# What SATA2 controller chips are supported?



## QuietCanuck (Jan 4, 2009)

Can anyone tell me which SATA2 controller chips are supported in release 7.0?

Ideally it would be nice if the SiL3124 chip was supported as that seems to be used by most of the cheaper PCI cards I can find, so it seems a natural, but I just can not find it listed anywhere.

I am new to FreeBSD so maybe I am looking in the wrong places, so alternatively if anyone tell me but how to find this info out it would be greatly appreciated (I tried the 7.0 hardware release notes but it only seems to list specific cards rather then the generic chip sets supported).


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## trev (Jan 5, 2009)

7.1-PRE AMD 770 (Asus M3A) - caused file corruption :-(
7.1-STABLE AMD 790X (Gigabyte MA790X-DS4) - works perfectly


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## trev (Jan 5, 2009)

trev said:
			
		

> 7.1-PRE AMD 770 (Asus M3A) - caused file corruption :-(
> 7.1-STABLE AMD 790X (Gigabyte MA790X-DS4) - works perfectly



Ooops, omitted to mention both those boards use the AMD SB600 for the SATAII controller.


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## QuietCanuck (Jan 5, 2009)

Thanks for the info Trev.  I did a quick check and I can not find an add in PCI card with the AMD SB600 chip set, so this chip set will likely not work for my purposes unfortunately.

My problem is I just want to add in a PCI SATA2 controller card to my old motherboard.  The motherboard is an old Intel se440bx2 (550MHz P3), and it worked fine with a 250GB SATA1 HDD on an added in PCI SATA1 card that used a SiL3114 chip set.  Unfortunately when I tried to upgrade it to a 1.5TB SATA2 drive, the SATA1 card will not recognize it, therefore it appears as though I need a SATA2 card, and it must be PCI card as that is all the motherboard has for slots.

Any other suggestions?


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## iconobum (Jan 8, 2009)

I'm using a foxconn a7gm-s with amd 780g/sb700 chipset

the sata seems to be working fine though devices on the ide chain are spotty. 
I havn't done any data transfer tests on my sata drive so I couldnt say how good the support is.


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## iconobum (Jan 8, 2009)

Canuck have you looked into upgrading the bios of your sata card?


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## QuietCanuck (Jan 9, 2009)

Thanks Iconobum, but unfortunately my card does not have flash but instead has it's BIOS in an EPROM, so it is not upgradable.  Do you happen to know if a SiL3114 based SATA1 controller will recognize a 1.5TB Seagate drive?  If so then I could buy a flashable SiL3114 card and use it being as they are only $30 (I will not have SATA2 speeds but I can live with that).

BTW, yesterday I came across this page
http://cvs.codeyard.net/SiI24/
that seems to claim they made a FreeBSD SATA2 driver for the SiL3124, but I can not see any other chatter about it, and with it's date being rather stale (Feb 2007) I am thinking it may not work.  Have any of you heard of this driver before?


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## tingo (Jan 9, 2009)

QuietCanuck said:
			
		

> The motherboard is an old Intel se440bx2 (550MHz P3), and it worked fine with a 250GB SATA1 HDD on an added in PCI SATA1 card that used a SiL3114 chip set.  Unfortunately when I tried to upgrade it to a 1.5TB SATA2 drive, the SATA1 card will not recognize it


Hmm, what does `% pciconf -lv` say about your sata pci card?


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## QuietCanuck (Jan 10, 2009)

"pciconf -lv" gives me:
atapci1@pci0:14:0:      class=0x010400 card=0x61141095 chip=0x31141095 rev=0x02 hdr=0x00
    vendor   = 'Silicon Image Inc (Was: CMD Technology Inc)'
    device   = 'Sil 3114 SATALink/SATARaid Controller'
    class    = mass storage
    subclass = RAID


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## tingo (Jan 10, 2009)

And it didn't recognize the 1TB drive at all? Weird.


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## QuietCanuck (Jan 12, 2009)

The card does recognize and display the correct drive model number of ST31500341AS, but that it where it hangs and it never gets as far as displaying the size of the 1.5TB drive.  Hitting F4 does not get me into the card's BIOS screen as it normally does because I guess it wants to identify the drive first.

If I knew for sure a SiL3114 card with updated BIOS would solve the problem, I would just go and buy one, but I hate throwing money at something not knowing it will work as it may just end up in the landfill.  Anyone out there have a 1.5TB Seagate drive working on an SiL3114?


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## edhunter (Jan 12, 2009)

Two days ago I had many problems (crashes and panics) with Sil 3112 (sata150) with latest firmware.... on Freebsd 7.0 and 7.1 i386.
This card is pieces of crap now ... I will never use silicon image again!


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## JUSTFERN (May 12, 2009)

Im having exactly the same problem with the Sil 3114 PCI add-in card, hangs when enumerating drive info - the drive works fine in another machine - after the same advice -did you come up with a way forward Canuck?


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## ChaiYunFat (Jun 2, 2009)

*Promise SATA300 TX2*

Hi, Im using the Promise SATA 300 TX4 with no problems.  Not RAID, but I was just looking for a SATA solution for an old socket A setup I had.  So far it has been hosting my media with no problems.  Hooked to a WD 500GB and 1TB with FreeBSD 7.2.

Newegg has the card for $60, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816102062


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## QuietCanuck (Jun 14, 2009)

Hi Justfern.
Sorry for the delay but I have not checked the forum in a while.
The answer is that unfortunately I never did find a way to get the SiL3124 card to work with the 1.5TB SATA2 drives.


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