eSata controller question on ASUS board

[goguvarra]

Hello,

I have a P6T6 WS Revolution Asus motherboard.
I would like to know if the Marvell eSATA controller integrated into the board supports port multiplication. I want to buy a hdd enclosure with 4 drives connected through eSata and I need a port multiplier aware controller to be able to see all 4 drives separately.
The Marvell controller is the 88SE6121 model.
Thanks.

 

[alexoiu]

Hi, According to the manual:
2 xExternal SATA 150/300 (SATA On-the-G0), supporting SATA RAID 0, 1, 10, and 5**
** A port-multiplier (excluded in package) is required while using RAID 5 or 10 on eSATA ports.
On the other hand, 88SE6121 does support port multiplier.
I would try firstly the e-SATA port and if not working, buy a PCI controller that does support port multiplier. Something like http://eu.startech.com/Cards-Adapters/HDD-Controllers/SATA-Cards/2-Port-PCI-Express-eSATA-Controller-Card~PEXESATA2

 

[goguvarra]

I cannot find conclusive evidence that this controller supports PM...where did you find this info.
According to this table here it doesn't:

https://ata.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/SATA_hardware_features

 

[alexoiu]

In a Biostar board manual:

eSATA Marvell 88SE6121
Data transfer rates up to 3 Gb/s.
SATA Version 2.0 specification compliant.
Port-Multiplier/RAID 0,1 support
http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/mb/introduction.php?S_ID=365#dl

It matches the ASUS specs (only RAID 0,1 supported).