Anyone know how this performs in linux? Does it have built in support in the linux kernel?
Just wondering if anyone knows.

 

[tbrooks40]

i would take a look at that thread in the Koutech Thread i link to - every possible answer is in that thread. there were a bunch of people just starting out with Raid and there were some veterans having debates on whats the best way to do what. i would at least take a look at it. i wish i knew more about it myself, but i am of no help when it comes to raid. although it doesn't mention linux in the specs but thats not saying much either.

 

[AlexPton]

I bought this card the first time this deal was up.

my recommendation:

for windows machine - works great.

for non-windows machine (eg - linux) - do not touch this card as you will get burnt (figuratively)!

There are no drivers out there for linux. There _are_ drivers for regular IDE access in linux, but then it's just an overglorified PCI IDE card.
I've talked to Silicon Image (they were very rude), Koutech, as well as several RAID forums, no luck.
They also seem unwilling to release their API specification so that I can write drivers myself.

if you really want RAID functionality in Linux (and you don't want the OS doing it), then get either a true hardware raid card or at least a software raid card that uses drivers to implement the RAID (rather than the OS).

if you want your OS to handle raid, then just buy a vanilla (cheap) PCI IDE card.

 

[Toddlizzle]

Originally posted by: AlexPton
I bought this card the first time this deal was up.

my recommendation:

for windows machine - works great.

for non-windows machine (eg - linux) - do not touch this card as you will get burnt (figuratively)!

There are no drivers out there for linux. There _are_ drivers for regular IDE access in linux, but then it's just an overglorified PCI IDE card.
I've talked to Silicon Image (they were very rude), Koutech, as well as several RAID forums, no luck.
They also seem unwilling to release their API specification so that I can write drivers myself.

if you really want RAID functionality in Linux (and you don't want the OS doing it), then get either a true hardware raid card or at least a software raid card that uses drivers to implement the RAID (rather than the OS).

if you want your OS to handle raid, then just buy a vanilla (cheap) PCI IDE card.

I'll have to preface this by saying I don't run Linux anymore, but I don't understand why this card won't run under Linux.

This is a software RAID card, meaning that it doesn't have hardware on the card itself to do the parity calculations, but instead it offloads that task to the CPU. In the other thread, I linked/quoted the Anandtech RAID card review when they said that this is actually the preferred method of doing RAID unless you're running RAID 5, which can overload the CPU. Software RAID is preferrable with RAID 0 or RAID 1 because the on-card chips don't run as fast as your typical CPU these days, and the 2-3% of utilization overhead is not noticed.

Now about the Linux thing...I have this card and had two 60GB drives configured for RAID 0, and I was able to access the disks as a single drive under Windows XP, Windows Me and even from a DOS prompt with a boot floppy. I read and wrote to the drive and imaged it using Drive Image Pro 5. I never had to install any drivers to make this happen, although I did install the latest Windows drivers anyway. So it makes me wonder why Linux is so particular. I'm not disputing you guys, I'm just trying to learn.

Toddler

 

[tbrooks40]

2-3% that will definitely work! some made it sound as if you'd get bogged down with disk activity. thanx for clearing that up bro! i know who to pm when i get this

j/k