markm75 wrote:
> Does anyone know which, if any of the sata ports on this board could
> be multiplied?
>
> I think the esata on the back is capable, but not sure on the inside..
> i'm hoping that this one raid (red) sata port on the motherboard is
> capable, then i could attach a bracket to the back with an esata port
> and then attach the 4 drive port multiplyer drive setups to that port
> (since i'm already using the one existing esata port)...
>
> Thanks
The SIL3132 has two ports. Both are port multiplier capable.
A total of ten drives can be used, five per port. (At
least five is the limitation of the currently available
chip - I don't know if anyone other than Silicon Image
makes a chip for the function.)
http://www.cooldrives.com/cosapomubrso.html
http://www.sata-io.org/portmultiplier.asp
The SIL3132 has a BIOS setting, to select between SATA2 (SATALink)
and RAID (SATARaid). There is presumably a driver for each mode.
SATARaid, having RAID managements screens and the like, is a more
"visible" software. While SATALink won't have a user interface
to look at - only the Drive Management screen tells you whether it
is working or not.
http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/cooldrives/SATARAIDManual.pdf (SIL3132 mentioned)
There are very few actual user reviews of this technology
available, at least that I've run into so far.
Paul