firewire 800 pci card?

cybrjackle · #1 18th June 2005, 05:09 PM

Does anyone know if firewire 800 is supported and if so a good pci card that is know to work?

This is for my server that runs CentOS 4.0 and I wanted to get a LaCie Big Disk Extreme 500GB to backup the server.

CrystalCowboy · #2 18th June 2005, 09:10 PM

I put one in a FC2 machine and it seems to work fine. Can;t remember the brand and it's at a different site.

leaded · #3 18th October 2005, 03:29 PM

I was wondering if someone could respond and let me/us know if there have been any successful installations of a FW 800 card, especially with LaCie products. I'm getting ready to order a 1TB Bigger Disk with FW800, FW400, and USB 2.0, and using it with an AMD 64 system running CentOS 4.1.

Thanks!

cybrjackle · #4 18th October 2005, 05:52 PM

This is what i ended up doing on my CentOS 4.x server

8 port SATA highpoint rocket raid card

5-in-3 raid inclosure, (fits in the first 3 front slots of my computer case) with 250GB Segate SATA drives

4 bay external SATA case http://www.cooldrives.com/qu.html

If I had to do it again, I would get a 12-16 port SATA card and maybe increase the 4 to 6 or 8 bay external case.

I love it, much faster than firewire/usb

CrystalCowboy · #5 18th October 2005, 08:49 PM

I can verify functionality of a FW800 card. (from SIIG, perhaps?) but I don't know if you actually get more throughput than with a FW400 card.

leaded · #6 18th October 2005, 08:56 PM

Hm, I like where you're going with that...

Unfortunately, our systems don't have PCI-X slots, only PCI-E x1 and x16. I only found one PCI-E SATA II card (http://www.cooldrives.com/sapciexsaii3.html) and there's no mention of Linux support. Should I just go with PCI and SATA I?

Sorry for hijacking this thread!

cybrjackle · #7 19th October 2005, 03:05 AM

I'd go sata my self, oh wait i did

http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA/rr1820a.htm#top

backwards compatible with old fashion pci slots

A lot of sites i read and reviews puts this card very fast and the best next to $500-1500 cards so you can't really beat it!
The one trouble you might have if you use centos is just be aware, for what ever reason, during the install the drivers for the floppy wouldn't install for centos. BUT, you can d/l RHEL 4 for free for a 30 day trial of RHN from redhat.com install it and the drivers on the floppy work and 3 packages later your running CentOS

The only guess that I could come up with is during the install for some reason is looking at some file like /etc/redhat-release or something else that ends up showing "centos" instead of "redhat" and confuses it. YMMV

Along with the 8 port internal raid card I bought one of these for like $20
http://www.macgurus.com/productpages...SATACables.php
Internal to External SATA Port Adapter

HEre is the 5 bay 3 slot enclosure i got
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817121405
SUPERMICRO CSE-M35T-1B Black 5 Bay Hot-Swapable SATA HDD Enclosure

You can probably find better prices out there on some of it, but if you compare the prices of all that stuff to the LaCie you will be better off

I was looking at the LaCie my self and went this route.

cybrjackle · #8 19th October 2005, 03:14 AM

As far as SATA hd go, I'm a Seagate fan all the way, You can find some good buys from newegg and monarchcomputer.com from time-to-time, Seagates are fast and come with a "5" year warranty, just like scsi

I have about 14 Seagate SATA drives in my house 80's, 120's, 160's and 250's in the server. They have been great for me.

cybrjackle · #9 19th October 2005, 03:20 AM

Here is the SATA raid card review, 32 pages but a very good read.

http://www.tweakers.net/reviews/557

If you can affoard the Areca ARC than go with that, but if you want to save a lot of cash and have a nice card, get the highpoint rocket raid 1820a or if there is something newer and still supports linux.

Have fun!

sosullivan · #10 19th January 2007, 12:24 PM

Hi,
I have read the posts about extra SATA drives, and while they are very good suggestions, they don't entirely fit my needs. I want to get portable (i.e. small not a number of hard drives combined together) storage, and it must be quick, so I was hoping for Firewire 800. So if anyone can suggest a make/model of card, I'd appreciate it. CrystalCowboy, it worked for you, but you can't see much of a performance difference between 800 and 400. I wonder is that because it's using the 400 driver? Can anyone confirm if there is a 800 driver available? From the reviews I have read, the Firewire 800 is lightening quick, and there should be a considerable speed difference between firewire 400 and 800.

Stephen