NForce 3 SATA channels - not really separate?

[glugglug]

I have 4 WD 200 GB SATA drives in a RAID10 config (using NVRAID built into MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum).

The burst transfer rate from this array reported by HDTach is very consistently 152.6MB/s, just barely above the spec of a single SATA channel. Also, the sequential read rate curve (vs. position within the volume) from this array is really bizarre -- looks kind of like a bell curve with the bottom of the curve around 45MB/s and the peak in the center.

Are the 4 SATA channels on these boards multiplexed onto a single SATA channel inside the northbridge controller?

 

[ViRGE]

It's worth noting that the nForce3 Ultra only has 2 SATA ports, the other two come from an external controller; Gigabyte's is an SI 3512(a PCI based controller), and I would think that MSI's is the same(in fact, it almost has to be, Silicon Image doesn't have a PHY controller, and the pictures of the Neo2 show there's an SI chip on there). If this is the case, then there is definately a performance hit by the drives being seperated, by the PCI bus no less, and would potentially explain your oddities.

 

[glugglug]

The K8N Neo2 is actually an NForce3 Ultra board, which according to the manual supports 4 SATA connectors through the NForce3 Ultra chip itself - I don't see any other SATA controller on-board.

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: glugglug
The K8N Neo2 is actually an NForce3 Ultra board, which according to the manual supports 4 SATA connectors through the NForce3 Ultra chip itself - I don't see any other SATA controller on-board.

Two things: First, the nForce3 Ultra only has 2 SATA ports, and second, unless I'm wrong, here's the SATA controller.

 

[glugglug]

Two things: First, the nForce3 Ultra only has 2 SATA ports, and second, unless I'm wrong, here's the SATA controller

The circled chip is the RTL8110S-32 (The Realtek NIC).

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: glugglug

Two things: First, the nForce3 Ultra only has 2 SATA ports, and second, unless I'm wrong, here's the SATA controller

The circled chip is the RTL8110S-32 (The Realtek NIC).

Doh. I still stand by my assertion that it only has 2 native ports though.

 

[glugglug]

According to NVidia's PDF, the NForce 3 Ultra, 250, and 250Gb chipsets contain "dual independent SATA controllers" supporting "up to 4 SATA drives simultaneously."

Probably the reason Gigabyte includes the Silicon Image chip is that NVRAID driver support in any OS other than Win32 currently SUCKS to put it mildly.

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: glugglug
According to NVidia's PDF, the NForce 3 Ultra, 250, and 250Gb chipsets contain "dual independent SATA controllers" supporting "up to 4 SATA drives simultaneously."

Probably the reason Gigabyte includes the Silicon Image chip is that NVRAID driver support in any OS other than Win32 currently SUCKS to put it mildly.

Note that there's 2 stars next to the item mentioning dual SATA controllers, the "Integrated SATA PHY with support for 2 drives", and "Digital SATA interface for external PHY with support for two drives." As far as I can tell, Nvidia is counting the ability to add a second controller as part of their total.

 

[XBoxLPU]

http://www.neoseeker.com/resourcelink.html?rlid=86993

"I must quickly describe one area that I'm sure will throw a monkey wrench into a few peoples overclocking experiences. While the MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum does indeed offer AGP and PCI locks, SATA ports 1+2 will not maintain a lock and you can and will corrupt hard drives placed on these channels if you raise the HTT above 220mhz. SATA ports 3+4 (the 2 near the AGP slot and CPU socket, see below) are indeed kept in lock and testing with a 200GB WD SATA drive on port 3 functioned fine during limited testing. I know of other people who have this board and as long as SATA ports 3+4 are used, no drive/data corruption have been reported."

Could it be, two are on the PCI bus ?


http://www.anandtech.com/cpuch...oc.aspx?i=2004&p=8