Port Multiplier supported on the ICH10R?

[Interitus]

Explanation of what I'm doing (Skip to paragraph 2 for the original question):

Getting ready to purchase an external storage box, looking primarily at 4-bay enclosures that I can keep up to 4 of 1TB/2TB drives inside. This won't be RAID setup, just a single housing for multiple drives as I already have 3 Externals and I'm tired of plugging 30 things into the wall Nothing's really mission critical here, in fact my future goal is to keep all this stuff external and possibly use RAID inside my PC to save the mission critical stuff (which isn't large in size relative to the 5TB+ I have on drives right now, maybe 1TB total, possibly 2).

Anyways, original question is... Most of these external boxes use port multipliers. I can't seem to find any info stating whether the ICH10R supports port multipliers. I would like to keep the box strictly on the eSATA port on the mobo backplate (EVGA 758-A1) if possible as future SLI plans would cause some trouble with PCI-e addons due to slot arrangement. Anyone know for sure if using the built-in eSATA is possible?

Also welcoming any advice or experience with similar setups to this. I'm admittedly not versed in RAID or using external boxes like these, so anything would be helpful. Below are some links to 2 boxes I've considered for this, input on alternatives or my choices is also welcome

Here's the 2 boxes I've looked at so far:

Mediasonic

IcyDock

 

[Arcanedeath]

ICH 10R doesn't support port multipliers at least with the most up to date current drivers.

 

[disastar]

Explanation of what I'm doing (Skip to paragraph 2 for the original question):

Getting ready to purchase an external storage box, looking primarily at 4-bay enclosures that I can keep up to 4 of 1TB/2TB drives inside. This won't be RAID setup, just a single housing for multiple drives as I already have 3 Externals and I'm tired of plugging 30 things into the wall Nothing's really mission critical here, in fact my future goal is to keep all this stuff external and possibly use RAID inside my PC to save the mission critical stuff (which isn't large in size relative to the 5TB+ I have on drives right now, maybe 1TB total, possibly 2).

Anyways, original question is... Most of these external boxes use port multipliers. I can't seem to find any info stating whether the ICH10R supports port multipliers. I would like to keep the box strictly on the eSATA port on the mobo backplate (EVGA 758-A1) if possible as future SLI plans would cause some trouble with PCI-e addons due to slot arrangement. Anyone know for sure if using the built-in eSATA is possible?

Also welcoming any advice or experience with similar setups to this. I'm admittedly not versed in RAID or using external boxes like these, so anything would be helpful. Below are some links to 2 boxes I've considered for this, input on alternatives or my choices is also welcome

Here's the 2 boxes I've looked at so far:

Mediasonic

IcyDock

I grabbed a Sans Digital TRM4-B four bay enclosure. It comes with a PCI-express x1 eSATA card that support port multiplication. All of Intel's chipsets support eSATA PM *in hardware*, though none of them support it in software. I don't know why.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-029-_-Product

 

[Tristor]

The ICH10R doesn't support port multipliers, you need a card with a Silicon Imaging SIL3124 or 3132 controller or some JMicron controllers. I've got 4 arrays using port multipliers, the external ones are using a hardware eSATA controller in the array in front of the PM, so that the host controller doesn't have to support PMs, while the 2 internally are tied to SATA ports on a 2 port Rosewill SoftRAID5 controller using a SIL3132 chipset. If you're building your own array, Addonics sells the necessary hardware to set up the array so the host system it's attached to doesn't even have to see the PM (you have a RAID controller do the communications instead and the port multipliers are only visible internal to the array).

 

[Interitus]

Thanks for the info everyone.

I'll probably just purchase one of the boxes that comes with an add-on card. None of this stuff is super critical and speed isn't really an issue here so the add-on card method should be fine. I just have too much crap on HDD's and I'm out of internal bays.

The ICH10R doesn't support port multipliers, you need a card with a Silicon Imaging SIL3124 or 3132 controller or some JMicron controllers. I've got 4 arrays using port multipliers, the external ones are using a hardware eSATA controller in the array in front of the PM, so that the host controller doesn't have to support PMs, while the 2 internally are tied to SATA ports on a 2 port Rosewill SoftRAID5 controller using a SIL3132 chipset. If you're building your own array, Addonics sells the necessary hardware to set up the array so the host system it's attached to doesn't even have to see the PM (you have a RAID controller do the communications instead and the port multipliers are only visible internal to the array).

Thanks for that explanation. I don't think it's something I'll do at this time, but definitely something I might consider in the future. At least worth some reading on my part

 

[Sh0velman]

I grabbed a Sans Digital TRM4-B four bay enclosure. It comes with a PCI-express x1 eSATA card that support port multiplication. All of Intel's chipsets support eSATA PM *in hardware*, though none of them support it in software. I don't know why.

I know this is a total necro post, but I want to clarify what you said there if you are still using these forums..

Does that mean you can create arrays and use them as long as you use the Intel raid manager BIOS (and present to the OS as single volume), but you cannot, for instance, attach a bunch of drives and see them individually in your OS?

 

[Arcanedeath]

If you attach that enclosure to an ICH 9/10R port you only will see the first drive in the enclosure as the intel chips do not support port multiplication. If you hook it up to a host controler that does support port muliplication in both hardward and software you'll be able to see all the drives, that specific san's digital enclsure uses an SI storage controler in the enclsoure as well so you can setup raid either via the enclosures processer or via softraid using the SI controler in the Esata Card such as the SI3132 (which is what comes in the box with that controler) that enclosure has been end of lifed though and their is a new one based on sata 6 / usb 3 with a different marvell based controler just look at san's digital's website for more info.

 

[Daniel S. Buus]

Well, now that this necro post is officially ressurrected...

Just to challenge this ICH9/10R not supporting PMP, and the previous reference to "hardware support" but no "software support", what exactly do you mean by this?

According to Intel, ICH9R, 10R, and 9DO all support port multiplication? And the Linux kernel SATA controller list mentions them as PMP capable with command-based switching?

The tip about the (cheap!) SII3132 chip was golden, though - according to the aforementioned list, it even supports FIS-based switching!

I was under the impression that port multiplication was hardware-based in the first place? Is that wrong, and if so, is it just that the Linux kernel supports port multiplication on ICH9/10?

Sorry to jump on the zombie thread, but I'm currently looking to replace my "server" board with a new one, and I currently have 12 SATA drives depending on PCI32 controllers, so I'm looking for alternatives that are PCI express based, but cheap cards of this type with many ports are seriously nowhere to be found Port multiplication - provided that the actual multiplier thingamajig doesn't cost an arm and a leg - could be the way out

 

[Daniel S. Buus]

Hehe Gonna respond - partly - to my own follow up question about the PMP on ICH10R, though I'd still like more info if anyone knows more about the software vs. hardware part of all this.

Was reading this Backblaze blog post about their setup, and they say,

"We don’t use the SATA ports on the motherboard because, despite Intel’s claims of port multiplier support in their ICH10 south bridge, we noticed strange results in our performance tests. Silicon Image pioneered port multiplier technology, and their chips work best together." (EDIT: I'm thinking this may be due to the ICH10R using command-based switching, while the SII chips uses FIS-based switching?)

They use sii3132-based cards multiplied by sii3726 thingamjigs. Must see if I can find cheap thingamajigs based on that chip, too

 

[Daniel S. Buus]

Following up once more, it seems that indeed the driver needs to do its part or PMP won't work, and like this (unanswered) question painfully points out, Intel seemingly can't be bothered finishing their Windows drivers, while Linux has working kernel drivers.

Luckily, I'm on Linux Gonna try just with the port replicator on ICH10R, can always get a Syba SY-PEX40008 4-port PCIe card if it doesn't work and replicate a port or two on that one. Just made an inquiry to Syba, and they confirm that this card supports port multiplication.

Just FYI

 

[ArieOTeD]

I had a chat with Intel a few months ago about port multiplier support. The last chipset supporting PM is P35. Everything later then P35 is without Port Multiplier support, because it is not compatible with RST Rapid Storage Tech drivers. I had a 4 bay esata/usb3 enclosure hooked on an esatabracket connected to the sata2 on my P35 motherboard. Transferspeed was about 240 MB/s. Now, without Port Multiplier support on my Asus P8P67 Deluxe max transferspeed is down to 170 MB/s on usb3. Max speed on the Marvell 9128 esata3 port is 140 MB/s. Max speed on the JMicron esata port is 110 MB/s. So, new technology isn't allways a bliss. The problem is caused by drivers not supporting PM. The hardware is basicaly the same in this respect, that's why PM in Linux is possible.

 

[Daniel S. Buus]

Thanks for that info, ArieOTeD! Very informational. Bottom line is no Intel PM on Windows, Linux yes. At least so far

 

[Nomgle]

ICH 10R doesn't support port multipliers at least with the most up to date current drivers.

The ICH10R doesn't support port multipliers...

Intel's own page specifically states that the ICH10R does support port multipliers - http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/matrixstorage_sb.htm

Intel® ICH10R, ICH9R, ICH9DO Six port SATA controller with RAID, eSATA, and port multiplier support, providing storage benefits of Intel® Matrix Storage Technology, Intel® Rapid Recover Technology, and Intel® Turbo Memory

 

[ArieOTeD]

When I connect my 4 bay Fantec raid enclosure (raid 0) to the Intel sataport, The Fantec is recognized in bios, but not in windows. This is because port multiplier support is supported in hardware, not in the driver. Windows only sees the first hdd, which is part of a raid 0 array, so in windows there is no drive. When I connect the Fantec in JBOD, windows will see the first drive. I would really love Intel supporting port multipliers like they did on my old Gigabyte P35 motherboard, because transfer speed used to be 240 MB/s, now I'm down to 170 MB/s. Using an addon PCIe card is no use either, as they have the same controllers on board as my current motherboard. All I can do is hope for better drivers. I'm not really optimistic. Marvell 91XX (e)sata drivers need to improve. About a year ago reviews showed transfer speeds on Marvell ports are a lot slower compared to Intel ports. USB3 drivers need a lot of finetuning to, so for now max transfer speed on my Fantec is down to 170 MB/s.

 

[Daniel S. Buus]

Intel's own page specifically states that the ICH10R does support port multipliers - http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/matrixstorage_sb.htm

Well, that was what was linked to in a previous post, but thanks

 

[Nomgle]

Well, that was what was linked to in a previous post, but thanks

Any time

 

[davery65]

For what it's worth, the ICH10R does support port multipliers - in Linux. I have a Thermaltake BlacX Duet connected to a SATA port on my Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3L motherboard, and both disks are recognized when I boot from a USB key drive in Linux (SLAX 6.1.2). Unfortunately the same has not been true under Windows 7 (64 bit); I've tried the latest Intel drivers as well as the Microsoft driver for the AHCI controller, but no luck: only the first drive is "seen". So, for Windows use, I switch the Thermaltake to my Sil3124 eSATA card, which works fine.