RE: expansion cards

Was told that for eSATA and firewire expansion cards, the PCI sort are not suitable, and that I must find at least PCIe x1 cards. Can you confirm?

 

Firewire dates back to ~'97, eSATA goes back ~8 years; I reckon PCI should be fine if you can find a card with a good chipset and recent drivers and have the correct slot for it

 

I had a Firewire 800 PCI card in an XP machine years ago, it worked, but I am sure some will say that I probably was not getting he full speed, who knows?

Firewire 800 was a second implementation, I don't think it ever got traction in the consumer market, I think I had a drive bay that used it.
There are plenty of PCI cards for eSATA that work, do you get top speeds, again who knows? I read the USB 3.0 never can reach top speed, I don't know if that has ever changed.

 

I don't think compatibility is the issue but rather as foogoo suggest, speed. PCI is a very old (over 20 years old) and slow interface. Because it is slow, it will be a bottleneck if used to connect just about any device made in recent years. So as you note, PCI is not really "suitable" - though it is doable and if PCI is the only card interface your board supports, that may be your only option.

However, I am having problems finding a PCI card that supports both Firewire and eSATA - so you may be looking at adding two PCI cards, one for each type interface you need.

That said, without specifics, we cannot be specific. So Senex, if you provide your motherboard model number (or PC model if factory built) and you tell us what cards are currently occupying which slots, and what it is you want to add to your system, we can be more specific. For sure, you will have more and better options if you have a free PCIe slot.

 

You are spot on. I had intended on a LaCie PCI expansion card to add two eSATA ports, but was warned off. I assumed that since PCI card was too slow, a PCIe x1 might work. So from what you said, I assume adding in firewire ports also requires PCIe x1 card. So far as I know there is no card having both firewire & eSATA ports. I was asking about card for eSATA and card for firewire. My public computer time is too short, so will have to supply more detail next time. Thanks for your advice and offer to help!

 

You might be better off with something like this: http://www.bing.com/images/search?q...D4ED603EAEBCCA4F1D3059616F2FE&selectedIndex=0

 

I'll consider it as a last resort, as it will take out my only spare SATA connector. I'd much prefer using a PCIe x1 slot card.

 

By specifics, I'm not sure if you are asking for my entire parts-list, or just the basics, so I'll go with the latter. The motherboards under consideration for this legacy build are:
GA-MA770-UD3
GA-MA770T-UD3
GA-770TA-UD3
GA-MA770T-UD3P
GA-770T-USB3
Cannot be more precise, as legacy parts are hard to find, so it depends on what is for sale when I'm ready to buy. Only certainty is that one of the above will be tracked down and bought.

Of the lot, the GA-770TA-UD3 is the only one with onboard eSATA, but not been able to confirm that JMicron JMB362 is okay for Linux. For sure, all the other boards will require eSATA expansion card. Since rejecting the LaCie PCI card, the only eSATA card I can find that uses PCTe x1 is Rosewill RC-219.

All the above have onboard Firewire, but Google searches turned up various problems (crappy Linux support, breaks after year or two, etc.) associated with T.I. TSB43AB23, so I decided a back-up firewire card is needed for my spare parts inventory...just in case. I'm currently considering Startech PEX1394B3 Firewire PCIe card, but open to other suggestions, so long as card is Ubuntu or Debian compatible.

I've just started finding some doubt about the AMD SB710. Google turned up questions about its ability to provide dependable USB 2.0 ports. Know anything about it? Do I need to start considering expansion card for USB ports?

As for the last part of your question, build includes a graphics card, Asus Xonar D2, & video capture card for certain...maybe a NIC. I'm getting conflicting info on whether or not the Realtek 8111C & 8111D is gigabit-reliable, will work with Linux, etc., so maybe this is another addition to my spare parts bank.

Lastly, since you mentioned it, may I ask just what all cards are suitable for the PCI slots? I ask because the GA-770TA-UD3 has more PCI than PCIe x1, so I may need to reconsider this, depending on exactly what the PCI slots can offer me.

 

Umm, no because if you notice, it brings SATA to the front. And there are dozens of different types - some with multiple SATA connections. Still, if SATA in front in not a requirement I too would prefer PCIe and fortunately, there are plenty of those to choose from.

 

Now I'm confused. You never said this was a new build. And while not exactly state-of-the-art, I would not call those boards legacy either. XP era stuff is legacy but those boards support W7.

I personally don't see the reason to intentionally build something new that starts out 5 years old. Are you under that impression new motherboards don't support Linux? They do? Are you worried about UEFI? Don't be. That is only an issue for Linux users if W8 is preinstalled.

 

Well whatever you want to call the boards is fine by me. Most seem to think any component released more than six months ago is legacy, and more than 1 year ago is ancient, so I'm just following their lead.

My build is specifically intended to run Linux distro releases using legacy kernels 2.4.31 through 2.6.29, so I'm aiming for suitable legacy components that will support this. And no, I'm not interested in using VirtualBox, VMWare, etc.

 

Lol! Well, it is often said they day after buy electronics it becomes obsolete or superseded by a new version, so point taken.

But at least for computers, if the hardware supports the latest operating systems (that is, the maker provides current drivers), it is not "legacy" - yet.

While there are many Linux users here, most are Windows users. So you may be better off posting on one of the Linux sites. That said, you should visit the maker's site for any product you are considering to ensure necessary Linux support is there.