[plug] Cheap Linux-friendly SATA/PCI Controllers

[Daniel Pittman]

"Patrick Coleman" <blinken at gmail.com> writes:
> On Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 10:23 AM, Trevor Phillips
> <trevor.phillips at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I have a PC at home that's rather short on disk space, but doesn't
>> have onboard SATA. However, I'd rather buy SATA disk to be more
>> future-proof. Replacing the whole PC isn't financially viable at this
>> stage. ^_^
>>
>> Is there anything in particular to look for in SATA PCI Controllers to
>> ensure decent Linux compatibility, or are they all pretty standard and
>> well supported?
>
> I use Silicon Image chipset ones that are fairly well supported and
> extremely cheap, but mine are getting old - I don't know if there's
> better alternatives now.

Not really. :)  Any of the AHCI devices are good, but most of them seem
to be built in to the south-bridge or otherwise not shipped on discrete
hardware in my experience.

For the gory details see:
http://ata.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Hardware%2C_driver_status

Regards,
        Daniel