PCI card too long for pci slot?

[RabbieBurns]

I bought one of these:

Adaptec Serial ATA II RAID 1420SA - Storage controller (RAID) - 4 Channel PCI-X - SATA-300 low profile - Ebuyer

And have had it shipped to where my server is, but have been told that the card is a little bit too long for the PCI slots on the motherboard?

Im not really sure what they are on about until I can get a photo or something sent, but I thought PCI was standard?

(its not pci-e or anything)

[mrwobbly]

PCI-X is a 64 bit card for old servers.
It was a 64 bit extension to the 32 bit PCI bus and is different to PCI.
PCI-X came out in 1998 six years before PCI Express.
Sorry the card is not going to work.

[PeterW]

From Adaptec

PCI-X/133MHz host interface (supports PCI 32/64bit as well)

You should be able to install it in a free PCI slot providing there is nothing on the mainboard in line with the PCI slot that will obstruct the card. The last set of golden fingers will just over hang the end of the slot.

[RabbieBurns]

actually, thats not the model I bought, I just noticed the model numbers... I got it from ebay,

Adaptec SATA II RAID 2410SA PKIT-ROHS 4 Port PCI Contr on eBay (end time 06-Jul-09 18:02:08 BST)

But I believe it is the same length as the photo above..

Ill see if they can just get it to fit in, cheers.

[synaesthesia]

Just for peace of mind, yes it will fit as suggested above. Quite standard for those cards.

[mrwobbly]

My apologies as I was wrong on the card you linked to on ebuyer. It supports both the 3.3 and 5 volt standards and would fit in any PCI slot as it has both cut outs.

Thank you, PeterW and synaesthesia for the reply and causing me to look into it further. The reason I said it would work is I bought a SCSI PCI-X card off eBay and it would not fit into the PCI slot which I now know is due to the card being 5v and my server PCI slots being 3.3v.

It seems it’s not so clear cut an answer as I thought. PCI-X comes in universal with both voltage slots, or only the 5v or the 3.3v slot.

I’ve looked at the EBay photo and it shows a PCI-X card in the photo but says “for illustration purposes only”. As the card is longer than the PCI slot it must be PCI-X. The 2410SA was a PCI card as per the item description so I don’t think that is the card you have. I think you may have the PCI-X equivalent which was the 2420SA which is 3.3v only. You have valid reason to return it should it not fit.

I’ve looked at my desktops and two old servers and they all have 5v PCI M/B slots. My new server has 3.3v slots. It would seem you need to make sure you are buying a universal card or one that will match your motherboard.

Regards
Nick

[synaesthesia]

Thats indeed true - and oddly enough there's even a difference between standard PCI between 3.3v and 5v cards

5v:


3.3v:


And of course the universal cards have both cutouts. Finer details that many people wouldn't even consider - and I don't think I've actually come across voltage specific boards for a long time. (at least, not in use!)

[RabbieBurns]

OK, got this card in (Adaptec SATA II RAID 2410SA PKIT-ROHS 4 Port PCI) and it sees it fine, can Control-A to get to the Raid Utility.

Ive got 3x 1.5tb Seagate disks plugged into it, and it seems to detect them fine, but when I try to create an array, it says No Disks Detected. Do I need to format the disks first? (I plugged in an existing 1.0tb fujutsu formatted in ntfs i had kicking about, and it sees it fine when trying to create array)

[synaesthesia]

Adaptec.... memory is hazy on that one.
However, I've a vague recollection - I suspect you need to "select" the discs at some point before creating an array rather than the other way round. Can't remember anything more than that

[DMcCoy]

Performance won't be too great, I have the Dell branded 6 port here (2610A) on a 64 bit PCI-X slot. They are proper raid cards though and work with ESX/ESXi/Xen/Openfiler

[RabbieBurns]

I think I might just be $4!t outta luck...

Which is a bit crap..



it can see them, why cant it bloomin use them..

[SYNACK]

Looks like the drives are too big to be propperly addressed by the RAID card, its a shame that they refuse to fix it as that kind of thing would probably be fixed by a firmware update if they were willing to write it.

[RabbieBurns]

gutted.

Ah well looks like ill need to find another RAID card that Will work with these disks, and raid 5.

Any suggestions of makes/models that I can trawl ebay for... Cant afford £200-300 on a brand new one

[SYNACK]

*New* Dell H2052 6 Port SATA 64mb Raid Controller Card on eBay (end time 24-Aug-09 20:55:33 BST)
LSI LOGIC SER523 RAID SATA 150-6 PORTS CONTROLLER CARD on eBay (end time 04-Aug-09 15:28:40 BST)
INTEL C61794-002 6 CHANNEL SATA RAID PCI X CONTROLLER on eBay (end time 25-Aug-09 10:01:32 BST)
4 Port SATA SERIAL ATA IDE PCI CONTROLLER RAID I/O CARD on eBay (end time 30-Aug-09 21:16:00 BST)

Haven't looked into the specs of all of these to make sure that they support the 1.5TB drives but the second two look to be the same rebranded intel controller. All also appear to support linux and with a marginaly decent amount of onboard RAM in all but the last one they should at least be competent at furfilling their purpose.

[RabbieBurns]

cheers, the last ones ended already, but I've sent the first 3 a question see if they've got any idea if it'll work. Worth a shot..