PCI 64 bit question

[circut16]

I have obtained 2 compaq smart array 5300 controllers - specs - 64mb cach, dual channel ultra 3, IBM RISC processor.
My question is can i use this controller on a board with only 32 bit 33mhz pci slot or will this dammage the card? The slot they are in currently says it is a 64 bit 66mhz slot.
I'm sorry it's been so long since i have posted last, i've just been so busy.

 

[Agamar]

I cannot verify if either of these will run in a 33Mhz PCI slot, but it should not damage them to try. You will definitely be holding these cards back if they do work, however.

 

[circut16]

I have considered purchasing a board with 64 bit 66mhz slots - but in the end i am not sure if it's worth it?
hopefully there are not any bios issues with the controller that i have yet to encouter, since it's compaq after all - theres nothing wrong with them, they just don't have the greatest driver support.

 

[Steve]

You should check to see whether the card and slots match voltage (3.3v or 5v).

 

[Markfw]

Well, I can answer one thing for sure, running a 66mhz 64 bit card in a 32 bit 33 mhz card will KILL the performance you are looking for. With exactly the same hardware controller and drives, and going from an Athlon64 3000+@2.2 to dual 248 opterons @2.2 and the motherboard is the only different, my read/write went from around 40-50k to to almost 200k/sec !! Thats a big difference. And if you had scsi320 and 15k drives, I am sure the difference would be even greater.

As far as damaging the card, check the voltage specs, and if it matches, it shouldn't hurt it. As far as is it worth the cost ? Well that up to you, but it was quite exspensive to upgrade just to get 64bit PCI-X (about $2800 mobo,cpus and memory and case.)

 

[circut16]

the controllers also came with 16 SCSI hard drives running at 10K - what kind of IO do you think i could get out of that?

I also forgot to mention there SCA 36.7,s though

 

[Gamingphreek]

No it will not fit. THe PCI-X cards have a notch in different place, and are longer. IIRC they also use a different voltage.

You need a server based board to use those cards as no cosumer level board uses PCI-X.

-Kevin

 

[circut16]

I have fit other PCI 64 bit cards into 32 bit pci consumer level boards and they work just fine.

 

[circut16]

these controllers came out of a P3 xeon based server, so they are not that new anymore- hence pci 64 bit

 

[Gamingphreek]

Originally posted by: circut16
I have fit other PCI 64 bit cards into 32 bit pci consumer level boards and they work just fine.

Really now? How do you explain the different pin out, different notches and different power requirements.

-Kevin

 

[Crusty]

PCI-X is different then 64-PCI 66mhz

 

[circut16]

hey MCrusty got it right!

I am looking for a new mobo for my main rig - hopefully one that fit's one of these array adapters
so any suggestions are appreciated

 

[Markfw]

Well, my LSI Megaraid 1650 PCI-X 66 mhz 64 bit card worked just fine in my regular 32 bit pci slot, just slow. Don't know if all cards work this way though.

 

[SunSamurai]

lol @ 16 SCSI drives running raid on a pci 32 bus

 

[circut16]

I wouldn't dare put all 16 on a 32 bit config.
I'm not stupid!

 

[Gamingphreek]

Originally posted by: MCrusty
PCI-X is different then 64-PCI 66mhz

IIRC it is just a slower PCI-X. The highest rated PCI-X speed is 133, IIRC all this is is a slower clocked one.

I suppose i could be wrong. Pictures might help.

-Kevin

 

[circut16]

when i obtained these servers they had two nics - both 64 bit PCI
one was in 64 bit 66mhz slot, other was in 64bit 33mhz slot.
they both work fine in 32 bit slots too.
The NIC on the 64bit 66mhz pci bus plugs into the same physical slot and bus as the Array adapter.

 

[Steve]

PCI-X, all the way up to 64-bit/133MHz, is backward-compatible to the lowliest 32-bit/3MHz conventional PCI. The only time the notching is different is if the voltage is different.

EDIT: Same goes for 64-bit PCI, which is not the same as 64-bit PCI-X

 

[Pariah]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
No it will not fit. THe PCI-X cards have a notch in different place, and are longer. IIRC they also use a different voltage.

You need a server based board to use those cards as no cosumer level board uses PCI-X.

-Kevin

PCI-X cards are supposedly backwards compatible (in rare cases you will find one that isn't) and will always fit in 32/33 slots. PCI-X slots add a notch preventing unsupported legacy PCI cards from being inserted into PCI-X slots. This does nothing to prevent PCI-X cards from fitting into legacy PCI.

If your storage is I/O bound as opposed to throughput bound, you can RAID a whole lot of drives before the 32/33 PCI bus becomes an issue. For most computing situations, warp speed STR does little to improve overall performance, while quicker access time is almost always noticeable.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Originally posted by: Pariah

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
No it will not fit. THe PCI-X cards have a notch in different place, and are longer. IIRC they also use a different voltage.

You need a server based board to use those cards as no cosumer level board uses PCI-X.

-Kevin

PCI-X cards are supposedly backwards compatible (in rare cases you will find one that isn't) and will always fit in 32/33 slots. PCI-X slots add a notch preventing unsupported legacy PCI cards from being inserted into PCI-X slots. This does nothing to prevent PCI-X cards from fitting into legacy PCI.

If your storage is I/O bound as opposed to throughput bound, you can RAID a whole lot of drives before the 32/33 PCI bus becomes an issue. For most computing situations, warp speed STR does little to improve overall performance, while quicker access time is almost always noticeable.

Ah... i guess that was what i was thinking of.

Sorry guys... got mixed up there

-Kevin